Hello!
A couple weeks ago my boyfriend, Connor, and I went away to Bath and travelled from there to Bristol to spend the day. We definitely wanted to have a staycation this year – I didn’t want to have to risk having to quarantine when we came back or worrying about flights being cancelled and all sorts that have been happening with people travelling abroad this year. As much as I’ve been tempted to jet off to a Greek Island, I think those plans will be postponed to Summer 2021.
We were set on going back to Bath because we’d be a bit more relaxed in this city as we’d travelled there before and we didn’t want to have a full on ‘touristy’ break. Here are some of the links of my blog posts from the last time we travelled to Bath;
This trip is a little different than all my other trips with Connor due to the social distancing rules – I will include how the places we visited and how we travelled was affected.
Day 1
We travelled from London to Bath by National Express Coach – anyone who has travelled from London will know how long the walk is from Victoria station to the Coach station is and how hard it is to fast walk there with your suitcase! In the coach station and on the coach it was required to wear a mask and on the coach we couldn’t sit next to each other, the aisle seat had signs on it stating that no one should sit there. I don’t know if there were exceptions to not being able to sit next to the person you’re travelling with, we didn’t ask and I just sat in the seat behind Connor and he was perfectly fine with not having me bother him and disturb his ‘True Detective’ binge!
Once we checked at the Apex Hotel with the new rules of social distancing we had to book time slots for breakfast, the gym and the pool. We then headed straight out for lunch at The Locksbrook Inn which was so delicious. For starters we ordered the Salt & Pepper Squid with Lemon Aioli and then we both ordered the Beef Burger with Chorizo Relish. After we ate we took our drinks to their outside seating and relaxed in the sun.
With going to restaurants everything had to be booked in advance, which was so hectic for us because it was so hard trying to find last minute bookings especially because it was during the Eat Out to Help Out scheme. Obviously I loved getting some discount but it did make the restaurants really busy! We had booked for The Real Italian Pizza Company for 8:30pm and when we arrived there was a long queue outside, we thought that they were walk-ins but they had all pre-booked – we didn’t get seated until past 9pm. We didn’t actually mind the wait, it wasn’t raining and I wasn’t getting all hangry and the food was worth the wait!
Day 2
We had planned to spend our second day in Bristol, it’s a city close by that we both hadn’t been to before and we’d already done a lot of the tourist things in Bath and we didn’t want to repeat what we did the last time. We travelled to Bristol Temple Meads by train which only took about 20 minutes and we walked to go to board The Matthew for our boat cruise.
I had surprise booked this 45 minute boat tour for Connor and I, it took us through the city and back, it was a such a relaxing time and great way to see the city in a fun and different way. Our little trip was filled with adoring the views and reciting ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ quotes! The Matthew is an exact replica of the ship that sailed from Bristol to North America in 1497, the volunteers who run the cruise were lovely and there to answer any questions about the history of the ship. After the cruise we then walked up to the Clifton Suspension Bridge and went over the bridge – we’d taken a little longer than we expected to walk up there so we had to rush to be on time for our booking for lunch at The Lost & Found. It’s such a pretty restaurant with astronomy and Victorian themed decor; I ordered steak and chips and Connor had battered fish and chips – I had a little bit of his fish which was so yummy! I got the steak with a little bit of hesitation because I’m so picky with how I like it, I hate it well-done – medium rare is the one for me! And the Lost & Found did it perfectly – Connor was jealous that he didn’t order it as well!
After lunch we walked back up to the Clifton Suspension Bridge and went to get a better view of the bridge at the Clifton Observatory. I set up the tripod so we could get photos together without having to be social and ask people to take photos of us! After all our walking we decided to get a taxi back down to the city centre to see some of the stores and the vinyl stores.
We couldn’t spend much time walking around the shops because we had to get back to our hotel for our booked time slots for the gym and pool. Overall our day in Bristol was really lovely, I was absolutely exhausted from all the uphill walking that we did – that was all the exercise I needed so I spent the rest of my evening by the pool! I would love to go back to Bristol in the winter around Christmas time, I’ve heard that the Christmas markets there are so cute and gets you all in the Christmas mood.
Day 3
This day was dedicated to our spa treatment, I had been looking forward to this from when we had first planned to go back to Bath. Honestly it was a little hard to find a spa place that was open at the time we went. I was so happy to find the Garden Spa by L’OCCITANE at The Bath Priory and I booked for the Mini Garden Spa Retreat. With this retreat we had full access to the spa facilities that were open at the time (which was just the indoor pool, the steam pod and sauna were closed), we then had to choose which 30 minute treatment we wanted and we chose to have a back massage and we had a 2 course meal in the hotel restaurant, The Pantry.
After being so relaxed we went for a little shopping trip in the Bath and stopped off at Sweet Little Things for a coffee and cake break. I found this adorable Instagrammable cafe when I was looking at places to go in Bath on Instagram and not only can you get a cute photo there but you can order such nice cakes and a cocktail if you feel like it! We then went to some of the stores down the high street, popped into Boux Avenue, Tommy Hilfiger and JD Sports to have a look at their newest collection and their sales. On the way back to the hotel we went to get some ice cream at Swoon, I got one scoop of the Chocolate Brownie and another of the Raspberry Sorbet – YUM!
For our final night in Bath we had booked to go to the Greek restaurant, Opa. We love Greek food and this restaurant did not disappoint, I might do another post going into more detail about the food but overall it was amazing and I wish I could have it more often. It was a great evening to end our little getaway, we then set off back to London the next morning. The whole way back I sat watching ‘Law and Order’ and edited all the photos we took – I have so many to share, be ready to see them on here and all over my Instagram!
Have you travelled anywhere this year so far or planning to go somewhere soon?
Thank you so much for reading!
Antonia
xoxo
Antonia Conduah 