Travel from Heathrow airport to Bath
 

If traveling by train from Heathrow Airport to Bath or Oxford, is it necessary to travel through London? Are there other trains beside the Heathrow Express?

Thanks!

You could take the railair bus to Reading then train to Bath.

You could also take the Heathrow Connect to Paddington

In both cases however - and also for the Heathrow Express you cannot collect the tickets to Bath at Heathrow. You have to collect them at Paddington or Reading and so have to pay separately for the trip from LHR to Reading or Paddington.

Same applies to Oxford

HOWEVER I wouldn't use trains to get to either of them. I'd take the National Express coach from Heathrow to Bath or the Oxford Bus - em - bus from Heahtrow to Oxford

Pardon me for intruding, but alanRow, would you also recommend taking the bus from Bath to Heathrow? Thanks.

Bath or Oxford to/from LHR is by far easier on the bus. Get on, ride, get off at your destination.

Using trains means transfers, luggage schlepping etc . . . .

janisj: as always, thanks.

For buses from Heathrow to Bath, go to www.nationalexpress.com. Don't forget that in Britain, long distance buses are called "coaches".

Just to add that there is zero reason to take the train to get to Oxford from LHR - unless you are a masochist with a luggage fetish

Don't forget that in Britain, long distance buses are called "coaches".

actually not as simple as that... I'd refer to the Railair bus to Heathrow, and my Mum used to get the bus from Newbury to Glasgow (400 miles)

You catch coaches at Heathrow Central BUS Station

But the National Express website uses the term "coach", which some might not otherwise understand.

Thanks for the information! We will arrive at Heathrow at 10:45 a..m. and thought we might go on to Bath or Oxford since we would not be able to get into a London hotel until afternooon.

We were trying to find out if we had to travel thru London to go to either place. We will have an 8-day (plus a free day) Britrail pass and plan to travel to Bath, Oxford, Startford-on-Avon, and on north to Edinburg. Then we will travel south down to York, Cambridge, etc. on our way back to London. It will be a quick trip. We want to show our grandson some of the places we have enjoyed in the UK.

"<i>We will arrive at Heathrow at 10:45 a..m. and thought we might go on to Bath or Oxford since we would not be able to get into a London hotel until afternooon. </i>"

OK -please clarify -- do you mean going to Bath or Oxford just for the afternoon and then returning to London that day? OR - do you mean going to Bath or Oxford and staying the night?

If you mean Bath/Oxford just as a time filler before you can get into your London hotel -- that really doesn't make sense.

W/ a 10:45 arrival, if you go directly to your hotel, you won'tget there until probably 1 or even 2 PM. More than likely your room will be ready - and if not, they will hold your bags until it is ready.

If you took the bus to Bath, spent a few hours and then the train to London, you won't get to your hotel until quite late - probably after 9 PM and you will be TOTALLY exhausted/fried.

Now - if you meant staying overnight in Bath or Oxford -- that's a different kettle of fish. But you still wouldn't get to a hotel until probably 2PM or later.

Do the buses serve all terminals or do you have to go to the collective bus depot that serves terminals 1, 2 and 3 - say from terminal 4 - if so and i had to a few years ago from terminal 4 then this is not the easiest of transfers either.

But perhaps these Bath and Oggsford buses serve each terminal or do they just depart from one bus depot in the airport?

thanks for any clarifications

Oxford buses - and I THINK Bath - start at the T1/3 joint station,then go to T5, then to the destination. From T4, there's a free public bus every 5 mins or so, taking 5-10 mins, to T5.

Oxford buses are every half hour, and don't need booking. Dealing with bags, if the OP really is intending to visit and go on somewhere else that night, is a serious pain

yes - luggage will be a huge problem IF you do mean just traveling to Bath or Oxford for a day trip. There really isn't a place to store your bags in either city.

I am sorry I wasn't very clear about our plans. If we go on to Bath or Oxford we will spend the night there. We will start our sightseeing there and then travel north using our Britrail pass. We would end up back in London for sightseeing at the end of our trip.

Oh -then if that's what you want to do, it's perfectly doable. But just don't assume you'd get to Bath quicker than you would to a hotel in central London. You could be settled in in London by about 1 or 2 PM.

The coach to Bath takes 2.5 to 3.5 hours depending on which one you're able to catch. The 12:05 arrives at 3:35.If you don't catch that one, you'd have to wait until the 1:15 which arrives at 4PM.

To bring this to a close, BTW:

IF rail travel is, in effect, free, then it's faster to get a train from ANY LHR terminal to central Bath or Oxford than to get a bus.

Under almost any other circs, getting the HEX from T5 or T1/3 (or the Heathrow Connect from T4 to T1/3 then changing) to Paddington, then walking the 20 yds to the half-hourly trains to Oxford or almost as frequent trains to Bath) is absurdly expensive for their slightly faster journey and slightly easier luggage handling.

But if a train pass means you're not spending any extra, it'll almost always - especially at rush hours - be a bit faster.

Do not forget to validate your railpass before boarding the Heathrow Express- this requires going to the train station ticket window at Heathrow and showing passports - could be a lengthty line like i have seen on occasion - this would be the last time you'd ever have to stand in line as a beauty of the pass is you can just hop any train in Britain anytime - save Chunnel trains on the Eurostar route to Paris (and perhaps the new sprinter trains to Kent on that same line - have not heard about that one but all others just hop on.

And if you land at 10:45 you can easily be in Bath by 2pm. If you stayed in London then you'd have to go to Bath the next day - wasting a half day so i think going straight away to Bath is the way to go.

"<i>if you land at 10:45 you can easily be in Bath by 2pm</i>"

Possible but not very likely.

10:45 landing means getting to Paddington by 1 PM if all goes like clockwork. 2PM would be more likely. Depends on if they get a gate right away, how long they have to wait for luggage, and the length of queues at immigration. And having to faff about w/ the pass at LHR means they might not get to Paddington until 2:30 or later. If they are very lucky and can catch the 1:30 train from Paddington, they'd arrive in Bath at 3PM.

I'd realistically plan on making it to Bath by 4PM, and feel happy if things went very smoothly and I arrived earlier.

all things considered though getting to a hotel in Bath would only be about an hour more than getting to a hotel in London and they will be in Bath and not have to go there the next day. No brainer IMO to hop the trains to Bath.

Is it a long walk at Paddington station between the Heathrow Express and a train to Bath?

Most trains to Bath leave from platforms 1-5. The HEX arrives at platforms 6 or 7.

Paddington is a terminal station (http://www.networkrail.co.uk/documen...tion%20Map.pdf), so the closer to the front you sit, the shorter the walk to the concourse. It's a flat 15 yard walk to the barriers for platforms 2-5, or 25 yds to the barrier-free entrance to platform 1.

Platforms at Paddington aren't usually announced till 10-15 mins pre departure. The walk from platform 6 to the seats for waiting is actually longer than the walk between platforms.

The walk at the Paddington end is nothing much -- the walk from arrivals to the HEX at the Heathrow end is longer. Depending on the terminal (I haven't used all 5 of the terminals so not sure about all of them) it could take 10 minutes or more.

Heathrow Express trains are a short elevator plunge below terminals 4 and 5 but in terminals 1, 2 and 3 there is a combined station that does entail some minutes of walking thru corridors

Thanks so much for all your information. Now we will start looking for an air-conditioned (necessary because of breathing problems) hotel in Bath or Oxford that we can afford.

If you needed to find a hotel in a central area in England to take day train trips from, in what city or town would you stay?

What is your budget? A/c may prove to be a REAL problem btw.

"If you needed to find a hotel in a central area in England to take day train trips from, in what city or town would you stay"

THE best place for rail-based daytrips, by a million zillion lightyears, is London. Nowhere else comes even close.

Otherwise: Oxford really wins hands down if you want to be based somewhere nice. Winchester's a good way behind, but is no 2 (and has limited direct connections to LHR). Bath's not as good for train connections as Winchester.

I'm not sure there are ANY fully a/c hotels in Oxford or Bath, though. Thousands of us in and around these cities have breathing problems (valetudinarians have been flocking to Bath for centuries, and few people are as skilled at finding things to complain about as Oxonians): literally none of us see the need for a/c.

If being somewhere nice doesn't matter, then Birmingham or, if you're prepared to limit yourself to the southern third of England, Southampton are the best places outside London for direct rail connections.

Is there a hotel you would recommend in Bath and also Oxford where you have stayed? We would prefer for it to be central since we will arrive by train. Also, we like to walk around a city and explore as much as possible.

Still need your budget . . .

Around $150-200 a night with private bath. It doesn't have to be fancy, but clean and in a fairly safe area to walk around.

I'm asthmatic and find AC much worse for easy breathing

All in Bath:

The Abbey Hotel isn't posh but is just around the corner from Bath Abbey and the Roman Baths in the very center of things.

http://www.compasshotels.co.uk/bath/index.php

This one is even closer to the Abbey/Baths, costs a bit more but is still w/i your budget and would probably be my choice since it is a little nicer.

http://www.threeabbeygreen.com/prices,intro.htm

Or for more modern decor, the deluxe rooms here are quite nice.

http://www.haringtonshotel.co.uk/

A couple of Oxford suggestions that meet your requirements

Eastgate Mercure www.accorhotels.com

The Royal Oxford www.royaloxfordhotel.co.uk

Thanks for your help!

We are staying at the Buttery Hotel in Oxford for two nights. The Eastgate and Royal had not rooms available.