Exploring Bath: 24-hour Road trip challenge

This week I was set a challenge to explore Bath in the United kingdom for 24 hours with a car rental.

I was set the challenge by TravelSupermarket who offered me a car rental for the day and I could freely choose where I wanted to go.

The UK has a lot of fun 24-hour day trips you can do with a car rental, with much to explore across the country.

I chose Bath as it’s a location I’ve heard a lot about but never had the chance to visit.

Finally, I had an excuse to go and check out the city of Bath!

Below I’ve put together some helpful information about how the car rental booking process went as well as offering a helpful 24-hour visiting guide to the city of Bath.

Be sure to not miss the video at the end of the post too!

Renting a car in the United Kingdom

(Was easy renting a car from Stansted airport.)

The process was rather simple. Once you’ve arrived at Stansted airport you can grab a free shuttle bus to one of the car rental locations from the arrival area.

Our car rental was located at Hilton Hotel and all the paperwork right away. Was no trouble at all.

(You can even book from a smartphone app. Easy peasy! )

Booking the rental car on TravelSupermarket was rather straight forward.

I was able to book using my smartphone which made the whole process very easy.

Stansted airport has loads of competition when it comes to car rental.

It can feel overwhelming to find the best deal. TravelSupermarket saved us a lot of hassle and time by pointing us in the best direction with our preferences.

We managed to find a bargain at £29.13 for the day car rental which was for a premium car (Was cheaper options also available) which was perfect for our 24 hour road trip challenge.

It would have taken a lot of time search all the car rental sites on the web, always smart to compare in one place and see what options you have to make a nice little saving.

Journey to Bath, United Kingdom

(Journey wasn’t bad from London along the M4.)

Once we had our set of wheels, we were ready to hit the road on our adventure to Bath!

The Journey was not bad at all. We arrived early at the airport and managed to beat the M25 traffic. This made the M4 drive to bath a breeze.

It was a rainy day, but hey, that’s the UK for you! Wasn’t going to let this stop the challenge. We were ready for a trip to explore Bath city for 24 hours.

Exploring Bath for 24 hours

(You’re sure to have a wonderful time, totally possible in 24 hours.)

Once we arrived, parked up and had a morning coffee, we were ready to explore Bath.

A great tip is to first head to the tourist information office which is located next to Bath Abbey. Here you can have a chat with the friendly staff, pick up a map and work out what to discover.

We planned a fun 24-hour visit with their helpful assistance.

This is what we got up to in the city of Bath.

Roman Bath House

(Go back in time and explore the Roman bath house)

A visit to Bath without a visit to the Roman bath house is a missed opportunity.

Yes, it’s open to the general public, but not to go for a dip! I have to admit for some funny reason I thought you could go for a swim!

We almost asked if they sell towels at the gift shop. That would have been a funny moment!

Instead, it’s a wonderfully put together visitor centre where you can learn about the Roman baths that date back to over 2,000 years ago from the time of the Romans.

The Roman Baths were discovered only a few hundred years ago and beautifully restored to their original self as best as possible. (The place was buried for thousands of years!)

Most enjoyable and we could have spent the whole day exploring the grounds. It’s full of interesting information.

Be sure to try the Roman Spa water at the end of the visit. I’ll let you make a judgement on that yourself (Be sure to drink after lunch, not before!).

The Circus, Bath

(Discover the Georgian houses that Bath is famous for.)

Bath is famous for its stunning Georgian period buildings and that’s what gives the city its unique charm.

Head to The Circus where you can see some houses from the period lined up around a roundabout. This is often used as a film set and worth a quick visit and look around.

Spoil yourself in The Pump Room for high tea, tea time

(If you have time, be sure to treat yourself at the Pump Room.)

After learning about the Roman bathing houses you can find the Pump room located next door. They compliment each other rather well, especially if you fancy grabbing lunch after a visit.

This grand hall serves up a wonderful tea for two which is perfect if you fancy treating yourself.

I’m a big fan of the high tea experience and as it was my birthday the day before our visit, I thought why not, let’s give it a try and we were not left disappointed.

Lovely way to make a visit to Bath feel extra special. Got to love these British lunch experiences. Why not, right?

Bath Abbey

(The Abbey is stunning! Be sure not to miss it.)

The Abbey of Bath is located across from the Roman bath and Pump Room. Be sure to pop in to have a look at the high Abbey and its wonderful stained glass windows.

It’s very impressive looking around and you might hurt your neck if you’re not too careful looking up all the time and noticing the amazing details of the roof.

Going on a boat trip in Bath

(Go on a boat trip to explore in a different way.)

This was a wild card activity that the tourism office recommended. Took just under an hour and the boat takes you out to the country side following the Avon.

The captain of the boat had some fun stories to share about the local area and it was almost like a history lesson.

The boat trip takes you along a lovely canal and we only wish the weather was better as the view of the hills would have been spectacular.

Thermea Spa in the city centre

After a long day of walking, end on a high and be sure to check out the Thermae Spa resort located in the heart of the city. You can visit the spa for a few hours and they offer many different levels of treatment such as steam rooms and hot baths.

Head to the roof to check out the rooftop bath with stunning views looking out to the city of Bath and the surrounding hills.

If you fancy a relaxing trip this is a great way to end your visit to Bath before heading home.

Visting the city of Bath

(Easy to visit Bath in a day, but you will wish you could stay for longer.)

Had a wonderful time visiting Bath on our 24-hour road trip challenge. We did feel like we were able to cover everything in our limited amount of time, but more time would have allowed us to enjoy all of the above at a more steady pace.

We had a fantastic time on our 24-hour road trip and its amazing to think of all the other wonderful destinations that can be explored close by to London with a car rental.

Thank you for reading my blog post about what to do in Bath for 24 hours.

Thank you for reading my blog post about Bath, I hope you found it useful.

If you do have any further questions, I’m very happy to help. You can leave a comment below in the comment section of this blog post.

Before you go 🙂

Check out my video of Bath on YouTube