Bath or York?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 1 point apart
Wins on nature & day trips and beaches & swimming with your weighting.
Wins on places to eat and nightlife 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 your days are built around getting out of the city: more of the surrounding land is protected, 28% against 17%, and its summer months, June to September, are the stronger of the two.
Choose York if you want the trip to happen on foot in the centre: more restaurants and a wider spread of kitchens, more places to drink, and more to see within walking distance.
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 | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 8 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 1 | 2 |
| Coast distance | 29 km | 50 km |
| Water distance | 29 km | — |
Places to eat. York leads by 8 points.8
| Bath | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 54 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 245 | 361 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 26 | 31 |
Museums & heritage. Bath leads by 1 points.1
| Bath | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 47 | 46 |
| Museums within 10 km | 20 | 18 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 14 | 16 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 70 | 89 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 2 |
Nightlife. York leads by 7 points.7
| Bath | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 43 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 320 | 450 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 240 | 353 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 75 | 78 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 11 | 14 |
Nature & day trips. Bath leads by 11 points.11
| Bath | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 33 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 28 | 17 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 27 | 16 |
| Land share of disc % | 92 | 95 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 42 hectares |
Good for families. York leads by 3 points.3
| Bath | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 43 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 14 | 13 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 42 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 3 |
Sights concentration. York leads by 7 points.7
| Bath | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 39 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 25 | 37 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Bath and York are level on 54.
| Bath | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 54 |
| Price level global | 84.9 | 84.9 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. York leads by 1 points.1
| Bath | York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 56 |
| Monthly daytime high | 6.8 °C to 21.4 °C | 6.7 °C to 20.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 49 mm to 87 mm | 39 mm to 66 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 1 |
Where they differ
Bath is the better base for time spent outside the city: 28% of the land around it is protected against 17% around York, which widens the choice of walking and day trips within reach.
York has more restaurants near the centre and a wider range of kitchens, more places to drink and more nightclubs, most of them central. It also packs more notable places into walking distance, so a short stay covers more on foot.
Where they are alike
Both cities carry roughly the same weight of museums, and each has 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, so neither is short of indoor heritage.
The weather is near identical: daytime highs of about 7-21°C across the year in both, with July the warmest month in each. Families find similar ground: comparable numbers of attractions near the centre and much the same park space, though York has 3 theme parks within reach against Bath's 1.
Which traveller are you?
Walkers and day-trippers should take Bath: 28% of the land around it is protected against 17% around York, and its summer months, June to September, are the stronger half of the year for getting out.
Anyone who plans a trip around eating and evenings out should take York: more restaurants near the centre, a wider range of kitchens, and more places to drink and nightclubs, most of them close enough to walk between.
Families are better served in York, which has 3 theme parks within reach against Bath's 1, while attractions and park space near the centre are much the same in both, as is the museum offering.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information: both sit at the same national price level, which is not evidence that a trip to one costs what a trip to the other costs. No daily budget figure exists for either city in this data, so no cost comparison is possible; price your own dates.
Beach counts mislead as well. York has 2 beaches within reach against Bath's 1, but neither city gets a month with sea at 21°C or more, and Bath's water tops out at 18°C. The counts say a beach exists nearby, not that it is worth planning around.
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). York: 1991-2020 normals, Leeming (47.9 km from centre).
Bath's window is June to September, when highs run 19-21°C and rainfall sits around 54-66mm; it is the stronger of the two through high summer. Autumn is its weak spot, with 83-87mm in the wettest months.
York is the better spring pick: March to May brings 39-48mm of rain, including its single month at 39mm or less, with highs of 10-16°C. Its winters are drier too, roughly 53-62mm against Bath's 77-87mm, which counts when the trip is spent walking the centre.
Getting there
| Flying from | Bath | York |
|---|---|---|
| MalagaAGP | 2 h 35 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 2 h 55 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| Puerto del RosarioFUE | 3 h 50 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 4 h 10 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| TenerifeTFS, TFN | 4 h 0 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 4 h 20 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 20 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 2 h 35 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| ArrecifeACE | 3 h 45 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 4 h 5 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| IbizaIBZ | 2 h 20 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 2 h 40 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| BridgetownBGI | 8 h 25 m no fares CWL · 68 km | 8 h 35 m no fares MAN · 104 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 7 h 10 m no fares CWL · 68 km | 7 h 10 m no fares MAN · 104 km |
| AgadirAGA | 3 h 30 m no fares BRS · 25 km | 3 h 50 m no fares LBA · 39 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 10 h 15 m no fares LHR · 132 km | 10 h 10 m no fares MAN · 104 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 | York |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 25 m |
| Main airport | Bristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre116 non-stop destinations | Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre73 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 8 days | 8 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Bath | York |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 94,092 | 208,400 |
| People per km² | 3,245 | 766 |
| Museums within 10 km | 17 | 24 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 38 | 54 |
| 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 York somewhere new.