Bath or Manchester?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nature & day trips and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and places to eat 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 compact heritage trip, with attractions clustered close to the centre and a bigger share of protected countryside for walks and day trips.
Choose Manchester if the evening is the point: about three times as many places to eat and drink near the centre, far more nightclubs, and twice as many notable places within walking distance.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Manchester leads by 20 points.20
| Bath | Manchester | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 8 | 28 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 1 | 10 |
| Coast distance | 29 km | 27 km |
| Water distance | 29 km | 27 km |
Places to eat. Manchester leads by 22 points.22
| Bath | Manchester | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 68 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 245 | 853 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 26 | 35 |
Museums & heritage. Bath leads by 5 points.5
| Bath | Manchester | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 47 | 42 |
| Museums within 10 km | 20 | 23 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 14 | 11 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 70 | 48 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 2 |
Nightlife. Manchester leads by 26 points.26
| Bath | Manchester | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 62 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 320 | 1,029 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 240 | 792 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 75 | 77 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 11 | 82 |
Nature & day trips. Bath leads by 8 points.8
| Bath | Manchester | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 36 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 28 | 17 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 27 | 17 |
| Land share of disc % | 92 | 99 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 63 hectares |
Good for families. Bath leads by 8 points.8
| Bath | Manchester | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 32 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 14 | 5 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 63 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Manchester leads by 16 points.16
| Bath | Manchester | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 48 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 25 | 61 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Bath and Manchester are level on 54.
| Bath | Manchester | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 54 |
| Price level global | 84.9 | 84.9 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Bath leads by 1 points.1
| Bath | Manchester | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 54 |
| Monthly daytime high | 6.8 °C to 21.4 °C | 7.2 °C to 20.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 49 mm to 87 mm | 51 mm to 95 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Bath's advantage is what surrounds it: 28% of the land around it is protected against 17% around Manchester, and it has about three times as many tourist attractions near the centre.
Manchester is the stronger city for eating and going out, with about three times as many restaurants and drinking places near the centre, a wider range of kitchens and far more nightclubs. It also has twice as many notable places within walking distance, and ten beaches within reach against Bath's one.
Where they are alike
Weather is where they are almost interchangeable: both run daytime highs of about 7-21°C across the year, and neither has a month with 40mm of rain or less.
Heritage and the outdoors are close as well. Manchester has somewhat more museums, Bath's sit more tightly around the centre, and both have 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach. Both have park space near the centre, and each has theme parks within reach for a family day.
Which traveller are you?
A food-led weekend or a night out points to Manchester: about three times as many restaurants and drinking places near the centre, a wider range of kitchens and far more nightclubs, most of them close enough to walk between.
Families are better served by Bath, on attractions rather than acreage. It has about three times as many tourist attractions near the centre, though Manchester counters with more park space and 2 theme parks within reach against Bath's 1.
Walkers and day-trippers should take Bath again. 28% of the land around it is protected against 17% around Manchester, which puts more countryside within day-trip range, and its museums sit tightly around the centre.
What the numbers don't tell you
Take the value figures out of the comparison. Both cities sit at the same national price level, so that axis is identical by construction and says nothing about which trip costs less. No daily budget exists for either city here, so no cost comparison between the two is possible.
Manchester's lead on beaches and swimming is a lead on count, not on bathing: the sea is 27km from the centre and its warmest month reaches 17°C, so those beaches are for walking. The same caution applies to summer: neither city has a month at 40mm of rain or less, so the warmest weeks still carry wet days.
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). Manchester: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (14.8 km from centre).
Bath is the better bet in late summer, when the difference between the two is rain rather than heat. July reaches 21°C, and September still holds 18°C with 54mm of rain against Manchester's 71mm, so the quieter shoulder weeks stay drier.
Manchester matches that summer peak but pays for it afterwards, with 73mm in August. Its real advantage is midwinter, when January brings 67mm against Bath's 77mm at the same daytime high, so a cold-season city break there is the less wet of the two.
Getting there
| Flying from | Bath | Manchester |
|---|---|---|
| Puerto del RosarioFUE | 3 h 50 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 4 h 5 m no fares MAN · 15 km |
| TenerifeTFS, TFN | 4 h 0 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 4 h 15 m no fares MAN · 15 km |
| MalagaAGP | 2 h 35 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 2 h 50 m no fares MAN · 15 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 20 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 2 h 30 m no fares MAN · 15 km |
| Las PalmasLPA | 4 h 0 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 4 h 15 m no fares MAN · 15 km |
| ArrecifeACE | 3 h 45 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 4 h 0 m no fares MAN · 15 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 3 h 20 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 3 h 35 m no fares MAN · 15 km |
| BridgetownBGI | 8 h 25 m no fares CWL · 68 km | 8 h 35 m no fares MAN · 15 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 7 h 10 m no fares CWL · 68 km | 7 h 10 m no fares MAN · 15 km |
| New DelhiDEL | 8 h 40 m no fares BHX · 126 km | 8 h 40 m no fares MAN · 15 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 | Manchester |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 38 m |
| Main airport | Bristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre116 non-stop destinations | Manchester Airport (MAN)15 km from centre210 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 8 days | 8 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Bath | Manchester |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 94,092 | 547,627 |
| People per km² | 3,245 | 4,737 |
| Museums within 10 km | 17 | 28 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 38 | 63 |
| 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 Manchester somewhere new.