The City of Bath was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. World Heritage Sites are ‘places of outstanding universal value to the whole of humanity’ like The Taj Mahal, Pyramids of Giza, the Great Wall of China and the Grand Canyon, so this City is something very, very special! The widespread use of local limestone & the uniform scale & height of the buildings contributes to the beauty of the city enormously.

I had not been to the City of Bath for over three years, so I was looking forward to exploring this unique and architecturally stunning city with new eyes. I had read somewhere that it was the only city in Britain which had been given the label, a site of special interest, for the whole city! As a child in an English school, you learn all about the Roman presence in Britain, the road building, the mosaics, hypocausts, centurions & of course their baths.

I would be staying at Hotel Indigo Bath, set in a beautiful honey coloured Georgian Terrace. The hotel opened its doors just over four years ago, after a multi-million-pound major restoration project. The hotel is situated on the peaceful street of South Parade, right in the heart of the city, just a short walk from Bath Abbey and the Roman Baths.

Of the 154 rooms – 73 are Standard, 57 are Superior, 18 are Superior Premier, 3 are Suites and 3 are Accessible.  These include ‘Romance & Mischief’ rooms, ‘Literary Hideaway’ rooms, ‘Architectural Beauty’ rooms, ‘Garden’ rooms and ‘The Vaults’. Modern and stylish, they reflect the influences of the architects and novelists who made Bath famous for its story telling and passionate social scene. Our room included a comfy Hypnos bed with luxury Egyptian cotton linen, a beautiful spa-inspired bathroom, a Nespresso coffee machine, high speed Wi-Fi and a number of channels on our 40” flat screen TV. There is so much to do in Bath, we didn`t turn the television on!

We ate our evening meal & breakfast in the ‘Brasserie Beau restaurant, located on the ground floor, it had its own entrance to the Hotel. I visited on a Sunday evening, but the the bar area was full of people who had come in off the street to enjoy a drink with friends or work colleagues. for those days & evenings when the weather is warm, there is also a small outside rear terrace and seating at the front of the hotel & restaurant. French café advertisements, William Morris prints, botanical drawings & Toulouse Lautrec posters covered the pastel green walls of the small collection of intimate restaurant dining spaces.

Our Meal:

Starters:

  1. Salmon Pastrami with a red carrot escabeche
  2. Wild Boar Scotch Egg with a light mustard mayo

Mains:

  1. Free Range Roast Chicken served with Sage & Onion Stuffing, pigs in blankets, red cabbage, swede & carrot mash, cauliflower cheese, Yorkshire pudding & a hot gravy sauce.
  2. Fregola semolina pasta with aubergine, courgette & confit garlic ratatouille served on a French Staub cast iron cookware bowl.

Desserts:

  1. Apple & Blackberry Oat Crumble served in French Staub cast iron cookware which included a jug of hot creme anglaise (custard).
  2. Seasonal Artisan Cheeseboard – Stilton, Cornish Yarg & Wigmore (a semi – soft sheep’s cheese) served on a board with Chutney, grapes & cheese crackers.

When visiting the stunning City of Bath, where do I suggest you visit: The Royal Crescent is an architectural marvel. When people think of the City of Bath, the iconic Royal Crescent is one of the first things they think of, after the Thermal Roman Spa Baths. No.1 Royal Crescent is the first building at the eastern end of the Royal Crescent and is of national architectural and historic importance.

The Royal Crescent is without doubt one of the UK’s most important buildings and one of the most significant urban architectural achievements of the 18th century, representing the highest point of Palladian architecture in Bath. Standing outside facing the building I could only marvel at the symmetrical five-window frontage with the central Doric doorcase. It is such a beautiful building.

No.1 now operates as a public “historic house” museum, furnished to represent life in one of the great houses of 18th century Bath, displaying authentic room sets, furniture, pictures and other items illustrating Georgian domestic life both ‘upstairs’ and ‘downstairs’. The Netflix drama Bridgerton featured No. 1 as the house belonging to the Featherington family, which is of great interest to many viewers of this popular period drama, including my wife!

A slow walk across the city is simply breath taking, there are so many beautiful buildings on every corner and much to admire. I passed through the beautiful indoor historic Bath Guildhall Market, the oldest shopping venue in the city, then walked across the iconic Pulteney Bridge, one of only four bridges in the world to have shops across its full span on both sides. I was surprised to find that when I was standing on the bridge, it was very difficult to see that I was still on a bridge! I could not see the river! It was only when I looked right through the small shops to the windows on the other side that I could see the river below.

My walk up Great Pulteney Street was stunning with fine tall Georgian terraces on both sides clamouring for my attention. At over 1,000 feet long and 100 feet wide, Great Pulteney Street is the widest, grandest thoroughfare in Bath, flanked on either side by beautiful Georgian properties. The big bold solid wooden doors at the top of a short series of wide stone steps at many of the properties were simply awesome. Some of the properties also had extremely beautiful and delicate iron balconies or arches around their doors or entrances.

Round the back of these beautiful terraces, I got a glimpse of Bath Rugby Club and more surprisingly, street signs to the Bath Croquet Club. Only in Bath have I seen a croquet club so prominently advertised. The only time I see croquet lawns is at luxury hotels I have stayed at for the amusement & recreation of guests. At one end you will find Laura Place, with its pretty fountain at the centre. At the other end stands the magnificent Holburne Museum, the city’s first public art gallery, and Sydney Pleasure Gardens, the only remaining eighteenth-century pleasure gardens in the country.

Holburne Museum was a striking and beautiful end to my walk up Great Pulteney Street. The Museum has been housed in the former Sydney Hotel since 1916. There is a bookshop and a café with a covered marquee that opens out onto the Gardens. The gardens remain the only remaining eighteenth-century pleasure gardens in the country. The city’s first public art gallery, the Grade I listed building is home to fine collection of decorative arts built around the collection of Sir William Holburne.

The Holburne stood in for the Devonshire villa in the 2008 film The Duchess starring Keira Knightley, and for Steyne’s mansion in Vanity Fair, the 2004 adaption of William Thackeray’s novel, starring Reese Witherspoon. Before entering the main building, I took a pleasant walk up to the Avon & Kennett canal and after crossing a railway bridge entered part of the Sydney Pleasure Gardens.

Jane Austen is one of the most beloved writers in English literature, responsible for classics such as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility and has a significant presence in Bath. The Sydney Gardens had provided a favourite walk for the young writer who set part of her novel Northanger Abbey across the road in Great Pulteney Street. Austen had also lived in Sydney Place, just off Great Pulteney Street, which was used in the filming of Persuasion (1994). I simply loved Holburne House and would recommend a visit when in Bath. The House is simply beautiful & the works of Art within its walls incredible. I spent a good few hours browsing the galleries and had a nice cup of coffee and a cake in the café at the end of my visit in the café.

No visit to Bath would be complete without a trip to the unique & ancient site of the Roman Baths where you can find out how Bath’s former residents relaxed all those centuries ago. You can’t take a dip at the Roman Baths any longer, but you can still immerse yourself in the same natural hot spring waters at the Thermae Bath Spa whilst enjoying a spectacular rooftop pool offering 360-degree views of the city. I can fully recommend taking the Bath Abbey Tower Tour. If you are up to the challenge & capable of climbing the 212 steps to the top, you will see the bell chamber, stand above Bath Abbey’s vaulted ceiling and actually sit behind the clock face! Once you reach the roof, you will also be rewarded with spectacular views over the city and surrounding countryside.

Bath has a treasure chest of museums and art galleries to choose from. Why not soak up some style at the Fashion Museum, visit the Victoria Art Gallery for classic and contemporary art in a splendid Victorian setting or cloak yourself in the dark world of Mary Shelley and her famous gothic creation at the House of Frankenstein? The City of Bath has so much more to offer at all times of the year. Stunning sights crop up around almost every corner of the city, take a stroll around another Georgian marvel The Circus, enjoy spectacular vistas from the top of Alexandra Park, take a break in the landscaped gardens of Prior Park or take tea & a bun at Sally Lunn’s House.

I would not hesitate to recommend Hotel Indigo Bath if you are planning to visit Bath & the West country or simply passing through. Why not stop and experience their superb food and hospitality. Hotel Indigo Bath offers excellent overnight accommodation options & a superb restaurant in an exciting city destination. Why not check it out for yourself?

I enjoyed my short visit to Bath & the Hotel Indigo Bath enormously and am already looking to making an extended visit sometime in the very near future. Bath is waiting for you to come & explore. Why don’t you check it out for yourself? You will not be disappointed!

Hotel Indigo Bath is located just 10 miles from M4 Junction 18 & the A46, and only 19 miles from Bristol International Airport. Bath railway station is only 0.2 miles from the hotel.

The hotel is situated at South Parade, Bath, BA2 4AB, telephone 01225 460441 or enquiries@bath.hotelindigo.com.

For more information about Hotel Indigo Bath please visit http://bath.hotelindigo.com/

Disclosure: The views & comments expressed are, as usual, my own. My visit to Hotel Indigo Bath was organised by Tanya Aspinwall, Marketing Aloud. Mobile: 07810 118074 Telephone: 01926 651274 Tanya@marketingaloud.co.uk