Help with Day Trip to Bath
 

My husband and I will be in London the middle of November and would like to take a day trip to Bath via train. It will already be cold, so I don't want to go on a day when it will be raining. Therefore, I don't think advanced train tickets (purchasing a week or two in advance) are an option. Can I go to the train station (do I have to go to Paddington?) and purchase the tickets from the "ATM" machines a day or two before we want to go?

I looked online and, if I'm reading things correctly, I can get a Super Advance Return fare by purchasing no later than 18:00 the day before. We can leave on an 8:45 AM train and the cost is 28 GBP. It doesn't look like a later departure (after 9:30 AM) is any cheaper. Does anyone know the difference between the Super Advance Return and the Supersaver Return?

I'm still working on our itinerary, but it looks like we could go on a Friday or Saturday. Is one day preferable over the other? Not sure if we'll be fighting crowds in November.

Finally, does anyone have a walking tour of Bath they'd like to contribute? We'll hopefully get there in time for the free walking tour, but just in case we don't, I'd like to have a backup plan.

Sorry if I rambled on. Thank you for your assistance!

As you pointed out, super advance are limited availability advance purchase tickets where you must choose the specific outbound and inbound trains.

Super savers are same day tickets for off peak days and times, generally not available for Fridays and for busy times on other weekdays.

If you want a cheap train ticket, Saturday would be a better day to travel. In November, I doubt that Bath will ever be uncomfortably busy.

You can buy the tickets at any London terminal, but I think you would have to use a live ticket seller to get any of these discount tickets.

With one day in Bath, I enjoyed the Guide Friday tour (all over the city and everyday as far as I know) and you can hop on/off. You can get an overview and visit specific sites (baths, cathedral) as you wish. When I took it, we got the overview and then hopped off at the costume museum. There's still plenty of time to see other places. You can catch the earliest train and take the latest back. Should be able to cover everything and eat, too. I had a car so can't help re train.

We were in Bath on a Saturday in September. It was very busy. There was plenty of hop on hop off buses for tourists. We understand from our bed and breakfast hosts that people come from all over to shop in Bath and that is where a lot of the traffic came from. Christmas is very big in Bath so I would go on a weekday if you have an alternative day to go. It is a fun city!

Not sure about the terminology but we purchased a "cheap day return" ticket. I know that we could not travel before 930AM and NOT on a Friday. Seems to me it was the cheapest on offer at the time.

Check out this website on Bath: http://www.bath.co.uk/. If you look at the "What to See and Do" link on the left, a couple of walking tour options are shown at the top. Great website by the way for other Bath info.

Last year I think we bought normal round trip tickets to Bath on the fly at Paddington for 33ish pounds, for whatever that's worth. We took a hop on, hop off bus tour, which was ok, but we also hired a cab for a tour of the town (at least that not centrally located). I'm not so sure the cab ride was as good and less expensive than the bus. The cabbies are, of course, very knowledgeable, and the city isn't huge. The cab can go places where a bus cannot and you aren't seated with a bunch of strangers. Just a thought.

Thank you all for your help and suggestions! bettyk - found the walking tours online. Great suggestion!