Where We Ate for 4 Days in Bath, England
MY RELATIONSHIP WITH TRAVEL
My relationship with travel has changed a lot over the last 10 years. Flying all over the world was the aspiration of our early 20s. In my 30s I’ve really dug into why we set that as the standard of success, and so we drew a line of where we could go on land public transport or our electric car! (Obviously travelling in 2021 makes that a more likely decision anyway, but it’s the direction of my heart towards travel more and more and I was so happy to celebrate places close to home and discover them not feeling like a trip is “less than” if you don’t fly or go further afield.
BUDGET
When we travel, we budget so that we don’t come back with regret or have any negative feeling towards the trip – we would rather plan and spend within what we have rather than ignore numbers and feel the pain later! It doesn’t make the trip less fun, it lets us truly enjoy the spending rather than having any worry in it. It also helps when one of us want to do something the other wants less!
ACTIVITIES
We love to see new places by running, walking, and eating the local food! If we’d stayed longer in Bath we both said we would have loved to paddle board or kayak on the river, but aside from that we got a great airbnb, ate, and walked!
DAY 1
AIRBNB: We chose to stay at an airbnb, we like the value for money over a hotel, and having run an airbnb ourselves we tend to go for Superhost properties as being a cut above and a way to find a gem every time. This time we booked 3 nights at the “Stylish Coach House Studio in the Heart of Bath.” It was a fantastic location being a 5-10 minute walk into the city and we’d highly recommend it!
PARKING AND CHARGING: We needed to charge our car, and Bath is decently set up for charging and we never had trouble finding a spot – I recommend using the app or desktop site ZapMap to find a charge point anywhere in the UK. We used a central car parking point in the Southgate Shopping Centre and then parked overnight at the Malver Street Car Park as the city is majority resident parking and pedestrian streets.
For our first meal we headed to a a vegan spot I’ve watched on Instagram for a long time, Cascara Bath. It’s an independently owned cafe with really creative and delicious vegan food. They made fantastic coffee too including a sugarcane process decaf option and a really strong focus on sustainability.
Usually we’re more local food truck people, but this time we chose to do a few more pricey high end meals and the first one was at The Elder. It’s a meat and game centred menu with a vegetarian and vegan alternative that were equally creative. They manage their own game, and have a focus on wild food – they ensure all their meat, fish and veg are grown or harvested humanely, carefully and with care which is the way we want to celebrate and take holidays. They shouldn’t come at the expense of others or the planet so we love seeing the creativity of others and celebrate what people are doing in that area.
DAY 2
We’d been on the waiting list for a Osip, a restaurant in stunning Bruton a town about 45 minutes from Bath. The chef was awarded his first Michelin Star in 2021 and is the youngest chef in the UK to be awarded a Michelin Star. With their focus on sustainability we were so excited when we got a call that we could go in for lunch! This was our biggest spend of the trip doing the menu du jour and a wine pairing for Jared but it was so worth every penny. The wines were all small producers, bio dynamically or organically grown and we loved hearing where every piece of food had come from.
We finished the 2 hour dining experience with a walk around Bruton. It’s is a quaint and stunning town, and the drive between there and Bath is 45 minutes of stunning Somerset the whole way and a moment in itself.
DAY 3
One of the biggest kid free city treats for us is waking up to a city run and running to coffee! We started the day with a 3 mile loop up to Claverton Down over the canal, and back into the city and on to Cascara for coffee and pastries on the street.
After cleaning up back at our airbnb we headed to what’s hits the top of all the lists for “best brunch” in Bath. It’s a small street corner cafe with simple brunch food – Wild Cafe. The wait was long as there aren’t many tables but the staff were so kind, and the food was just what you want for a simple brunch. It’s not made great by exquisite food but by being a fun, neighbourhood spot with the staple brunch items created from simple ingredients. Organic sourdough, local and free range meats and eggs, and local coffee. They don’t have a Swiss water or sugar cane decaf but for coffee alongside brunch it was perfect and sitting along the cobblestone alley in the streets where Les Mis was filmed make it!
After brunch we headed along the Kennet and Avon Canal which runs on the east of the city and makes for a gorgeous walk.
We finished day 3 with dinner at what was recommend to us as the best pizza in Bath with a focus on local ingredients, Bath Pizza Co. My pizza was incredible, Jared said his “meat feast” was average and the slow service and a few forgotten items made it not his favourite. The outdoor dining was a little hectic, so maybe more of a takeout spot if you prefer calm!
DAY 4
We started our final day with another run, because we loved it so much! This time we hit a 4 mile loop on the West of the city up through the parks and around the Royal Cresent. It’s a striking and iconic semi circle of Grade 1 listed Georgian houses which will excite some for its architecture and others for it’s movie history (Persuasion, and The Duchess with Keira Knightly both have scenes there)!
Most coffee shops and brunch spots are either closed on Sundays or open after 10. So we ran to Wild Cafe again for an exact repeat of the cost neighbourhood brunch that was perfect post run!
Perks of choosing a superhost Airbnb: as we ate breakfast our hosts messaged us to say we could stay into the afternoon and didn’t need to check out! So we took it slowly, went for an extra walk around the city, and bought some presents of local bread, cheese and gin to take home!
We finished by picking up giant cookies from Bertinet Bakery and coffee from Colonna + Smalls to hit the road home. The bakery is a Bath staple, and well worth a trip. Colonna + Smalls was recommended to us by our coffee roaster at home as the best in Bath. It’s a great spot for a very thoughtfully brewed coffee with more of a brew bar feel than a cozy neighbourhood spot with soul, which will win it over with some, but Cascara was probably our top coffee of the trip!
TRIP SUMMARY
WHAT WE LOVED: Osip was hands down our favourite moment but it’s hard to compete with a Michelin Star. Cascara for coffee, staff, food and the sunny street side vibe was hands down a fave for us too! And the things money can’t buy, getting to run together to coffee in the mornings was a massive treat!
WHAT WE DIDN’T LOVE: There honestly wasn’t much we didn’t love. The pizza wasn’t Jared’s favourite, and there was a wait for a number or restaurants and bookings are needed which you’ll need to factor in.
