Heathrow to Bath
 

My son and I are vacationing in England in September We are arriving at Heathrow Airport around 9 on a Tuesday morning. We are heading directly to Bath by train as we aren't spending any time in London. Is it best to wait to buy train tickets when we get to England or do the cheaper tickets usually sell out? If I buy tickets now how many hours should I leave between arrival at Heathrow and departure of train to Bath?

Thanks for your advice.

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The train can be a pain - there are no trains from LHR to Bath so it involves either going east to Paddington London and then all the way back west to Bath - or a bus to Reading and then walking to the train station and catching a train to Bath.

It is much easier (and cheaper) to simply take the Express Coach (bus) from LHR to central Bath. No transfers or luggage schlepping.

To expand on Janis' reply, the website you want is www.nationalexpress.com. It is best to avoid the (much longer) journeys that go via Bristol and require a change to a local bus there.

I had originally decided against the bus thinking it would take too much time but I will take a look at the schedules again. Thanks for the suggestions as I don't relished dragging my luggage into Paddington station.

The train runs much more frequently than the bus. Heathrow to Paddington takes 15 minutes, while Paddington to Bath takes 1 hour 30 minutes. Allowing for transfer at Paddington with our bags, and waiting for the train to depart, an overall time of about 2 hours 15 minutes seems likely.

The direct coach takes 2hours 30 minutes, and is probably cheaper. The main advantage of the coach is that your bags are safely stored and you have to handle them less often. You have an allocated seat, and can snooze for the entire journey, useful after a transatlantic flight.

Whichever you choose, it is always best to buy the tickets in advance. However, the cheapest tickets on the train are always specific to a particular journey. Miss the booked train, and you will have to buy new ones at high walk-up prices. The solution to that is to allow plenty of time when booking trains, but that removes any time advantage.

Only you can decide. All I can say is that I live near Bath, prefer trains as a means of travel, but would take the coach

I checked out the bus schedule for September 10. I am scheduled to land at 9:10 am. The 11:05 bus would actually cost more than the train, which surprised me. The 12:15 bus is half the price of the 11:05 bus.and would take an hour less!

Make sure you're looking at a direct bus. Some services might need a change in Bristol, which takes longer and costs more.

The 12:15 bus would have the additional advantage of a time-cushion at LHR in case your flight is late.