How to get from Heathrow to Bath?
Written by Craig Bowen 13th July 2023.
So you have booked your flight to the UK and you want to visit our beautiful world heritage city of Bath. But how do you get from Heathrow to Bath, When you are landing at any of the Heathrow terminals? Let’s look at your options and you can decide what suits your needs the best.
Taxi
So let’s look at taxis as the first option. If you look at the recommendation from the Heathrow website the prices can start from as high as £290 which is very expensive in my opinion. However when searching online you can actually find much better deals starting from around £170-£250 for a saloon car. Googling the phrase “Bath to Heathrow taxi” will find you local options as well. And as a local Bath business owner I obviously endorse this the most but I am bias of course.
Obviously taxis can become more expensive depending on your luggage requirements and number of passengers. But When comparing to a train I think this is the best option. And even more so if you have more than 1-2 of you travelling. I would strongly recommend checking out reviews when choosing a company for your pick up as well.
Train to bath from Heathrow
At the time of writing this trains from Heathrow to Bath were varying from £52 to the extreme high of £130 per person. And booking this as far in advance as possible seems to keep this to the lower end of the scale that’s for sure. You can book your tickets on the GWR website or use the Trainline app as well.
Is the train easy when travelling from Heathrow to Bath ?
I should add This is not just a train journey and actually consists of jumping on a bus to Reading for the first leg. You then have to catch a train from Reading down to Bath spa station after. This journey can take around 2 hours in total. I think when traveling alone and with hand luggage this is a viable option. However if you’re in a group of more than 1-2 and have big cases it can be incredibly problematic. The reason being is that storage space on trains is very limited. Even more so when traveling in peak times in the morning or early evening when commuters are using them
Rent a car from Heathrow
If you are brave enough to negotiate driving on the opposite side of the road then maybe you might consider renting a car at Heathrow and driving to Bath yourself. A large chunk of the journey is on the 3 lane motorway (the M4) just remember the far lane on the left is the slow lane not the fast lane :).
At the time of writing this I looked up the europcar prices which came in at around £40 per day. This was for a larger SUV so it will cope with a decent amount of luggage. There are many add ons that boost the total charge like breakdown cover, car seats and extra insurance cover which soon pushes the charge even higher. Fuel is also quite expensive in the Uk and you should allow at least £30 for this for a round trip.
I think car rental is the most affordable way to do this journey from Heathrow to Bath however some companies can insist you drop off at the same place you get the car from. So if moving on to other destinations after Bath this should be taken into consideration.
Coach or Bus to Bath from Heathrow
You could also just take the coach (national express). They run from Heathrow Terminal 2 and 3 bus station so if you’re landing at Terminal 4 and 5 you would need to get the train to this terminal. The coach’s run every 4 hours roughly so if you’re not in a rush I guess they are a viable option. The journey for this varies but you’re looking at anything from a 2.5-4 hour Journey by Coach. This depends on which route and the stops along the way it goes too. It stops at the central Bath bus station and you can expect to pay around £24 per person one way.