Romantic things to do in Bath

Enjoying some time in the Thermae Spa is one of the most romantic things to do in Bath. Here you can enjoy the local waters as visitors would have done since the Roman times. It’s now a modern facility with high-tech facilities where you can enjoy a range of treatments from dry flotation to relaxing massages. The New Royal Bath, a “glass cube”, is home to a rooftop pool with beautiful views - it’s a great spot for a swim with your loved one.

The Parade Gardens were once an orchard belonging to the abbey’s monks and were formally laid out as ornamental gardens by John Wood the Elder in 1737. The tidy, flower-bordered lawns are furnished with deck-chairs and make a peaceful refuge from bustling Bath and a great picnic venue - not least when the traditional brass band strikes up from the bandstand (early May to early Sept most Sunday afternoons from 3pm). Among the gardens’ numerous commemorative plaques and statues is the original “Angel of Peace'' sculpture from c.1910, copied in parks and gardens all over the country, and an image of Bladud, Bath’s legendary founder, with one of his pigs who helped reveal the presence of therapeutic springs here. You’ll also see a sundial from 1916 and a Victorian pet cemetery, and there’s a café (usually closed Oct-Easter). There are great views over the Avon and the two bridges - Pulteney Bridge and North Parade Bridge, an iron structure built in 1836 and encased in Bath stone a century later. A walk in the Parade Gardens is one of the best couply things to do in Bath.

Behind Holburne House, Sydney Gardens make a quiet, elegant and shady expanse in which to take a breather. Today, the gardens’ slopes are cut through by both the railway and the Kennet and Avon Canal, whose towpath runs through a couple of short tunnels and beneath two ornate cast-iron bridges overhead. It’s a pleasant 1.5-mile saunter east along the canal to The George pub, beyond which you can walk or cycle the whole way to Bradford-on-Avon, around ten miles in all. Alternatively, you can rent a dayboat for cruises along the canal from Sydney Wharf, near Bathwick Bridge

The Theatre Royal opened in 1805, and is one of the country’s finest surviving Georgian theatres. It was originally entered from round the corner in Beauford Square, where its monumental facade is preserved. You can join one of the occasional hour long tours to view the interior, or book tickets for a play here. Next door you will find a restaurant serving heart-warming meals.

The streets and lanes of Bath are perfect for gentle ambling, but you can really stretch your legs on the heights to the east of the city by following the Bath Skyline Walk, a six-mile trail laid out by the National Trust. The waymarked circular route takes in woods, meadows and two of Bath’s sights - Prior Park and the American Museum - as well as Sham Castle, a battlemented architectural folly erected in 1762 at the expense of local entrepreneur Ralph Allen, supposedly to improve the view from his townhouse; it’s located below the university campus on Bathwick Hill. Needless to say, the vistas of the towers, spires and crescents of Bath from here and numerous other points on the route are superb.