These tips will help you make the most of your visit to two of England’s best cities

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When we were looking for a place to hunker for a few months in the UK, several friends suggested Bristol in southwest England. At the time, we didn’t realize how close the city of Bath was to Bristol — a mere ten-minute train ride.

We ended up loving both cities. Here are all the reasons why:

Pack your bags, we’re going on an adventure

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BRISTOL

The city is young, sophisticated, and edgy.

Bristol is home to just under 500,000 people and is compact and manageable. But it also includes two major universities (and dozens of other private schools and colleges).

It’s a hip and happening place.

Not surprisingly, Bristol has a great music scene. In the 90s, it was home to Massive Attack and Portishead. These days, it’s better known for “Budapest”’s George Ezra and the punk band Idles, which topped the UK charts this year with their album Tangk.

Fun Fact: Bristol is frequently voted Britain’s most livable city and has also been dubbed the country’s first “cycling city,” with dedicated bike paths along almost every road.

• Bristol Tip #1: Near the University of Bristol is something called the Christmas Steps — a bit like Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley. Don’t miss Ahh Toots, a cake shop at the bottom of the steps, especially its plentiful vegan choices.

Bristol is home to a cool bridge and a very famous ship.

When the SS Great Britain was launched in 1843, it was the world’s largest ship and a massive technological leap forward: the first ship made entirely of iron and the first screw-propelled, ocean-going vessel.

It’s now on display at the Great Western Dockyard in Bristol’s floating harbor.

The city is also home to another technological marvel, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, now the symbol of the city. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the bridge’s wildly influential engineer, used wrought iron chains instead of cables, and this bridge inspired the construction of many other suspension bridges.

The bridge was also the site of the world’s first bungee jump in 1979.

Fun Fact: The bridge’s two towers were originally supposed to be of Egyptian design, with sphinxes on top! But that turned out to be too ambitious and expensive. As it is, they look identical, but a close inspection reveals big differences.

• Bristol Tip #2: One interesting place to view the bridge is from inside a cave on the side of Avon Gorge. It can be accessed via a narrow tunnel under the Clifton Observatory, located on Clifton Down. The observatory also houses a fascinating camera obscura that dates back to 1828.

Bristol was the birthplace of the street artist Banksy — and his work and influence are all over the city.

Banksy, the street artist who first appeared in the 1990s and became a celebrity in the mid-2000s, might be Bristol’s most famous son. His popularity and success have encouraged other artists and, more importantly, made street art acceptable and even celebrated in cities worldwide.

But “Banksy” is also a pseudonym, and the artist’s true identity is still unknown (although there are strong suspicions about who he might be).

Fun Fact: The Bristol City Council feuded with Banksy for many years, removing his murals as fast as they went up. Today, those destroyed murals would be worth millions of dollars.

• Bristol Tip #3: Take the Blackbeard to Banksy walking tour to learn more about Banksy and see his work.
• Bristol Tip #4: Bristol is also filled with street art by other artists. Hotspots include the neighborhoods of Stokes Croft and Leonard Lane in the Old City. You’ll see this on the walking tour too.

Bristol is very artsy.

Apart from all the street art, the city has a strong arts scene. It’s home to many digital and creative media companies — the most famous of which is probably Aardman Animations (creators of Wallace and Gromit).

Meanwhile, local live theaters include the Bristol Improv Theater, the UK’s first theatre dedicated solely to improv; the Wardrobe Theater, home to the area’s fringe theater scene; and Bristol Old Vic, which has ten different performance spaces.

For more mainstream options, including Broadway and West End shows, check out the Bristol Hippodrome.

(Unfortunately, things still haven’t recovered from Covid, and attendance is still down at all these places.)

Fun Fact: Bristol Old Vic — a partner of London’s famous Old Vic — is the longest-operating English-speaking theater in the world. Its main theater opened in 1766!

• Bristol Tip #5: The tour of Bristol Old Vic is worth taking.
• Bristol Tip #6: Wake the Tiger, an “amazement park,” is an “immersive experience” where visitors are supposedly transported to another dimension to explore and interact with various mind-bending exhibits. But we thought it could have used more story.

Bristol has a dark history.

Before Bristol was Bristol, it was Iron Age hill forts and then a Roman settlement.

In the Middle Ages, Bristol became a major seaport, though it quickly began trading in enslaved people: men, women, and children captured in Wales or northern England, then traded to the Vikings in Dublin, who finally sold them for work all over the world.

After being decimated by the Black Death, the city turned to “exploration,” launching John Cabot’s expedition to “discover” mainland North America. But they also started in on a different kind of slave trade, becoming a major port in the trading of people from Africa.

Bristol is currently undergoing an ongoing reckoning with its dark past: museums, churches, and even Bristol Old Vic Theater now offer fascinating displays and public discussions on the role African slavery played in the city’s history.

• Bristol Tip #7: The Hatchet Pub, which dates from 1606, is the oldest pub in town, and the pirate Blackbeard was once a regular. There’s also a rumor that the door is wrapped in human skin — now concealed under heavy black paint.
• Bristol Tip #8: In the heart of the Old City is St Nicholas Market, a collection of quirky shops and food stalls — many located under the massive Glass Arcade. On the front of the main building is a clock that still keeps “Bristol time” — ten minutes later than London.

• Bristol Tip #9: Don’t miss Tyntesfield House, located on the outskirts of town. Its current Gothic design was the work of Williams Gibbs, a 19th-century man who became Britain’s richest commoner by trading Peruvian bird guano (and cruelly exploiting his Chinese workers). The lavish house has been featured in Dr. Who, Sherlock, and other movies and television shows.

BATH

It’s incredibly charming — and seriously overtouristed.

Bath is much smaller than Bristol — with a population of only 100,000 — but receives more than six million visitors yearly.

Expect big crowds. No, seriously — this can’t be emphasized enough.

But it’s only a ten-minute train ride from Bristol, and it really is charming. It helps that there is much to do in a relatively compact area.

Fun fact: Construction of Bath’s famous Roman Baths began in AD 60. They were destroyed in the 6th century, rebuilt and modified in the 12th century, and again in the 18th century. The complex is now a mix of Roman and Celtic designs.

• Bath Tip #1: The Roman Bath complex includes four parts: the Sacred Spring, a Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House complex, and a museum with artifacts from the archeological excavations. None of this will disappoint.
• Bath Tip #2: You can drink the water from the famous hot springs at the Grand Pump Room, which is adjacent to the Roman Bath complex. You can also get a very expensive meal. Oh, and the city has still-in-operation thermal spas too.

The architecture is stunning.

One of Bath’s most striking features is the city’s uniform look.

When Bath became a fashionable spa town in the 18th century, Georgian architecture was very much fashionable. John Wood the Elder and his son John Wood the Younger designed many of the city’s most impressive buildings in this style.

They also used Bath stone, an easily carved honey-colored limestone contributing to the town’s cohesive look.

In the 19th century, Gothic Revival became fashionable — a backlash to the more staid Georgian style of architecture.

But these new buildings, including the stunning Bath Abbey, were also built with Bath stone.

Fun Fact: Bath has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site not once, but twice — a very rare feat! The first time was for its Roman ruins, Georgian architecture, and hot springs, and the second time as one of the Great Spa Towns of Europe.

• Bath Tip #3: You can’t just buy a ticket and climb to the top of the Bath Abbey tower. You have to go as part of a guided tour, which takes a full hour. But it’s worth it.
• Bath Tip #4: Bath was once famous for the “Bath bun,” a brioche-like bread often sprinkled with sugar or baked fruits like currants. Sally Lunn’s still sells the famous bun, and while the old-fashioned house and restaurant are impressive — if very touristy — the buns themselves didn’t seem to be anything special to us.
• Bath Tip #5: To glimpse life inside one of the fancy-schmancy houses at the Royal Crescent, visit No. 1 Royal Crescent, where you can walk through rooms filled with Georgian-era furniture, art, and more.

The hot springs aren’t the only waters in Bath worth seeing.

Bath is located on the picturesque River Avon, which winds through the city.

But another wonderful waterway also abuts the city: the Kennet & Avon Canal, which starts in Bristol and travels 57 miles — all the way to the outskirts of London. It’s lined with long “narrowboat” houseboats and barges.

Fun Fact: The Kennet & Avon Canal includes 105 locks, most of which are still opened and operated by hand!

• Bath Tip #6: Bath has a two-mile walking loop along the Kennet & Avon Canal section. It’s especially lovely on a crisp autumn day.
• Bath Tip #7: Interested in a closer look at the canal? Many narrowboats are available for hire — to party for a few hours with your friends or even stay overnight.

Bath’s parks and nearby wilderness are lovely too.

Many visitors to Bath never venture beyond the city center, which is a shame. The city’s parks — and the surrounding farmlands and fields — are also well worth seeing.

The city’s two most famous parks are Sydney Gardens, a favorite of Jane Austen, and sprawling Victoria Park.

Fun fact: Bath’s Royal Victoria Park includes a 33-foot-tall obelisk commemorating Queen Victoria’s 18th birthday. Because what 18-year-old doesn’t want an obelisk?

• Bath Tip # 8: People say that a walk through the Botanical Gardens in Victoria Park is like a visit to Narnia. Well, okay, we say that.

• Bath Tip #9: The Bath Skyline is a fantastic trail that makes a six-mile on top of the hills surrounding the city. It passes through meadows, woodlands, and fields — and also by something called the Sham Castle, which dates from the 18th century but was never a real castle. It’s hard to get lost on the trail because you’re basically circling the city, but it must be said that it isn’t always well-marked.

If you’re visiting Bristol or Bath, plan to see the other city too. Both are well worth exploring!

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