Bath Open-Top Bus Tours

Seeing Bath by double-decker, open-top bus is a comfortable and relaxed way to see the city. As the centre of Bath is quite small, you can see it on foot, but many tourists still choose the tourbus option.

There are a number of different companies running open-top bus tours of Bath, and they operate almost identical routes around the centre of town. In our view the best is City Sightseeing. Their buses are smart and new, with a covered section at the top of the upper deck (useful for keeping off wind and rain). Tickets last 24 hours, and the buses run frequently, meaning you can hop on and off when you're seeing the town. Their chief advantage, though, is that they run a second route, with tickets valid on both services.

City Sightseeing tours of Bath

The central Bath tour passes Bath's main landmarks including Pulteney Bridge and the Royal Crescent. We reckon you should sit on the left-hand side of the bus for the best views and photo-opportunities. If you have enough time in Bath, their second tour is also worth taking. It's called the Skyline Tour, and it takes tourists up around the slopes to the south of Bath, stopping at Prior Park Gardens. You're given a set of headphones, which should be plugged into the sockets alongside each seat, where languages can be selected and volume controlled. The recorded commentary is fairly good, with amusing anecdotes and historical detail (they do mispronounce the name of our river, though). They do also offer some real-life guides. Tickets are valid for 24 hours, on both routes, and cost £9 for adults, £4.50 for children, and £6.50 for OAPs and students. Tickets can be bought in advance online (click on the advertising link on the left). You can get on the bus for the City Centre Tour by the Temperance statue alongside Bath Abbey, on the High Street, while the Skyline Tour starts at the railway station.

A resident's view

As residents, we have to add that open-top buses are not very popular with locals. Several years ago we heard of infuriated residents, driven to the ends of their tether by pollution, amplified commentaries and congestion, pouring water out of their windows onto the unlucky passengers. More recently, though, protests have led to the numbers of buses being monitored, while headphones have been introduced to combat noise pollution, and routes have been adjusted. A truce seems to have been declared.