The Bath Arms (Warminster)

This hotel is not to be confused with the other hotel/pub of the same name in Horningsham (around a 20-minute walk south of Longleat House). While the other Bath Arms offers the quintessential village pub experience, this one is much better value with a better location if you’re travelling by public transport.

Wetherspoon is known mostly for its pubs (there are almost 1000 of them across the United Kingdom) but they also run hotels with around 4–5% of Wetherspoon pubs having hotel accommodation attached.

While Wetherspoons pubs share many similarities such as a common menu, they wouldn’t be successful if they were identical and the company goes to great lengths to ensure that their pubs and hotels have an individual feel. They even go as far as having bespoke carpet designed for each hotel at an average cost of £40,000 per establishment. Because of these efforts, even though it is part of a large corporate chain, the Bath Arms feels very much like a small independent hotel.

The decor in Wetherspoons hotels is very pub-like with the same intricate carpet as their pubs, however, their Warminster hotel has a more contemporary decor and this is reflected in the pub as well, which lacks the charm of some smaller pubs elsewhere in town. One criticism of this pub is that it simply feels too clean and modern with more natural light than your average pub, which in turn gives it less character.

The Bath Arms is one of Warminster’s three surviving 18th-century coaching inns. It has 10 guest rooms, which all have comfortable beds, a work desk, a flatscreen television, tea and coffee making facilities and en suite bathrooms.

The pub is your typical ‘Spoons pub with a traditional pub atmosphere that is not quite as cosy as your average local but it is also a little cheaper than other pubs in Warminster. It opens earlier than most other pubs and a lot of people pop in for coffee (with free refills) or a traditional breakfast in the morning but it becomes more pub-like by lunchtime. Like other pubs run by Wetherspoons, it has some good value food specials but it is hardly in the same league as a more expensive gastropub.

The Bath Arms is located on Market Place in the town centre. Most points of interest in Warminster town centre are no more than a five-minute walk away. The location is perfect if you’re travelling by public transport as the railway station is only a five-minute walk from the hotel. However, most people visit Warminster as a base for excursions to Longleat, which unfortunately is not accessible by public transport. This means that you’ll need to take a taxi (or rent a car) to visit Longleat House and the safari park.