Bath vs York

Assuming you are driving. York is on the most direct route from Edinburgh to London and offers a lot for a short visit, Roman and Viking past, York Minster, quaint city centre, the Railway Museum, pubs.. Bath is interesting but is off your route and will take longer to get there.

A detour miles out of the way via Bath will mean spending much of the time in transit, so head to York. There’s enough to fill 2 days there.

A decision between the two on any occasion would always fall in favour of York but even more so in your situation coming from Edinburgh to London.

I'll just add onto the rest. For your travel route, York makes the most sense.

Not a joke, but it may depend on whether you prefer The Last Kingdom or Sandition.

Both are worth visiting, but for the “it’s en route” reason already stated, York gets my vote too.

I love both. However, in late 2019 I was heading for London from Edinburgh and planned a 2 night stop in York. I was traveling by train and it was a great way to break up the journey and have a relaxing, enjoyable time also.

Thank you everyone.

We are planning to take the train from Edinburg to London and I’ve booked a two night stop in York. We have fight nights in London so might still swing Bath depending on how we’re feeling. I’ve been to London before but my husband has not.

Sorry Tim, I haven’t seen either of those shows but I do enjoy Jane Austen’s works :)

The connection between Jane Austen and Bath is way overblown.

This topic is interesting to me. I'm hoping to go to England and Scotland next year and Bath and York are the two English cities outside of London that I'm most curious to see.

My friend is going to England this year and she's a huge Jane Austen fan. She's excited to be going to Bath. I won't burst her bubble :)

En route or not, I like York much more than Bath, so good choice. Enjoy!

To clarify, there is a museum in Bath for JA, but not in a house she actually lived in. And they do have festivals for her. I believe she only stayed in Bath for a short time and did not like it much. There is a place that serves Bath bunns (pretty good, actually), if you're in that deep. Happy to be corrected if I am wrong.

More interesting to me was the surprisingly small memorial plaque to her (compared to other writers) at Westminster Cathedral in London.

"My friend is going to England this year and she's a huge Jane Austen fan. She's excited to be going to Bath. I won't burst her bubble :)"

Well, I'd not think her bubble will be burst. I love Bath and have often spent 4-5 nights there without running out of things to do/see. I love the feel of the Regency townhouses set against the Roman era baths. I have been there for the JA Festival which was a lot of fun...I loved seeing folks roam round the streets in costume. Really, you could put yourself right in one of her books without trying very hard!

Do have them give the Jane Austen Centre a miss as it's just nothing...as mentioned she did not live in that house and the time I spent the money on it they had nothing original of hers...just big blown up pictures used as wall paper, lol. There is a tea room I didn't try but if I were going to do tea, I'd do it at the Pump Room where the Regency folks went to see and be seen.

I know many just go for a day trip from London but there is so much more to it if you are a person who likes to dig deeper. Definitely worth a "scouting trip" for a day and then decide if you'd like to return for longer next trip.

Bath has done a good job at marketing the JA connection which in practice wasn’t that strong.

Stan, I'm not talking about getting a PhD in English literature. I'm talking about the ambitious rising upper class and the marriage market, not to mention the music, drama, and literature mentioned in Sanditon. I'm not interested in Jane Austen at all. For example, I was very glad to finally see The Bath Assembly rooms, a National Trust property, and The Crescent. Both look a lot like locations in Sanditon.

Personally I liked York a lot better than Bath. It has a more "quaint" feel and was less touristy in general, also less scary for traffic. The little area called "the Shambles" was quaint, as was walking along the old Roman wall and visiting the very impressive cathedral. Lots of dining options and good walking tours to check out if you are there in the evening.

York deserves 3 days, not a day trip.

Bath you can do in ONE FULL day, stay at least one night, not a day trip.

York deserves 3 days, not a day trip.
Bath you can do in ONE FULL day, stay at least one night, not a day trip.>

Thanks for tips! I think we’ve planned to do 3 nights in Edinburg - train to York - two nights in York - train to London - 5 nights London - fly to Dublin - 3 nights dublin and catch our flight back to the US.

I appreciate everyone’s input! If we had more time I’d wander all over the countryside but my husband has never been to London and want to see city sights, so York will be my compromise :)