Christmas markets are very hit and miss. Sometimes they are lovely, but they can easily be disappointing; either because they are busy and expensive, or because they are too small and with little choice, for example.
But, when a Christmas market a stone’s thrown from Bristol was named the UK’s best, I had to pay it a visit. Bath Christmas Market was crowned as the “favourite medium-sized city” by Which? readers.
The city boasts one of the UK’s largest and most established Christmas markets, set against the stunning and festive backdrop of the historic city. Over 200 chalets adorn the Georgian streets of Bath, with the majority of stallholders hailing from the south-west of England.
According to Which? the market offers “a pretty staggering selection of goods from garden sculptures to handmade wooden furniture, Bristolian knitwear to indie fragrances, and gifts for your furry companions”. Parking at my friend’s house on the outskirts of the city, we got a taxi into the city centre at about 5pm as we expected the area to be busy.
Starting off by walking down Milsom Street and Union Street, I was straight away pleasantly surprised by the amount of people that were wandering around. It was not too crowded which meant it was pleasant to walk around and easy to look at the different stalls.
Having been to the Bath Christmas Market a couple of years ago, I found it to be too busy – particularly in the area around Bath Abbey and Abbey Green. My memory of feeling packed in like sardines was replaced by an experience of a lovely evening stroll.
From pyjamas to cheeses and from Christmas decorations to food and drink stalls, the market had a wide range of things on offer. I found the market to be unsurprisingly expensive and, for example, I paid £8 for a dinosaur Christmas decoration.
Apart from the obligatory mulled wine, we got food from three different stalls and we all agreed a beef burger (£10.50) we got from a stall on Kingston Parade was better than we expected. Thick and juicy, it was full of flavour and I am not surprised the stall had a long queue.
We finished off our evening by popping to a couple of bars, which were all busy with people also enjoying a nice out. While it was expensive, I was pleasantly surprised by what a lovely evening we had wondering around the Bath Christmas market and I would go back again.