Falling into the festive season with your guide to Bath (1)

Starting the end of October

The 24th to 26th of October brings Oktoberfest to Royal Victoria Park. Bavarian beer culture meets Georgian architecture; it's an odd pairing that somehow works. The city has always been good at that. Weekends are for Walcot's antique market. Get there early on Saturday mornings before it fills up. The finds range from genuinely valuable to wonderfully eccentric, which is half the appeal. It's the opposite of scrolling through online marketplaces; you have to look and find your trinkets and trove.

Daylight saving an extra hour of Bath's two favourite things...

Local's love a good food place and the Bath Rugby. November opens with England A taking on the All Blacks XV at The Rec on the 8th. It's a significant fixture for Bath Rugby's home ground, and the city will be properly busy. Book dinner early if you're planning to be in town that weekend. The independent retail news is Shires Yard, finally opening after its transformation from Milsom Place. Root, Bosco, and Coret bring the food credentials, while Anemone, who've been there through all the changes, continues doing what they do best.

Our local Bathonian @BathMums has a finger on the pulse of the city and has rumoured more restaurants and fashion retailers joining soon. Their intel is usually solid. For the interior shoppers, Heal's is opening imminently. We're told "any day now," which in retail speak could mean anything. Who says you can't go on a staycation and buy a sofa whilst away? For those of us who've been waiting for decent mid-century modern options in Bath, this matters. Piglet in Bed has launched their autumn collection: elevated basics in those muted tones that photograph well but work in real life.

Staying over Bonfire festivities? Fireworks will light up The Rec later in the month. The display against the Georgian backdrop never gets old, and the whole of Bath turns out for it.

I can hear the bells, the markets pending...

The Christmas markets arrive on the 27th of November and run through to December 14th. This is when Bath truly earns its reputation as a city of lights. Golden twinkly lights are strung between buildings, honey-hued lamplights cast their glow on Georgian stone, and festive music drifts through the streets. Wooden chalets appear, mulled wine flows, and suddenly, the usual setup feels anything but usual. It's become the kind of tradition people plan trips around, which tells you something about how Bath does seasonal events.

We love hosting everyone we can across our 98 bedrooms, even more so following our recent refurbishment and the opening of the Emberwood restaurant. There's something about returning from the markets to Egyptian cotton sheets and a double bed that feels properly restorative. A cosy escape for couples exploring the city, or a generous hideaway for the solo traveller who wants a base that feels considered. In the morning, the coffee machine has your first cup covered before you head back out into the festive streets.

By now, the city has fully embraced the season. Those golden lights that appeared in late November are still twinkling, the lamplights create pools of amber warmth against the stone, and there's a particular magic to evening walks through Bath when frost threatens and the air smells of woodsmoke and cinnamon.

Back at The Francis, our rooms offer the perfect retreat from the festive buzz. Settle into Egyptian cotton sheets after a day of shopping and market wandering. Whether you're here as a couple on the move or a solo traveller claiming some space for yourself, the morning coffee machine ensures you're ready to do it all again.

As daylight saving time kicks in and the evenings get darker earlier, the city adapts beautifully. Lights against stone, interiors that feel considered, places that give you a reason to be out even when it's cold. We're watching it all from Queen Square, where we've had a decent vantage point for observing Bath's evolution for quite some time now.

The season ahead looks promising. New and familiar, traditional and contemporary, all coexisting in about two square miles of a World Heritage Site.

Dates to bookmark

24th–26th October: Oktoberfest, Royal Victoria Park | 8th November: England A vs All Blacks XV, The Recreation Ground | November: Fireworks on The Rec | 27th November–14th December: Christmas Markets