Bath Excursions

Gentle hillsides (‘wolds'), cosy cottages and picture-perfect towns and villages with twisted streets built from the local honey-coloured limestone characterise the Costwolds. The area stretches out to the northeast of Bath and offers what for many is the quintessentially English rural landscape, with picturesque villages such as Bourton-on-the-Water, Moreton-in-Marsh and Stow-on-the-Wold. If you've got a car, the best way to take it all in is to drive the Romantic Road (tel: (01452) 425 673; www.the-cotswolds.org).

Stonehenge is undoubtedly the world's most famous stone monument from the Megalithic Age is only 57km (35 miles) from Bath. Nobody knows for certain what its purpose was: some have suggested that it was a temple made for the worship of ancient earth deities, others have speculated that it was a sacred site for the burial of the dead from the societies of long ago. In any case, it is one of Britain's great national icons and well worth a visit (www.english-heritage.org.uk/stonehenge).