Bath has been selling wellness since the Romans built their bathing complex around its hot springs nearly two millennia ago. But it was only in 2006, when Thermae Bath Spa opened, that visitors got to actually bathe in the city's naturally heated mineral waters again rather than just peer at them. Twenty years on, the city's spa roster has grown well beyond that single rooftop pool — here's where to book.
The two spots with genuine access to the original springs remain Thermae Bath Spa and The Gainsborough Bath Spa, a hotel that reopened in 2015 and pipes water up from the earth at a scorching 120°F before cooling it for its pools. The Gainsborough's 'bath house circuit' moves you through three pools of varying temperatures, saunas, an ice alcove and mosaic-clad relaxation rooms, with a new menu featuring a copper and quartz firming massage. Thermae's trump card is simpler: the open-air rooftop pool, steam curling off the water with the Abbey and golden Bath stone rooftops in view.
Newer additions are giving the old guard a run for their money. Francis Hotel opened a basement spa in spring 2026 after a multi-million-pound hotel makeover, offering Gaia Skincare and QMS Medicosmetics treatments alongside an Espuro foam steam bath in a private spa space. At No.15 by GuestHouse on Great Pulteney Street, the Copper Room ritual pairs a magnesium-salt copper tub soak with a side-by-side massage — very much aimed at couples, with Henrietta Park just behind.
A short drive out of town, the options get more rustic and more family-friendly. The Pig near Bath, 20 minutes away in the Mendip Hills, runs Potting Shed treatment rooms using Tribe517 products made with honey from a South Wales farm's own beehives. Lucknam Park's walled-garden spa has eight treatment rooms, hydrotherapy pools and thermal cabins, with a refurbishment this autumn adding a redesigned fitness space — plus a 'Little Lucknam Apothecary' where families forage botanicals with the head gardener to make their own oils and balms. Five miles out, Campwell Farm Sauna offers wood-fired sauna sessions and forest bathing on a fifth-generation sheep farm near Bradford-on-Avon.
Back in the centre, The Bath Priory's Garden Spa sits in four acres of gardens below the Royal Crescent, with L'Occitane treatments and indoor and outdoor pools, while The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa occupies two of John Wood the Younger's crescent houses, with a heated pool, Himalayan salt sauna and a new Twilight Experience combining a 30-minute treatment with supper at Montagu's Mews.
Why it matters: Bath is one of the few places in the UK where you can bathe in naturally hot mineral water, and the range now spans budget-friendly public bathing at Thermae to full hotel spa days — a solid year-round weekend trip, especially appealing when the rooftop steam matters most in colder months.
