UK Travel: Bath, England

We have now been in London long enough that we were ready for a relaxing weekend getaway, and Bath seemed like just the perfect spot!

We decided to take the train there, and it was super easy from London Paddington Station. And bonus-it only took 1.5 hours!  Strangely enough, on the way there, Joe and I’s seats were supposed to be 40 rows apart! However, we quickly learned that people don’t really sit in the assigned seats, and it’s kinda unspoken knowledge that you can sit wherever you want. Therefore, we ended up sitting in seats with a table and it was a definite win! Next time, we will definitely be requesting table seats!

We arrived in Bath and went to Sally Lunn’s for the buns, and it was a perfect way to kick off our trip! I enjoyed the bunn with cream cheese and smoked salmon and Joe had a speciality beef dinner, and we both enjoyed the soup! I also opted for a cinnamon buttered bun for dessert, and I did not regret one bite of it!

We then toured around the town a bit before heading to the hotel! The town itself is very quaint and filled with lots of character, but we also discovered that it had a ton of shops, restaurant options, and everything you could want!

We stopped for some wine and snacks for the room, and headed on to the Macdonald Hotel & Spa. When looking for places to stay for the weekend, I had a few requirements: kid friendly, kids able to use the amenities, on-site restaurant or restaurants nearby, and we had to be able to have a cot in the room. After calling multiple hotels where I was told kids could only swim from 8-9 am and 2-3 pm, kids weren’t allowed in the dining room, or we couldn’t get a cot delivered to our room unless we stayed in a suite, I landed on the Macdonald Hotel and Spa. We were able to check-in early, leave our bags in the room, and immediately change into bathing suits and the provided robes and slippers to head down to the indoor pool! Children are allowed in the pool from 8am-5pm, so we took advantage of this from 2:30-5:00 pm. Joe and I took turns going to the amazing thermal spa pool outside and the hot-tub, while the other person stayed with Eli in the pool (which he was obsessed with to say the least!)

We then headed back to our room, changed for dinner, and went down to the restaurant in the hotel and enjoyed a fancy dinner just to ourselves! We have learned that in general, people eat much later here than we are used to, so our 6:30 reservation spot landed us in a dining room alone for most of our dinner! At 7:45ish when we were headed up to our room, the pianist was starting to play, and the dining room was slowly starting to fill! We the. Headed back to the room to Eli’s turned down sheet in his cot, and stayed in the rest of the evening!

Joe and I got into bed, turned on the Crown on the iPad (which we highly recommend if you haven’t seen it), and we were falling asleep by 8:30 pm!

We woke up, and headed to an amazing breakfast at 8:30! It was funny because as we were walking a local women stopped us to ask why the Americans were up so early, lol. I’m not sure if they think all Americans sleep until noon, or if if common practice here is to sleep in late. At breakfast, we were literally the first person in the restaurant at 9.00 am, and people slowly started to wander in as we were leaving at 10.

We headed back to the hotel, requested a later check-out, and switched into bathing suits and robes for a quick spa visit! (The hot tub for Mom, and the pool for Eli and Joe!) And it was worth the messy hair for the rest of the day to get a few extra minutes of relaxation before we headed out!

We had planned on touring the Roman Baths and we had reservations at the adjoining restaurant, The Pump Room, but we weren’t hungry just yet after our breakfast, so we headed to explore the town. We did a little shopping, then headed for a late lunch before catching the train back to London!  It was a fantastic, relaxing trip, and we can’t wait to visit again soon!