Bath

Where you base yourself in Bath matters more than in most cities, because the valley is steep and the difference between a five-minute stroll and a fifteen-minute climb is decided when you book. The centre, roughly the triangle between Bath Spa station, the Abbey and Queen Square, is the simplest choice for a two-night break. Everything is on foot, you can drop bags and start walking, and you will not need a car at all. The trade-off is price and weekend noise from the bars around Sawclose and George Street.

Couples looking for something calmer usually do better in the Upper Town around The Circus, Brock Street and the Royal Crescent, or across the river in Bathwick. Both are handsome, residential and quiet after dark, and both are within ten to fifteen minutes of the Abbey on foot. Remember that walking back from dinner means going uphill. Widcombe, directly behind the station, is the pick for anyone who wants an independent high street, canal access and a village atmosphere while still being able to walk to the Roman Baths in a quarter of an hour.

Families and drivers should look at the edges. Newbridge to the west sits beside a park and ride with a riverside path into the city, and the villages beyond, Bathampton, Batheaston, Corston and Saltford, offer free parking, larger rooms and noticeably lower rates. Walkers who want the Cotswold Way, Prior Park and the Kennet and Avon towpath on the doorstep are better served in Bathwick, Widcombe or up on Lansdown.

Expect central four-star doubles to start around 130 to 180 pounds a night midweek, rising sharply at weekends and through the summer, with the two five-star spa hotels considerably higher. Guest houses in Widcombe and Bathwick commonly sit between 90 and 140 pounds including breakfast. January and February are the cheapest months. Book several months ahead for summer weekends, the late-November Christmas Market fortnight, and any date coinciding with a rugby fixture at the Rec, when the whole city fills up at once.

The headline sights are concentrated, so a first visit can cover most of them in two days without rushing.

• The Roman Baths preserve the temple precinct, the Sacred Spring and the lead-lined Great Bath, with an audio guide and a museum holding the gilt bronze head of Sulis Minerva and thousands of thrown coins and curse tablets.
• Bath Abbey is the last great medieval church built in England, notable for its fan-vaulted ceiling, its west front carved with angels climbing ladders, and a tower tour that comes out above the rooftops.
• The Royal Crescent is a sweep of thirty terraced houses facing an open lawn; No. 1 Royal Crescent is furnished as a Georgian townhouse and is the best way to see behind the facade.
• Thermae Bath Spa is the modern bathing complex fed by the same thermal water, with an open-air rooftop pool that is at its best on a cold evening when the city lights up below.
• Pulteney Bridge and the weir form the city's most photographed corner, a shop-lined bridge above a horseshoe-shaped cascade on the Avon.
• The Circus, John Wood the Elder's circular terrace of three curved segments, is worth standing in for a moment to see how the design works from the middle rather than from photographs.
• The Holburne Museum at the end of Great Pulteney Street holds fine and decorative art in an eighteenth-century building with a modern glass extension, and its garden cafe is a good break from the centre.
• The Kennet and Avon Canal towpath runs east from the city past the Widcombe locks and the Dundas Aqueduct, giving a flat, easy walk or cycle out into the countryside.

The city's best-known food is the Sally Lunn bun, a large, light, brioche-like roll served sweet or savoury at Sally Lunn's on North Parade Passage, where the cellar kitchen museum shows the original bakery. It is not the same thing as a Bath bun, which is smaller, richer and sugar-topped. The Bath Oliver, a plain hard biscuit created by the eighteenth-century physician Dr William Oliver, remains the traditional partner for local cheese.

For produce, the Bath Farmers' Market at Green Park Station on Saturday mornings is the long-running fixture, claiming to be the oldest of its kind in the country, and the covered Guildhall Market off the High Street keeps a handful of traditional stalls including a butcher, a fishmonger and a deli. Somerset's larder shows up on menus in the form of Cheddar and Somerset brie, cider from the surrounding Mendip and Chew Valley orchards, and lamb and beef from the Cotswold fringe.

Dining runs from long-established institutions to small independent kitchens. The Pump Room, above the Roman Baths, serves morning coffee and afternoon tea to live piano and is more about the room than the food. The Circus Restaurant near Brock Street and Menu Gordon Jones on Wellsway are the names locals mention for a proper dinner, the latter a small tasting-menu place where the dishes are not announced in advance. For a pub, the Star Inn on The Vineyards pours Bass from the jug in a set of unaltered Victorian bar rooms, and the Raven on Queen Street is known for pies and West Country ales.

Camping around Bath means camping in and above a river valley, which shapes almost everything about a stay. The valley floor sites along the Avon and the Kennet and Avon Canal are flat, sheltered and green, with soft ground that drains slowly after heavy rain; the sites up on the limestone plateau to the south and west are firmer and better drained but noticeably more exposed to wind. Neither is dramatic terrain, so pitching is straightforward, but a groundsheet and a decent set of pegs for both soft turf and thin soil over stone will cover you either way.

The weather is mild by British standards. Rainfall is spread through the year rather than concentrated, and valley mornings often start under mist that burns off by mid-morning, so expect condensation on the flysheet even in July. Nights in spring and autumn can drop close to freezing on the higher ground while the city below stays several degrees warmer. A three-season sleeping bag is sensible from April to October, and a warmer one either side of that.

Wild camping is not legal in England without the landowner's permission, and that includes the fields, canal banks and woodland around Bath. There is no Scottish-style right to roam here, so plan on booked pitches. The practical season runs from Easter to the end of October, with May, June and September the sweet spot for weather and availability. Several sites near Bath stay open all year, which suits caravanners and motorhomers wanting a cheap winter base for the Christmas Market.

What to bring: a bike or good walking shoes, because the towpath into the city is flat and fast while the road route is not; midge repellent for still evenings by the water; and cash, as one or two of the smaller farm sites still prefer it. Glamping pods and ready tents are worth the premium in shoulder season, when a heated pod turns a marginal weekend into a comfortable one. Tent campers wanting the quietest night should ask for a meadow or riverside pitch away from the hard standings.