A day in Bath

Britain's only UNESCO World Heritage city is 27 miles from Hunter's Moon, about fifty minutes by car or an easy train ride from Castle Cary. Wonderful shops, the famous bridge and the city's thermal springs, which supplied one of the finest religious spas of the ancient world, make it an unmissable day out.

The Roman Baths

Around Britain's only natural hot spring the Romans built a great temple and bathing complex, Aquae Sulis, and it is still there beneath the Georgian city: the Great Bath, steaming and green, the sacred spring, the temple pediment with its Gorgon's head, and thousands of objects thrown into the water as offerings, including the famous curse tablets. The audio guide is excellent and the Pump Room next door serves tea (and a glass of the spa water) beneath chandeliers. romanbaths.co.uk

Thermae Bath Spa

You cannot bathe in the Roman baths, but a few doors away Thermae Bath Spa lets you soak in the same mineral-rich waters in a rooftop pool with views across the city's spires and hills. Two-hour sessions can be booked in advance, and the New Royal Bath includes the Minerva pool and a wellness suite of steam rooms. Bring swimming costumes; a spa morning followed by lunch and the shops is a perfect Bath day.

Georgian Bath

• The Royal Crescent and the Circus: John Wood's masterpieces of the 1760s and 1770s; No. 1 Royal Crescent is a museum furnished as it was in 1780.
• Pulteney Bridge: one of only four bridges in the world lined with shops, with the weir below.
• Bath Abbey: fan vaulting, angels climbing the west front and a tower tour; see churches.
• The Assembly Rooms and Fashion Museum: where Jane Austen's characters danced.
• The Jane Austen Centre and the Holburne Museum: for Regency life and fine art.
• Prior Park: a National Trust landscape garden with a Palladian bridge and a view down over the whole city.

Shopping and eating

Bath's shopping is the best in the west: Milsom Street and the arcades for fashion, the Guildhall Market for food, the Corridor and the lanes around the Abbey for independents, and SouthGate for the big names. Sally Lunn's, in one of the oldest houses in Bath, has served its buns since 1680; the Pump Room does tea and the city has more good restaurants than you could visit in a month. The Christmas Market, from late November, fills the streets around the Abbey with wooden chalets and is worth planning a winter stay around.

Getting there

By car, take the A37 north to Shepton Mallet and on via Radstock, or the A361 and A367; allow fifty minutes and use the park-and-ride at Odd Down or Lansdown, as parking in the centre is scarce. By train, Castle Cary to Bath Spa takes about forty minutes with a change at Westbury; see transport links. Bristol, with its harbourside, Clifton Suspension Bridge and the SS Great Britain, is a similar distance in the other direction.