Oh, as for pubs, check out Roman Bath on a Friday night. It's better than you think it'll be. A tad grotty inside, but good music, usually a band or two, and everyone is friendly. It's more full of locals than tourists.
There are dozens of "lovely" pubs with fancy beers and interesting architecture, but Roman Bath is genuinely friendly, even though it's pretty by-the-numbers drinks-wise. The food is shite.
But it does have a fucking museum downstairs, so swings and roundabouts.
If you want cocktails, Evil Eye is great, but it's VERY popular with tourists and you'll often have to queue. The House of Trembling Madness is good for your obscure beers. They serve Kwak, which is always good. It looks like a shop from outside, because it is. The pub is upstairs.
Pivni is a fantastic pub as well. If you can find it! It's down an alley behind a church. They sell all manner of beer you've never heard of.
The Habit is worth a visit, too. Irish pub I think. They always have live music provided by the same couple of blokes. One plays a fiddle and sings and that.
The Kings Arms is always popular, down the stone steps by the river, and it's a Samuel Smith pub so it's cheap. Probably flooded at the minute though, so just go to The Hansom Cab instead if you want Samuel Smith cheapness.
Judge's Lodgings is good if you want to sit outside. For example, to smoke like a chimney.
There are places like the Golden Fleece as well (the most haunted pub in the world blah blah), but I'm personally not a fan of those places. Dark, damp, always busy with tourists, seem atmospheric when you first enter but then you wonder why you went in at all after half a pint. Meh. Most of those-sort-of-pubs, the ones in the really, really old buildings that look great from outside - they tend to be run by people who don't give a shit/have a clue. They offer your standard beers on tap that you get in every pub in the country and little else. They survive by luring tourists into their interesting looking buildings.
Avoid shite like the Slug and Lettuce. There are over 365* pubs within the walls. Don't waste your time!
*Apparently it's less than that since the recession hit, but it sounds good.
There are LOADS of great pubs, but the ones above are where I go on a regular basis after trying most of them over the past 18 months. Still discovering new ones to date, though.
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