The first thing to know about booking Bath Spa is that it’s actually called Thermae Spa (or Thermae Bath Spa) - looking up Bath spa will likely bring you to the Roman baths. The Roman Baths are only a few minutes walk away but unless you want to look around a museum, you’ll want Thermae Spa.
The spa is over 6 floors (but it feels like 5):
- Lower ground - Minerva pool and treatment rooms
- Ground floor - reception
- Upper ground floor (but feels just like a slightly higher level in the ground floor) - changing rooms (a maze of cubicles and sci-fi lockers!)
- First floor - cafe and toilets and treatment rooms
- Second floor - this is where the sauna etc. are - or rather the “Wellness Suite”, along with more treatment rooms, a terrace and more toilets
- Third floor - the Rooftop Pool - an open air hot spa pool
Bath is unique for being the only place in the UK where hot water springs from the earth. It leaves the ground at 45 degrees Celsius, and they cool it slightly at the spa so it’s not too hot for bathers. It also contains over 42 minerals. It’s really quite surreal when you’re in a hot pool - especially at the top of a tall building - to think that the water you’re sitting in is NATURALLY hot!
We had a 2 hour package at the spa which included use of a towel and robe. I feel in a real luxury spa you’d have been able to change your towel during your visit as it got quite wet, getting in and out of the 2 swimming pools. I had read something (too) briefly about slippers so had thought they would be included (I didn’t book this, my Mother-in-Law very kindly treated us for her birthday) but ends up they weren’t - you could buy them for around £2.50, but really just remember to take flip flops. Also, take sunglasses - which I did, but I left them in my bag thinking they’d be in the way. In reality, the roof top pool would have been better with sunglasses (it was really lovely, but we were all squinting) and with hindsight I could have happily had them on my head for all the other parts of the visit. I could have nipped back to my locker at any time, but just didn’t bother.
The best part of the spa is, for most I think, the open air pool on the roof. You’re above most other roof tops around you so you can survey Bath and its distinctive stone architecture. One time when I went, it was snowing and seeing the snowy houses and beyond that snow covered fields was particularly special.
The Wellness Suite on the 2nd floor has - I really think - changed since my last visit. They used to be strongly scented “zones” of menthol and lavender and other things I can’t remember now. On my last visit in May 2024 however, they’d changed to more “traditional” glassed off sections so that there is a sauna, steam room, ice room, scented shower area etc. The official list is:
- Roman Steam Room
- Georgian Steam Room
- Infrared Room
- Ice Chamber
- Celestial Relaxation Room
- Experience Showers
To be honest, I feel the rooms now are less dramatic than the previous zones - while the menthol and lavender previously was almost a bit overwhelming, it felt like more of a spectacle, more of something to experience, than just a few rooms which you sit in but which aren’t particularly strongly scented or heated. I mean - they’re hot - and steamy or whatever the particular room should be (more so in the centre of the room when you first walk in than on the sides where the seats are) but I feel they’re perhaps dumbed down a little more for middle-of-the-road tourists rather than people wanting to really get the benefits of a spa. I also always wonder in these sorts of situations what I should be doing in what order - just going from glass box to glass box feels like I’m not doing it right. If anyone knows the “right way” to do a spa please do let me know over on my Instagram.
My favourite room in this section was the Celestial Relaxation room which consists of a row of stone / solid loungers (so not the most comfortable if they don’t happen to suit your body shape) in a dark room, with twinkly lights overhead and atmospheric music playing. A big screen shows abstract video footage of space and other random moving images. It is very peaceful and I actually really found the footage of space fascinating and easy to get lost in. My M-I-L liked it too until she had people come in chatting loudly.
That’s probably the one thing that most stops the spa being a truly decadent experience - it does feel more like a tourist attraction with groups of people chatting amongst themselves (as we were) rather than a serious spa where people go for silent relaxation. I’m hopefully going to Longleat Spa in a couple of months so I’ll do a comparison of the 2!
I don’t remember there being a large swimming pool at the bottom of the spa on my previous visits, but at the same time, it would be a bit of a massive thing to add in - so maybe I just don’t remember it. (But I remember the zones previously being curved rooms and there were curves on the ceiling of the pool as if they used to be room dividers? Am I just making stuff up? Does anyone know?) However, the Minerva Pool on the lower ground floor was a lovely chilled place to be, with a gentle lazy river that took you around a little route that was fun.
The changing room set up at Thermae Bath Spa is a large network of individual changing rooms that feels kinda like a maze. The reason for that is that you can go in one side of the changing rooms and out of the other - which I know works well at swimming pools which have a dry side and wet side - and it doesn’t not work well here, it just really does make for a maze type feeling when you’re not really sure where the rest of your party are and where you’re going to come out!
The lockers are digital, so it’s great you don’t need to remember a £1 coin. They are a little funky though - you have to hold your wristband to a little screen and programme in the number of the locker you’re going to use. They’re fine, and it’s great to have a neat little wristband rather than a chunky key, but you need to read the instructions. (My husband and brother-in-law didn’t read the instructions at first and it’s not something you’re going to guess in a hurry - so just read the instructions.)
Something that is a bit dramatic is that on your arrival they get your phone and put it in a little pouch with a security tag on it - a bit like the ones in a shop that they have to take off of clothing at the till so you don’t steal it. They then give you back your phone, but the point is it’s in a locked pouch so you can’t use it during your visit. Whilst I 100% get that people in the Spa don’t want people taking photos of them, and you’re there to relax, as a Mum who was away from her kids, I feel being able to check my phone had I wanted to venture back to the changing rooms should have been at my discretion.
I was disappointed at the end of our 2 hours in the Spa (which was a fine amount of time there) that there weren’t any showers in the changing rooms. There were “Experience” showers in the Wellness Suite and there was somewhere to shower by the Minerva Pool, but there weren’t showers in the changing area (that we could find). So that meant we headed off for our very nice Afternoon Tea without washing our hair or showering. Obviously this also means there was no shampoo or conditioner available. There were a few hair dryers - some with seats and some to stand to. People were wandering around looking for plug sockets for hair straighteners but I don’t think they found any. It certainly would have been nicer to end our visit with a proper shower and somewhere to get ready for an afternoon exploring more of Bath.
Overall, Bath Spa isn't maybe the best "spa" experience with regards to steam rooms and saunas, but there is something VERY special about knowing you're in naturally warm water full of minerals - and no where else in the UK can boast that as much as Bath.
The thoughts and views expressed in this blog post are the author’s own and not that of Activibees.com or it's operators.
