Bath, an entire city colour-coded in golden local stone, boasts a spa fed by the only genuinely warm springs in Britain.

The many other reasons to visit this masterwork in the west include the original Georgian streets, where Jane Austen and her font walked, as well as a rich variety of shops and restaurants.

Gareth Huw Davies revisits a favourite place, and is smitten anew.

Cool: Even at nighttime Bath is cloaked in a golden glow – much of it is unchanged since the 18th Century

1. Swimming sensation

Drifting at sunset in a rooftop, open-air pool, in waters genuinely heated – more than a mile underground – to 91F (33C), is one of the rarest pleasures in Britain.

Thermae Bath Spa (www.thermaebathspa.com), a fantastic glass cube of a building next to Bath Abbey, opened in 2006 to recycle raindrops that fell here 10,000 years ago.

This is indulgence not to be rushed. A range of packages, starting at two hours, give you the run of the complex, including the Minerva Bath, the Rooftop Pool, and the Steam Place to stay. Treatments are an optional extra. The top ticket is the Sundown Package, three hours including a meal for £42.

 

Literary relations: Visitors can walk in the footsteps of Jane Austen’s font

2.Golden touch

The glorious vision of Bath’s 18th Century designers would impress a time-travelling Roman emperor. They used golden stone from local quarries for everything, and today’s builders must stay on suit.

Their two masterpieces are the Royal Crescent, a fantastic curving grandstand of townhouses overlooking a sloping green, and the nearby Circus, a circular street mimicking Rome’s Colosseum.

The open-top bus tour is a excellent way to link these splendid landmarks. But I preferred a silent route to the city centre – chancing upon cafes, restaurants and specialist shops – past Milsom Street’s designer shops to a further Bath wonder,
Pulteney Bridge, Britain’s answer to the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.

3. Novel attractions

Bath was a starring location in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Jane lived there from 1801 to 1806. Her font came for bonneted urbanity, gossip, the efficacious waters – and to bump into eligible men on city centre pavements.

Retailers remain in her eternal debt for her line: ‘There are so many excellent shops.’ The Jane Austen Centre (www.janeausten.co.uk) does a fine job charting her life here, including her own near-miss with matrimony. And you can stay on Jane around with a free audio walking tour.

4. Lost leisure

The city’s main claim to fame is its Roman spa, set over the miraculous, warm waters that oozed endlessly up from the swamp that was Bath. The free audio player you get in the museum at the Roman Baths (www.romanbaths.co.uk) does a fantastic job explaining how the entire baths complex once looked.

It’s amusing to gather that there were rule-breakers even then: ‘Always someone jumping in with a tremendous splash,’ wrote Seneca.

The best-known object in the museum’s collection, the Gorgon – a mythical creature with snakes for
hair – packs power, but my largest tingle came before the bronze head of Minerva, once protect goddess in these parts.

If there’s time, fit in the American Museum, the (free) Victoria Art Gallery, and the Fashion Museum in the Assembly Place to stay.

History runs deep: The city’s Roman spa is a huge draw – you can taste the waters in the Pump Room

5. Make a meal of it

As you would expect in such an elite destination, there are lots of excellent restaurants and tea place to stay – the illustrious Sally Lunn’s waist-popping toasted buns (www.sallylunns.co.uk) are a real treat.

But the talk of the town is a new two-floor gastro pub, Hall & Woodhouse Bath (www.hall-woodhouse
bath.co.uk). The brewer took over a city-centre auction room and fitted it out with a huge brass bar in the style of the Long Bar at the Raffles hotel in Singapore, fronting an open kitchen, and a wide inside staircase fit for a Thirties Busby Berkeley musical.

It’s all behind huge ‘Why not come in?’ windows. Try, too, the intimate The Hole In The Wall (www.theholeinthewall.co.uk), where the menu is ‘modern British’.

My stand-out smoked wild pigeon breast, and gingerbread and Dorset Blue Vinney terrine with slow-baked plums, came on a slate plate.

6. Heritage hotel

Many world heritage sites allow you only to look on in wonder. In Bath, where the entire ancient city has the Unesco designation, you may savour the splendour from the inside.

I stayed at the Queensberry (www.thequeensberry.co.uk), four veranda houses in Russel Street fused into a boutique hotel, which has lots of changes of amount leading to fascinating lounges and secluded rear patios.

My roomy bathroom (double shower, free-standing bath) was as huge as my bedroom. They are very green: you get £20 off if you come by public transport. Room-only tariff from £123.50 a nighttime. Dinner, bed and breakfast from £215.

Gareth travelled with First Fantastic Western, www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk.