Bath or London?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and sights concentration 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 a small city you can cover on foot, with countryside close by and heritage held in a tight centre rather than spread across a capital.
Choose London if you want range: the restaurants, the drinking and clubbing, the museums and the attractions for children, plus slightly warmer summers, with July highs near 24°C.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Bath leads by 8 points.8
| Bath | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 8 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 1 | 47 |
| Coast distance | 29 km | 43 km |
| Water distance | 29 km | — |
Places to eat. London leads by 42 points.42
| Bath | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 88 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 245 | 3,317 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 26 | 40 |
Museums & heritage. London leads by 25 points.25
| Bath | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 47 | 72 |
| Museums within 10 km | 20 | 148 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 14 | 49 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 70 | 33 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 4 |
Nightlife. London leads by 59 points.59
| Bath | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 95 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 320 | 5,327 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 240 | 2,443 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 75 | 46 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 11 | 312 |
Nature & day trips. Bath leads by 4 points.4
| Bath | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 40 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 28 | 16 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 27 | 14 |
| Land share of disc % | 92 | 97 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 84 hectares |
Good for families. London leads by 35 points.35
| Bath | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 75 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 14 | 85 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 84 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 3 |
Sights concentration. London leads by 57 points.57
| Bath | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 89 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 25 | 649 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Bath and London are level on 54.
| Bath | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 54 |
| Price level global | 84.9 | 84.9 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. London leads by 8 points.8
| Bath | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 63 |
| Monthly daytime high | 6.8 °C to 21.4 °C | 8.2 °C to 23.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 49 mm to 87 mm | 38 mm to 67 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 1 |
Where they differ
Bath's advantage is what sits outside it: 28% of the surrounding land is protected against 16% around London, so the countryside starts sooner. Its museums sit tightly around the centre, which suits a short visit.
London has many times as many restaurants near the centre and a far wider range of kitchens, many times as many pubs and clubs, and many times as many notable places within walking distance. It also has 4 UNESCO-listed sites within day-trip reach against Bath's 2, and 3 theme parks against 1.
Where they are alike
The two are closest on days out of town. Both have open country within reach, 28% of the land around Bath protected and 16% around London, and both have park space in the city itself, though London's is roughly double Bath's.
Neither is a swimming destination: no month brings sea to 21°C or more. The weather profile is similar too, mild rather than hot, with roughly 1600 hours of sunshine a year at both.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone travelling for food and evenings out should take London: many times as many restaurants near the centre, and many times as many bars and clubs, though only about half of the nightlife sits centrally.
Families are better served in London too, with many times as many attractions near the centre, about twice as much park space and 3 theme parks within reach against Bath's 1.
Someone after a quiet walking weekend should pick Bath: a compact centre with its museums grouped close together, and countryside starting quickly, with 28% of the surrounding land protected.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure here is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so it tells you nothing about how the two compare. No daily budget figure exists for either city in this data, so no cost comparison is possible at all. Check prices yourself for the dates you have in mind.
London counts 47 beaches nearby against Bath's 1, but that says how far the coast is, not whether you would swim: neither city has a month with sea at 21°C or more. Treat the coast as a day out, not a beach holiday.
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). London: 1991-2020 normals, London Heathrow Airport (22.5 km from centre).
Bath is at its best from June to August, when highs sit at 19-21°C and the sea reaches 18°C. Rain is fairly even then, 56-66mm. The dark end of the year is also the wettest, 77-87mm from October to January, which is when the city is hardest work.
London stays warmer and drier in the shoulder months, with March and April at 12-15°C and 38-43mm. July peaks at 24°C. Its wettest months still stay below Bath's autumn.
Getting there
| Flying from | Bath | London |
|---|---|---|
| MalagaAGP | 2 h 35 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 2 h 35 m €119-292 1 stop LGW · 40 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 4 h 20 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 4 h 5 m €144-189 LGW · 40 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 20 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 2 h 10 m €79-116 LGW · 40 km |
| IbizaIBZ | 2 h 20 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 2 h 15 m no fares LGW · 40 km |
| TenerifeTFS, TFN | 4 h 0 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 4 h 5 m no fares LGW · 40 km |
| Las PalmasLPA | 4 h 0 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 4 h 5 m no fares LGW · 40 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 3 h 20 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 3 h 20 m €128-183 1 stop LGW · 40 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 10 m €518-651 1 stop LHR · 132 km | 7 h 10 m €518-651 1 stop LHR · 23 km |
| ShanghaiPVG, SHA | 11 h 30 m €665-831 1 stop LHR · 132 km | 11 h 30 m €665-831 1 stop LHR · 23 km |
| BridgetownBGI | 8 h 25 m no fares CWL · 68 km | 8 h 35 m no fares LHR · 23 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. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Bath | London |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 4 m |
| Main airport | Bristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre116 non-stop destinations | London Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre220 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 8 days | 8 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Bath | London |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 94,092 | 8,799,728 |
| People per km² | 3,245 | 5,598 |
| Museums within 10 km | 17 | 215 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 38 | 116 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bath or London somewhere new.