Blake Lively: 4 Great Reasons to Visit Bath

This is Part 2 of my travels in Bath. Click here for Part 1.

Many people only know of London as a tourist destination when they visit England. Take a wider look and you will stumble upon the lovely City of Bath which is an approximate 4-hour bus ride from London.

A return bus ticket from London to this quaint UNESCO World Heritage Site costs only GBP26.80 - quite cheap considering the loveliness that awaits you. Here are my personal 4 reasons why you must visit Bath:

1) It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Heritage Sites are properties which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal cultural and natural heritage value.

World Heritage Sites I've visited include Ancient Thebes and its Necropolis in Egypt, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Luang Prabang in Laos, Stonehenge in England, and of course Kinabalu National Park, Malacca and Georgetown - Malaysia Boleh!

All these sites have never failed to amaze me, and Bath is not an exception.

2) Historical Buildings & Museums. There are many historically significant buildings in Bath like the Bath Abbey and the Roman Baths. Visit all of them if you have the time and money cause they hold mystery and wonder like the Temple of Sulis Minerva in the Roman Bath.

Facade of Bath Abbey

There was a photo exhibition on the sorry state of our environment outside Bath Abbey when I visited the place

What's a pig doing outside Bath Abbey? :-)

The Roman Baths

The Roman Baths is located beside Bath Abbey (in the background). Cloudy weather does not make good photography. But when the sun suddenly peeked from behind a cloud, I quickly ran to the other side and snapped this shot. Look how bright and sharp it is!

3) Lovely sceneries. Take a stroll anywhere in Bath and you'll see what I mean when I say Bath is so pretty.

The River Avon runs through the City of Bath

I thought that these swans completes the shot

Great place to take romantic walks with your love one

Brown and white swans make the River Avon their home

4) Gateway to Stonehenge and the Cotswolds
You can use Bath as a base to explore other interesting places in the area like Stonehenge and the Cotswolds.

Transport to the Cotswolds is scarce and difficult to travel on my own. So I opted for the Cotswold Discovery tour by Mad Max Tours. This full-day tour that costs GBP32.50 brought me to some of the small towns that the Cotswolds is famous for like Castle Combe, the Slaughters and Stow-on-the-Wold (notice how unique and cute some of the names are!)

I registered for the tour by paying GBP2.50 at the tourism office outside Bath Abbey. The lady at the office immediately called up the Mad Max office and confirmed my seat, which happened to be the last one. Felt so lucky!

The next morning I waited at the pickup point which was at the corner near the Bath Backpackers' Hostel and paid the balance GBP30.00 to the tour guide before hopping onto the minivan.

Here are 2 photos I snapped while on tour:

Arlington Row in Bibury. It is probably the most photographed attraction in the Cotswolds

Castle Combe

There are also tours to Stonehenge from Bath if you wish to explore the ancient stone arrangement. As for myself, I went to Stonehenge on a half-day tour from London which you can read about here.