Welcome to my guide to over 20 of the best places to visit near Bath and Bristol.
The two West Country cities are both great destinations for exploring this beautiful corner of England, and we show you places from the beaches of the Bristol Channel coast to the stunning villages of the Cotswolds, less than an hour away to the north.
I also explore further east, heading into Wiltshire to explore its ancient sites and the lovely cathedral city of Salisbury, and south into Somerset.
I finish our journey across the Severn in South Wales, where we follow in the footsteps of Britain’s first modern tourists in the Wye Valley and venture as far west as the Gower Peninsula, where you’ll find some of the best beaches in the UK.
Enjoy!
Places To Visit Near Bath And Bristol
1. Cheddar Gorge
Cheddar Gorge is one of the great landmarks in England, a soaring narrow limestone gorge with a superb circular hike and one of the most famous caves in the UK. It’s also the gateway to the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, a wild upland plateau area in North Somerset.
My favourite thing to do in Cheddar is the circular Gorge Walk. If you climb the 200-plus steps of Jacob’s Ladder you’ll have to pay, whereas if you start on the opposite side of the Gorge you can descend for free.
Either way, Jacob’s Ladder is included in the Cheddar Gorge Day Ticket, which includes the two main caves. The whole circuit of the Gorge takes around two hours and will do wonders for your calf muscles.
Gough’s Cave is wondrous, the rock formations all beautifully lit, while Cox’s Cave hosts a multimedia experience, Dreamhunters – The Adventures of Early Man. While visiting the caves, you’ll see cheese maturing all around you – a reminder that Cheddar gives its name and is home to one of the most famous cheeses in the world.
2, Tyntesfield
Tyntesfield, a few miles south-west of Bristol in North Somerset, is one of the finest country houses in England. The estate was in the ownership of the Tynte family who built a hunting lodge there in the 16th century.
The estate was acquired by William Gibbs, who made a vast fortune from guano – bird poo – imported from Peru and Bolivia and turned into fertiliser. Gibbs built the neo-Gothic mansion in the 1840s, expanding it 20 years later.
One of the most striking features is the chapel, which is said to be modelled on the magnificent Sainte Chapelle in Paris.
3, Clevedon
Clevedon is a seaside town on the Bristol Channel coast, just a 13-mile drive or bus ride from Bristol, with Portishead to the north and Weston-super-Mare to the south.
The town grew during the Victorian era when it became a popular seaside resort. The pebbly and rocky beach is one for curious explorer kids like Our Little Fellow, and it commands superb views across the Channel to South Wales.
However, the best thing to see in Clevedon is its stunning Victorian pier, surely the most elegant in the UK, and located in a perfect sunset spot for the longer days during the summer months.
The Glass Box restaurant at the town end of the Pier serves fish and chips and other seafood specials, while the Pagoda Café at the end of the Pier is a great place topo enjoy coffee and cake.
4. Gloucester
The city of Gloucester, a 30-mile trip up the M5 from Bristol, is best-known for its stunning Cathedral. It’s one of the finest in England, with elements of Romanesque, Gothic and Perpendicular, including the cloisters which were used as the location for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series of films.
There’s plenty more to see in the rest of the city and nearby, with the evocative Infirmary Arches and St Oswald’s Priory both making evocative foregrounds for your Cathedral photos.
We also recommend the Tailor of Gloucester’s House on narrow College Court, which leads to the Cathedral. It’s a small Beatrix Potter Museum and gift shop, well worth half an hour if you have kids with you.
Gloucester Docks is a short walk away from the historic centre, and is home to the National Waterways Museum. It’s the largest of its kind in the world, delving into the history of Britain’s rivers and canals. They have a collection of over 50 boats, and during the warmer months you can go on a boat trip around the Docks.
While in the area, don’t miss the unique Rococo Garden in Painswick, a few miles south of Gloucester and just north of Stroud.
5. The Cotswolds
The Cotswolds are just half an hour to the north of Bristol and Bath, an area to dip in and out of rather than try to see all at once. For many visitors, the Cotswolds are the epitome of rural England, with gentle hilly countryside and medieval villages built from the local honey-coloured stone.
The area stretches across eastern Gloucestershire into Oxfordshire, and includes some of the most beautiful villages in England. These include honeypots such as Bibury (pictured) and Lower Slaughter, and my personal favourite, Snowshill.
The Cotswolds grew wealthy from the wool trade in the Middle Ages, and this is reflected in the fine buildings in its towns, especially the churches at Chipping Campden and Tetbury.
6. Westonbirt Arboretum, Tetbury
The National Arboretum at Westonbirt is one of the best places to visit near Bath and Bristol, and somewhere we rate on a similar level to Kew Gardens in London. The collection of over 15,000 trees dates back to the early Victorian period, and there are over 2,000 species from all over the world, including numerous endangered species.
It’s an amazing introduction to the world of trees, and a fascinating place to observe the changes between the seasons. We’ve only visited in springtime, when the woodlands are ablaze with colour. But the most popular time to visit is in late October and early November, when the autumn foliage is at its best.
7. Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare is a great seaside town on the Bristol Channel coast with two enormous beaches and a third just beyond Brean Down, the highest point in the area.
When I was a kid our local beach was Barry Island, just across the water in South Wales, and from there you could see Weston on a reasonably clear day. We made our way over to Weston a few times, and I also used to pop down to the beach from time to time when I lived in Bristol.
The main Weston-super-Mare beach is dominated by the Grand Pier, which is so long there is a land train on it. It has all the classic British seaside ingredients – fish and chips, amusement arcades and the smallest rollercoaster in the UK.
I can also recommend Sand Bay Beach, which is just around the headland to the north of the main beach, which is less frequented than its neighbour.
8. Bradford-on-Avon
Bradford-on-Avon is one of our favourite places to visit near Bristol and Bath, a gorgeous Wiltshire town that charmed us greatly on a birthday day trip a few years ago.
It’s only 25 minutes from Bristol Temple Meads by train, and ten from Bath Spa, and the station is only a short walk from the compact, easily walkable town centre, so no need for a car for this one.
One of the first things you see is the medieval stone bridge over the river Avon, and the structure built into its corner was originally a chapel and later used as a lock-up.
Before crossing the river, we were tempted by afternoon tea at The Bridge Tea Rooms, one of the best we’ve had anywhere. The exterior of the building is charming wonky late-medieval, and the staff wear Victorian dress uniforms.
The riverside is dominated by the surviving woollen mills, relics from the town’s heyday as one of the country’s leading wool producers, which continued until the 19th century.
Don’t miss the rare and remarkable Saxon church of St Laurence on the north side of the river, a simple structure believed to date from the 10th or 11th century – but definitely pre-dating the Norman Conquest of 1066.
See Also: One Day In Bath – 24 hours in the stunning Georgian city
9. Longleat
Longleat is a brilliant family day out, with a safari park set in the extensive grounds of one of the finest Elizabethan (second half of the 16th century) houses in the country, the home of the Marquess and Marchioness of Bath.
Longleat is around 20 miles south of Bath, close to the Somerset town of Frome and Wiltshire town of Warminster. The drive through safari was the highlight of our visit, passing a pride of lions, watching Asian elephants up close and having macaques clambering over the car in search of food.
There is also a walking safari, where you encounter the likes of koalas (a rarity in Europe), and a boat safari where you can see creatures as diverse as lowland gorillas, hippos and sea lions.
You need a car to enjoy the best of it, and at £40 per adult, I’d look to make the most of it. Take the train or bus somewhere else another day.
10. Wells
Wells, an hour south of Bristol and Bath, is the smallest cities in England and one of the most underrated cities in Europe. I’ve always been amazed at how it has remained off the beaten track, as it’s one of the most beautiful places to visit in England.
The city is best known for its Cathedral, especially the staggering west front. The twin-towered façade is one of the masterpieces of the Middle Ages, with hundreds of stone statues carved into its niches. Its interior is also remarkable, particularly the rare scissor arches which hold up the central tower.
Wells has the most complete preserved Cathedral precincts in the UK, with the neighbouring Bishops Palace and the medieval stone cottages of the Vicars Close surviving the centuries almost unscathed.
The rest of the small city is beautiful too, with most of the buildings in the centre either medieval or Georgian.
11. Glastonbury
Glastonbury is known the world over for its festival, held a few miles from the town every June, and it’s one of the most fascinating small towns in England, shrouded in millennia-old legends.
One of these is that Joseph of Arimathea visited Glastonbury, bringing with him the Holy Grail, a wooden cup said to have been used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper.
It is also believed to be the final resting place of legendary British King Arthur – this is marked by a sign in the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey.
Believed to be Arthur’s Avalon, the Glastonbury landscape certainly has mystical qualities, especially Glastonbury Tor. This modest 523-foot hill rises high above the surrounding lowlands of the Somerset Levels, and the church tower of St Michael on its summit is perhaps the most famous landmark in the region.
It’s an amazing sight, especially at sunrise and sunset, especially if you’re lucky enough to see the mists swirling around it.
Glastonbury town is also well worth the day trip. The Abbey, largely ruined except for the magnificent Abbot’s Kitchen, is a must-see, with the Galilee Chapel and pillars of the central tower the most prominent sights.
In the town centre, there are some exceptional medieval buildings, most notably the George Hotel and Pilgrims Inn which dates from 1439.
12. Somerset Churches
In the Middle Ages Somerset was extraordinarily rich thanks to its prosperous wool trade, and this led to the creation of a remarkable, but rarely explored, record of this period – the incredible wealth of Somerset church towers, which I would say is the largest concentration in the UK. They are mostly in the English Perpendicular style, the unique British variant on late Gothic.
There are too many to list here, but you don’t have to travel far to see at least one of them. Dundry church tower is a skyscraper in medieval terms – and it’s visible on the hill from the southern suburbs of Bristol.
If you drive from Bristol to Wells, you can’t miss the tower at Chewton Mendip, and in Wells itself I’ve heard people mistake the impressive St Cuthbert’s church tower for the nearby Cathedral.
The best-known Somerset church tower is that of St Mary Magdalene church in Taunton, the county town. However, the most beautiful one I’ve seen is that of St Mary’s Church in Huish Episcopi, a graceful golden-stoned beauty in the Somerset Levels a few miles south of Glastonbury.
13. Tewkesbury
Tewkesbury, a few miles up the River Severn from Gloucester at the confluence with the river Avon, is one of the most beautiful towns in England. I visited it several times from South Wales, and couldn’t believe how few people seemed to have discovered it.
It’s best known for Tewkesbury Abbey, an outstanding Norman church with an amazing tower and some beautiful later Gothic additions.
It’s also rich in other medieval architecture with many half-timbered houses around the town, one of which houses the excellent Tewkesbury Museum.
There are also several along the River Avon, where you can enjoy a wonderful view with the Abbey looming behind.
14. Hereford
Hereford is one of the smallest cities in England, a large country town on the River Wye with one of the loveliest cathedrals in England and some gorgeous countryside on its doorstep.
There are more than enough things to do in Hereford to make a full day of it, even more if you factor in the surrounding countryside. Hereford Cathedral is the highlight, a gorgeous Gothic church with the famous 13th century Mappa Mundi (Map of the World) and Chained Library.
We also recommend the Black and White House Museum, a ten-minute walk away at the other end of the city centre, and the Cider Museum.
Herefordshire is one of the most beautiful counties in England, totally off the beaten track and full of black and white half-timbered villages, ancient churches and castles and endless orchards. I’m privileged to have explored it many times from across the border – it’s a wonderful part of the world to explore.
15. Avebury
The World Heritage village of Avebury is one of the most intriguing places to visit near Bath and Bristol, and one of the most amazing villages in England.
Avebury is unique because part of it is located within an ancient circular henge, which in turn contains two extraordinary stone circles. They date from the Neolithic period, most likely between 4200 and 4800 years old.
Visiting the village and stone circles is free, as is the walk along the superb West Kennet Avenue of standing stones. You can also reach Silbury Hill, a mysterious ancient artificial mound, from the village.
16. Stonehenge
One of the most iconic places to visit in England, Stonehenge is one of the best places to visit near Bath and Bristol, as little as an hour away by car, or an hour and a half if you’re using public transport.
The site has been greatly improved over the years as the road that ran very close to it has been re-routed, leaving it in the glorious isolation in which our ancestors would have appreciated it. You now walk across the fields of Salisbury Plain towards the great ancient stone circle, one of the wonders of Neolithic Britain.
17. Salisbury
The cathedral city of Salisbury is only an hour away from Bath by train (and 75 minutes from Bristol). The spire of the Cathedral, at 404 feet in height, is the tallest in the UK, and is the most famous feature of an Early English Gothic masterpiece.
Salisbury’s vast Cathedral Close gives the Cathedral room to ‘breathe’, and for visitors to appreciate it from a distance. For al the Gothic wonder inside, I still find its most recent addition, the Prisoners of Conscience stained glass windows in the Lady Chapel the most striking thing to see inside.
The rest of the city is a beauty, from the Doom painting above the chancel arch in St Thomas’s Church (which pre-dates the Cathedral) to the Mompesson House, one of very few Queen Anne townhouses open for visits in the UK.
I also recommend setting aside an hour to visit Old Sarum, the original Salisbury settlement on a hill above the present one. The Norman motte and foundations of the cathedral remain, and although it has been abandoned for 800 years, it’s still a very evocative place.
Places To Visit Near Bath And Bristol – Across The Severn To Wales
South Wales is only a short drive, train or bus ride from Bristol and Bath, and nowadays motorists don’t have to pay a toll to cross the Prince of Wales Bridge (as it’s now known). This region is my back yard, and here are just a few highlights.
1. Wye Valley and Tintern Abbey
The river Wye is perhaps the birthplace of modern British tourism. It began with pilgrimages in the Middle Ages, but in the 18th century people began visiting the Wye Valley simply to appreciate its natural beauty, and the Wye Tour, a two-day journey from Ross-on-Wye to Chepstow, was the first package tour in Britain.
If you’re visiting the Wye Valley from Bath and Bristol, you’ll at least pass Chepstow, a town with an awesome Norman Castle overlooking the Wye. One of the best views of the River Wye is just two miles to the north – the Eagles Nest is above the village of St Arvans.
The Gothic ruin of Tintern Abbey is one of the most famous landmarks in Wales, a magnificent sight at any time but especially when morning mists circle the church on an autumn morning.
It was one of the main stops for the early Wye tourists, who would stop to paint the romantic ruin.
2. Cardiff
Cardiff, the Welsh capital, is an easy day trip from Bath and Bristol, just an hour away from Bath Spa on the train, and not much longer by car.
Our former home city, Cardiff comes as a perfectly-sized package. Many visitors start at Cardiff Castle, which started out 1700 years ago as a Roman fort and its 19th century remodelling is one of the most extravagant works of Victorian Gothic architecture ever undertaken.
The Castle is in the heart of the city centre – many come for the massive malls like St Davids 2 but we prefer to direct you to the elegant Edwardian arcades which run off the streets close to the Castle.
The National Museum and Gallery, a 5-minute walk from the Castle, is a great introduction to the history and culture of Wales, and it also has one of the most substantial collections of Impressionist paintings outside France.
See Also: 20 Famous Landmarks in Cardiff and 33 Great Day Trips from Cardiff
3. Caerphilly Castle
Caerphilly Castle is one of the best castles in South Wales, and the second largest in the UK. It’s a 15-minute train ride north of Cardiff, and makes for a great few hours out.
The Castle dates from the 13th century, and is renowned for its leaning tower, which outleans the more famous one in Pisa.
If you’re driving, you could do a Welsh castles double-header and combine it with Castell Coch, which is just over Caerphilly Mountain via minor roads through the woods.
Castell Coch is essentially a 19th century folly, built by master Victorian architect William Burges for his patron, the Third Marquess of Bute. It’s very different to Caerphilly, a fairytale fantasy castle that is one of the most popular landmarks in Wales.
4. Gower Peninsula
The Gower Peninsula, to the west of Swansea, has some of the best beaches in Europe, and is easy to reach from Bath and Bristol.
You have to pass through Swansea in order to reach Gower, and have a choice of several city beaches (Mumbles, Bracelet Bay, Langland and Caswell Bay) or the more rural Gower beaches further west.
Three Cliffs Bay is breathtaking, a hidden Arcadia only accessible on foot (count on a mile-long walk from car park or bus stop) and Rhossili Bay, at the western end of the peninsula, is stunning, a three-mile sweep of golden sand with some of the best coastal scenery and walks you’ll find anywhere in the UK.
Direct trains run from Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads to Swansea, then it’s a short bus journey or walk (15 minutes) across town to Swansea bus station, from which buses depart to the various Gower beaches.
The M4 takes you to the outskirts of Swansea, and you eventually join the A4118 road across the peninsula. Side roads from this take you to the best of the beaches.
David Angel is a British photographer, writer and historian. He is a European travel expert with over 30 years’ experience exploring Europe. He has a degree in History from Manchester University, and his work is regularly featured in global media including the BBC, Condé Nast Traveler, The Guardian, The Times, and The Sunday Times. David is fluent in French and Welsh, and can also converse in Italian, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Czech and Polish.