A Few Days in Bath

Two spaces remain for Cotswolds by Design 2027. If you’ve been thinking about joining us for gardens, private creative spaces, beautiful villages, and a deeply considered week in the English countryside, you can learn more here.

I want to tell you about my trip to Bath. It’s such a delightful little city!

It has such a big payoff for such little effort. An easy hour and 20 minutes on the train from London, no car needed, and once you’re there you can walk everywhere. The architecture is incredible — the whole city center is built in this warm golden Georgian stone and it’s almost completely intact. (That’s why so many shows and movies are filmed here: Bridgerton, Persuasion, Seven Dials, Les Miserables, etc.) In early June, everything was in bloom.

I was there by myself last summer to enjoy and do research, and honestly, it was a perfect place for a solo woman traveler. It’s safe, a beautiful place to just wander, not too big and not too small. I know my family would also love it, it would be fantastic for a girls’ trip, and of course, for pretty much anyone who loves any kind of design, art, craftsmanship, etc.

But I have to start with the hotel situation.

I had booked a cute little place right in the center — great location, views over the rooftops, charming decor, good price. The only thing: no air conditioning. It was early June in England. How hot can it be?

Very hot. My room was on the top floor of a tall, narrow building, and the temperature was at least 20 degrees higher than it was outside. The windows opened maybe an inch. I set up two fans, went out for a walk hoping it would cool down, came back, and it had not. I was jet-lagged, I’d forgotten my melatonin (more on that in a second), and I had a group of Cotswolds by Design travelers to show up for in a few days. I was not going to get any sleep in that room.

So I looked out the window, spotted a DoubleTree by Hilton across the way, called them, confirmed they had air conditioning, and moved. The girl at the front desk of the inn was lovely about it — she’d apparently been telling the owners for a while that they needed to do something about the top floor rooms — and she refunded me, which I wasn’t even expecting. The inn was the Broad Street Townhouse, and I’d happily recommend it in cooler months. Just not in June.

(A year later, that "how hot can England really get" question feels almost quaint — Europe's had a genuinely brutal, record-breaking heat wave this summer, so the air conditioning question is worth asking wherever you're headed, not just England in June.)

Back to the melatonin: take note! You can’t buy it over the counter in England. You need a prescription. I went to several pharmacies and received multiple lectures on the dangers of taking even 1 mg. 🤪 So yes. Bring your own.

Before I get into the itinerary, I want to thank my friend Lorena Siminovich — founder of Roomytown and Goodlines in Bath, and someone with fantastic taste. She generously gave me a long list of recommendations before I arrived. She was out of town while I was there (so sad), but her tips shaped so much of my time there, and she did make it over to join us for lunch and a flower workshop during the Cotswolds trip, which was such a lovely surprise. You might also know her from Petit Collage, which she founded back in the early days of the online design world.

If you're looking for somewhere truly special to stay in Bath, Lorena has opened up a few dates this summer to rent out her beautifully renovated Georgian house, Larkhall Place. Personal, charming, and the perfect base for everything in Bath.

Okay — here we go!

I arrived in the afternoon and did what I always do on the first day when I’m jet-lagged: went for a long walk to catch my bearings and tire myself out enough to sleep.

I headed up Walcot Street, which is lovely — a little bohemian, great shops and restaurants — and just followed my nose from there. I crossed over the Cleveland Bridge and wandered through Sydney Gardens, which had beautiful, big flowering trees, very peaceful. On the way back I strolled down Great Pulteney Street — one of the grander avenues in Bath.

From there I walked over the Pulteney Bridge — the famous one lined with little shops, everything was closed by then but it was charming just to walk across it — and stopped at the weir just below. The River Avon drops here into what are almost like little man-made waterfalls, and there were all these birds circling at golden hour, including swans. It was one of those spots where you just stop and stay for a while.

For dinner, I decided to go back up to Walcot Street and eat at Walcot House. Chef-run, local produce, cozy atmosphere. Delicious. Highly recommend.

The big day. I covered a lot of ground. Are you ready? 😉

I started with matcha at Matcha Thing, which, as someone who is very into matcha and finds it sometimes pretty hard to track down abroad, felt like a good sign. They did a great job.

From there I went to The Fine Cheese Co. on Walcott Street for a very British brunch — cheese toasty with egg, little salad, fresh flowers on every table. Really lovely.

My next stop was such a highlight and a place I’d been wanting to go for years. If you go to one place in Bath, make it this spot…

Below the paywall: the spot I've been dreaming about for years, an antique find I almost didn't tell you about, a chocolate latte bar that changed my life, a shop that was heartbreakingly closed every time I walked by, and a Michelin Green Star dinner. Plus Day 3, a shortlist of where to stay, and a full “Next Time” list.