Roman Baths- audioguide and/or guided tour

We went there in October 2024 with the RS tour of England. We got there about 10 a.m. and were left to tour the baths on our own. We spent 2 hours and could have spent more time. We were surprised about how much there was to see.

After entering you end up at the upper section looking over the pool and the cathedral right next door.. Before getting to the actual pool itself you walk through exhibit after exhibit of the artifacts behind glass that they have found. Near the end you end up walking on a glass floor over what was once the actual floor. Eventually you get to the pool itself. Surrounding the pool are other rooms that contain other stone remnants.

We took our time and read most of the descriptions in all the exhibits of artifacts. It was kind of crowded so that took some time also. After two hours we were impressed with all we saw but were tired and ready to go eat lunch. If you just walked through you could probably do it in an hour, but if you stop and look at everything it will take much longer. If you are interested in Roman history you will want to take your time, there is a lot to see.

We took 3 hours to see it and used the audio guide which we recommend. It is bigger and took more time than I thought it would. Go early as crowds do pick up throughout the day.

Thank you so much for the information. I really think I am going to plan on 3 hours because I will read all the things, lol.

Ive been to the Baths at least 3 times. My most recent visit was in 2022. I got the audio guide and loved it. They have several different speakers to guide you on the audio tour. I chose Bill Bryson, the author, and he was great & sometimes funny. I loved that in some rooms there were holograms so it looked like Roman folk were using the baths. I probably spent 2 hours there. Then I went to the Pump Room next to it and had an wonderful early dinner. I'd had a cream tea at 11 that day, but I hear the Pump Room tea is delightful.

I'll be in Bath this summer and I inquired about the Roman Baths' extended summer hours. Lily on the Customer Service Team replied "We will have extended summer hours from the 21st of July to the 31st of August. From Monday to Thursday we will be open until 7PM, and from Friday to Sunday we will be open until 9PM." I just wanted to let everyone know as I couldn't find this information on their website.
My first time posting. I love the Rick Steves Travel Forum! I learn so much from the polite travelers who post and reply here!

I was on the RS Best of England tour in June 2023 and used the audio guide. This was I could explore at my own pace.

There are certain days (forget the days) there is a free guided tour of Bath which was enjoyable. This tour covered areas/info different than the RS Bath tour guide.

Just returned from visiting the Roman baths -- along with our 22 and 18year old kids. Hubby and I took about 90 minutes to go through and used the audio guides, with no guided tour. I enjoyed my visit this way -- it allowed me to linger at spots of particular interest to me and gave me a solid amount of historical information as I went. Kids took a bit less time and spent about an hour there, using the audio guide less. The audioguide is included in the price of admission, so you don't need to pay an additional fee. If you decide you want to do the guided tour (guided by a human rather than the audioguide) I do think you need about an hour to see all of the things before the meeting spot. Enjoy! We found it quite fascinating.

A friend and I did both the audio guide and a human-guided tour in April of this year. We did backtrack to see what we skipped after the tour. We are chronically early, so we arrived a bit before our tour. As I recall the person at the ticket/audioguide desk said it was fine for us to do part of the audioguide, take the tour, and then resume the audioguide. And that's what we did. The human guide skips some of the things the audio guide covers. As for time spent, my friend has a longer attention span (and a stronger desire for photos) than I do, so he took more time with the audioguide. He was probably there around 3 hours total; I was there around 2 hours and spent some time exploring around the abbey and getting a coffee in a nice coffee shop while he finished up.