Can Bath be done in a day?

Easily done in a day - the center is quite compact and a very short walk from the train station.

The departure from London is at Paddington station. We saved a bundle by buying our same-day return tickets online in advance.

We have done a day trip to Bath on two separate week-long trips to London now.

On my very first trip to England (about 20 years ago), my husband and I took a tour (bus left from London) to Bath and Stonehenge. It's been so long ago, I don't remember the tour company name - but we were gone for an entire day seeing both places, and it worked fine.

We have done a Gray Line Day Tour (Gray Line.com) and also gone to Bath on the train, by ourselves. You can definitely see Bath in one day.

It's quite possible to do a day trip to Bath, but to think that you can experience all that Bath has to offer in such a short period is to deceive yourself. You could do a day trip and get an impression of the city, or you could concentrate on a particular area, but to try to see it all would be too rich an experience and you would remember little of the detail.

Bath has taken 2000 years to build, and quite a lot is still there. If you only have the time to spend a day there, then make the best of it and you will probably enjoy what you see. But please don't think that you have exhausted the possibilities of the city.

Let's see, we had less then a day in Bath. We arrived mid-afternoon, found where we were staying, took a tour to Stonehenge with Scarper Tours, got back in time for a late supper. We had till mid-afternoon the next day...managed to see the Bath Abbey (gorgeous), walk up to the Circus, wander a bit, see the Roman Baths...I think if you planned it well and arrived early, you could do it. For us, it just whetted my appetite to go back and spend a few nights. I thought it was a lovely city.

We spent two nights, and it was well worth it. This allowed us to do the town tour, Bizarre Bath, the Baths, a walk on the canal out to Bathampton, all without rushing, and there was more we could have done. We'd have loved to do the whole the Skyline Trail, but it was too hot - 32C (and higher still Fahrenheit). There are many nice B and B, for substantially less than London. Why rush back and forth from London, that already commits several hours to nothing but transportation.

Every time Bath comes up you have to wonder if it and York are the only two towns in England outside of London.

What's wrong with good old Bristol (hill forts and bars, you don't need much else)? Up on the other end, Harrogate's a spa town with some Viking finds. The Norfolk Broads can whip the Lake District single-handedly.

It's a sad state when the only places to 'do' (and, by extension the only knowledge of a country) have to come from guidebooks.

So right, Ed. The best known destinations often eclipse lesser-known areas that are just as worthwhile to visit and get to know.

Having said that, I wouldn't have returned to Bath a second time if it hadn't been a great visit the first time, right? ;-)

Many people see value in visiting Bath that apparently you do not.

I loved seeing the Roman ruins.. in fact I was impressed on the museum at the Baths and the excavated remains.
I loved the Georgian architecture of the town.
I loved visiting the Costume Museum,, its an interest of mine.. mock it as being pedestrian if it makes you feel more worldly.
I loved walking the streets that some novels I have enjoyed were set in.. my particular interest of course, not everyones.

I find it insulting when some act like going somewhere welll known is some sort of cop out for being a real traveller.
I call hooey on that .

Bath is easily enjoyed as a daytrip. I have been twice and will be going again this summer as my mate has never been.
We will take the train, 1.5 hours and its nice seeing the countryside fly by..
I took a bus tour there once and we only got about 2 hours there which is not enough( we went on to Stonehenge and Salisbury) .. much preffered my first visit by train, so will be training again this time.

When I haven't visited a country before I do read guidebooks to get an idea of what I would like to see. After I visit I have a better idea of what might interest me rather than the guidebook author and can branch out, but that is difficult to do for the first visit. I also choose places based on books, movies and TV shows.

-I love Bath for it's Georgian architecture and the association with Jane Austen (altho she did not live there much) as well as for the Roman history aspect. If you have read Jane and enjoy her books or other novels set in the Georgian or Regency time frame you can really imagine the characters walking the streets of Bath in 1810. As others have said the center is very walkable and you can see a variety of things. If you do choose to do a day trip to Bath, you can use it for a scouting trip so next time you can plan to stay longer!

'Many people see value in visiting Bath that apparently you do not.'
Neither stated nor implied. I've been to Bath three or four times, once was by boat. In fact, I seldom express an opinion about much of anything. Facts - - push out the facts and give people choices.

'I find it insulting when some act like going somewhere welll known is some sort of cop out for being a real traveller. '

There's nothing wrong with going somewhere well known (see above). The pity is not knowing what else is out there due to single-source knowledge.

The two cities that come up most frequently in this forum are London and Paris. Both are fairly well known. Off and on, I've spent about a year in each.

Moving right along . . . . .

The OPs post was on Bath. Not "where should I go for a daytrip " so obviously most answers will actually refer to Bath. Duh.

If you think London and Paris are the most mentioned cities on this or any other forum I would wager you don't bother with the Italian forums much.. they have the highest thread count on tripadvisor.com and I think the cities of Rome, Florence and Venice are highly mentioned here too.. can't be bothered to do a thread count.. but just flipped over and it looks like a very busy forum.

When one first goes to Europe most people DO want to hit the main spots first.. then after a few trips many will branch out and visit some lesser known places IF THEY WISH.. but Ed.. not every wants to,, that may be YOUR travel preference not theirs. I go to Paris every single trip I have had to Europe since 1972.. BUT I have also visited many many other places. There are some places I have NO desire to go.. and no desire to go just to please other peoples idea of what I should see or do in Europe.

You are entitled to your preferences and opinions but you sometime DO seem to infer that others do not travel correctly and you do.. and its pretty darn presumptuous of you to decide whos not done enough research or the wrong kind of research for their travels. I agree people will enjoy their travels more if they do a bit of brushing up on history etc.. but I have come to understand that some people really do enjoy just showing up at a place and jumping on the HOHO..

I'm happy to hear it can be seen as a day trip. My husband & I are going to London & Paris in May and Bath looks like a lovely day trip out of London for us. Thanks!