First AirBnb Experience: A Weekend In Bath

Nothing beats a road trip with friends. We were at our local McDonald’s around 10am for the mandatory road trip breakfast stop. From there, we had roughly 3 or 4 hours to get to Bath, so a fairly long drive but nothing major. I was thankful that it wasn’t too long, as I’m not a great passenger unfortunately, but also a nervous driver – not much of a winning situation, I can assure you! Luckily, we only hit one patch of traffic, on the M25 of course, and one other pit stop, so it wasn’t that late when we arrived at our destination.

Nimlet is in Chippenham, so not technically in Bath, but not far. The AirBnb, Nimlet Cottage, is along a busy main road, which was a little unnerving at first but not a big issue for us. We had already decided we loved the cottage, just from the outside.

Inside was even better. After parking up, we entered through a side door and straight in to the kitchen. The smell of fresh bread greeted us, which pleased my carb-loving soul immensely! Not only had we been left some lovely fresh bread, but also a jar of some strawberry jam, eggs, milk and a bottle of processco! The little touches were endless as we explored our home for the weekend. The decor was extremely homely, with fresh flowers in every room. I felt like I would never want to leave, I could picture staying there forever… or at least decorating the new house in the same styles. We may not have the keys yet, but the wannabe interior designer in me is already at work.

After getting a food shop done and having a realxed dinner, we got ready for a night on the town. This is when the rain came. We tried not to let it deter us, but when we arrived at the first bar, Opium, we were definitely a little soggy and there were no seats. We held out for a while though and our luck changed, we had a table and were able to soak up the atmosphere. The walls were deep red, with eclectic decor and painted ceilings. Incense was burning and groups of people of all ages, buzzed at the tables, with old rock tunes playing in the background. It was all very cosy, which was great, but after a long drive we needed a bit of waking up. So after a couple of drinks at Opium, we made our way in to the fresh air to find somewhere new. The rain had passed momentarily so we wandered for a short while to The Canary Gin Bar. We all tried a different gin drink and they were all lovely – mine even had rose petals in as a cute finishing touch. The intention was to have one drink there and continue on, while the night was young. I’ll be honest though, I was not feeling so young by this point, three drinks in and I was ready for bed!

The rain came again, much harder this time. We had no idea where to go, and when we did try to get in somewhere, we were turned away as one of the group was wearing trainers. Note: The Slug and Lettuce have a dress code after 6pm, no matter the weather! We ended up ducking in doorways, which certainly had not been the plan – it was time to call it a night. Getting a taxi from the city centre in the pouring rain was not exactly straight forward and for a short while, I felt like we’d never make it back to our cosy cottage…

After an eternity though, and a mildly terrifying taxi ride, we made it back. Midnight snacks and then bed. It hadn’t been the big night out we intended, but it had been lovely nonetheless.

The next day, we took it easy. I can never sleep in a different bed, away from home, so was grateful to have a late start, followed by a hearty English breakfast. It was aroud 1pm by the time we eventually went out, the only time to start your day on a Sunday if you ask me.

We played crazy golf, which took up most of the afternoon. I had a strong start but didn’t even come close to winning. I highly recommend the course at Victoria Falls for a chilled bit of fun. By the time we finished, breakfast had well and truly settled and we were now ready for something more. A local pub close to the cottage came highly recommended and so we headed there with high hopes. The food and customer service did not disappoint at The Bull At Hinton. We shared some appetisers – pork crackling and halloumi sticks – drank more gin, and ate to our hearts content. Sunday roast, fish and chips, even the chicken salad there was hearty.

We had a lovely relaxing evening back at Nimlet Cottage, watching Mrs Doubtfire and eating pudding. The evenings are getting chillier now and so we attempted to make use of the log burner, to no avail. Apparently, I would not make a competent guest of Bear Grylls, so blankets had to make do instead.

The next morning, we started earlier in order to get packed and out of the cottage on time for the 11am checkout. We were very sad to leave the cottage behind and would most definitely love to return if ever in the area again. We weren’t ready to actually go home yet though so headed in to the city to Thermae Bath Spa, a must do while in Bath.

Rather then pay full price for a spa day, we opted for an hour and a half option as it was much cheaper. We didn’t know what to expect at all, so when were escorted to The Cross Bath, away from the main spa, we were extremely and pleasantly surprised. I definitely recommend if you’re a little short on time or want something a bit different. It was daunting at first, as tourists peered through the windows of the bath so we feared we may be watched, but the windows close and so we enjoyed a totally private session in the open-air thermal bath. I shold note, I think it was luck that we ended up with a private session – prices online advertise paying extra for exclusive use, so I assume it was a case of no one else had booked the same time slot as us, result!

After all the relaxing, we were starving! Pizza Express was calling us, don’t tell me those dough balls aren’t the best. Once we had full bellies, we then headed to our last activity before we really did have to head home. The one thing that can’t be skipped when visiting Bath, The Roman Baths of course. There’s a reason the tourists flock here, everything has been so well preserved that you can just picture so clearly the Romans roaming around, as if it was yesterday. I also discovered that they do weddings and am now working on convincing my boyfriend that we simply must get married in Bath… we’ll see how well that goes. The Baths really are beautiful though and I would say you really have to see it to experience it, especially if you’re a lover of history.

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When we left, we were caught in the rain yet again. The drive home was going to be long, but at least we had our memories to keep us going…