Bath or Inverness?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on good for families and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Bath if you want museums, restaurants and evening options within walking distance of one another, if you are travelling with children, or if you want protected countryside and a theme park within day-trip reach.
Choose Inverness if the sea matters more than the museums: it is 1km from the centre rather than 29km away, and the town is smaller and quieter, with drier springs.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Inverness leads by 20 points.20
| Bath | Inverness | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 8 | 28 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 1 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 29 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | 29 km | 1 km |
Places to eat. Bath leads by 25 points.25
| Bath | Inverness | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 21 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 245 | 114 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 26 | 11 |
Museums & heritage. Bath leads by 27 points.27
| Bath | Inverness | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 47 | 20 |
| Museums within 10 km | 20 | 6 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 14 | 5 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 70 | 83 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 0 |
Nightlife. Bath leads by 21 points.21
| Bath | Inverness | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 15 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 320 | 113 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 240 | 98 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 75 | 87 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 11 | 4 |
Nature & day trips. Bath leads by 35 points.35
| Bath | Inverness | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 9 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 28 | 12 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 27 | 11 |
| Land share of disc % | 92 | 88 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 3 hectares |
Good for families. Bath leads by 40 points.40
| Bath | Inverness | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 0 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 14 | 3 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 3 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Bath leads by 8 points.8
| Bath | Inverness | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 24 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 25 | 16 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Bath and Inverness are level on 54.
| Bath | Inverness | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 54 |
| Price level global | 84.9 | 84.9 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Bath leads by 3 points.3
| Bath | Inverness | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 52 |
| Monthly daytime high | 6.8 °C to 21.4 °C | 6.6 °C to 18.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 49 mm to 87 mm | 40 mm to 72 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 1 |
Where they differ
Bath keeps more within walking distance: roughly twice as many restaurants near the centre and a wider range of kitchens, about three times as many museums, and 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach where Inverness has none. Protected land covers 28% around Bath against 12% around Inverness, and families get much more park space, many more attractions and 1 theme park within reach.
Inverness puts the sea 1km from its centre where Bath's is 29km away; both have 1 beach nearby, though the water tops out at 14°C.
Where they are alike
Weather is where the two are closest. Both run mild rather than warm, Bath at 7-21°C across the year and Inverness at 7-19°C, both peaking in July, and both get rain in every month, so neither offers a dry season to plan around.
Beyond that, both are compact. What each has, whether notable buildings or places to drink, sits close to the centre, so either can be covered on foot without transport.
Which traveller are you?
Travelling with children: Bath, clearly. It has many times as much park space and as many attractions near the centre as Inverness, plus 1 theme park within reach, while Inverness offers very little aimed at younger visitors.
A traveller who wants water: Inverness, where the sea is 1km from the centre rather than 29km away. It is swimming for the hardy, though, with the sea at its warmest at 14°C in August.
Museums, restaurants and an evening out: Bath, with about three times as many museums and twice as many restaurants near the centre, and a wider choice of both bars and kitchens.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison here carries no information. That figure is a national price level, so it is identical for both cities by construction, and the dataset holds no daily budget for either. Nothing on this page tells you which of the two costs more, and you should price them separately before deciding.
Inverness's coastal edge is about proximity, not swimming. The sea reaches 14°C at its warmest, in August, and neither city has a month of sea at 21°C or more, so the beach is one for walking. Bath's warmest months are not its driest either: August brings 66mm.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bath: 1991-2020 normals, Lyneham (29.2 km from centre). Inverness: 1991-2020 normals, Kinloss (43.4 km from centre).
Bath's best run is June to August, with highs of 19-21°C and rainfall of 56-66mm; September still reaches 18°C. Its wet stretch is October and November, at 87mm and 83mm, when Inverness sits lower.
Inverness is the drier choice in early spring: March and April bring 40-42mm against Bath's 49-54mm, though highs stay at 9-12°C. Its summer peaks at 19°C in July and August, and autumn turns wetter, 67-72mm from September to October.
Getting there
| Flying from | Bath | Inverness |
|---|---|---|
| TenerifeTFS, TFN | 4 h 0 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 4 h 40 m no fares ABZ · 126 km |
| MalagaAGP | 2 h 35 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 3 h 20 m no fares ABZ · 126 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 20 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 3 h 5 m no fares INV · 12 km |
| Las PalmasLPA | 4 h 0 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 4 h 40 m no fares INV · 12 km |
| KerkyraCFU | 3 h 15 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 3 h 40 m no fares ABZ · 126 km |
| GenevaGVA | 1 h 40 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 2 h 15 m no fares ABZ · 126 km |
| AlicanteALC | 2 h 25 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 3 h 10 m no fares ABZ · 126 km |
| ReusREU | 2 h 5 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 2 h 45 m no fares ABZ · 126 km |
| FaroFAO | 2 h 35 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 3 h 20 m no fares ABZ · 126 km |
| DalamanDLM | 4 h 10 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 4 h 25 m no fares ABZ · 126 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it.
Before you go
| Measure | Bath | Inverness |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English | English |
| Currency | Pound Sterling (GBP) | Pound Sterling (GBP) |
| Sockets | G230 V, 50 Hz | G230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Left |
| Time zone | UTC, UTC+1 in summer | UTC, UTC+1 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 or 999 | 112 or 999 |
| Elevation | 132 m | 7 m |
| Main airport | Bristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre116 non-stop destinations | Inverness Airport (INV)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 8 days | 10 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Bath | Inverness |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 94,092 | 47,380 |
| People per km² | 3,245 | 2,289 |
| Museums within 10 km | 17 | 3 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 38 | 15 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bath or Inverness somewhere new.