My husband and I are in London now and planning a day trip to Bath. I'm very much looking forward to it!
I was looking online at booking train tickets and they appear to be running £100 each! This is just a bit shocking to me and more than I had anticipated.
Does this seem typical? Does anyone know if they would be cheaper for us to purchase day of at the train station?
With the popularity of this day trip I guess naively I figured they wouldn't cost quite so much.
Thank you!
We are planning a day trip to Bath from London in late September. I was planning to pick the day once there, hoping to get a good weather day. I checked out the train fares buying the day before vs. a couple of months before. Not surprisingly it was substantially less expensive to buy the tickets in advance. I paid £131 total for 4 tickets. I decided that saving money was more important than being spontaneous. I doubt that buying the ticket the day of would be cheaper, but you can always check.
Do book the best roundtrip rate that you can find at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ for travel within a few days, since offerings for any particular departure won't get cheaper.
An anytime return on this route is £180.
The cheapest walk up return fare is £55.00, valid on trains after 10:10.
You could save a few pounds more by buying a Two Together Rail card which costs £30 but saves a third from tickets.
There are no advance tickets left for Friday, Sat, Sun, or Mon in the morning.
There is a slower and cheaper route via Waterloo & Salisbury which might be worth a consideration if you are staying close.
Note that if you split the ticket the train must stop at the intermediate station although you are not obliged to get off - only half of the trains to Bath stop at Didcot. Sometimes a split at Swindon instead or even in addition to Didcot can be cheaper.
Thank you for posting this message. I would never have dreamed tickets would be so costly. Thanks for the heads up. Enjoy your trip.
As already mentioned, you can do it cheaper by splitting the tickets. Looking at today (Thursday), the £180 return fare only applies to early departures from Paddington. If you turn at Paddington & ask for an OFF PEAK RETURN To Bath, it will cost you £69 and will apply to all trains after (& including) the 8.30am departure. You can use any return and the journey takes 1 hour 30 minutes.
You may also find that the return fare drops to £55 if you leave Paddington on the 10.30am (or later) Monday > Friday. On weekends, you are likely to find the lower £55 fare applies to all trains. The train company for the Paddington to Bath route is www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk
If you buy at Paddington a ticket to Swindon (OFF PEAK RETURN) = £55 plus an OFF PEAK RETURN from Swindon > Bath = £10.70, the total will be £65.70 return.
Going for a 3 way split - all as off-peak returns > PAD > Didcot = £29.60; Didcot > Swindon = £21 and Swindon > Bath = £10.70. So, we have now got the fare down to £61.30 return with the only rules being that you must depart PAD on or after 8.30am & the train must stop at the split points. You can find this out at www.nationalrail.co.uk by putting in for the journey and clicking 'Detail' > 'Show Calling Points'. The 8.30 departure does call at Didcot but the 9am does not. It goes on like this all day (I think) with hourly departures not stopping at Didcot whilst those on the half hour do. On the return, it looks like those leaving Bath at x13 past the hour do not stop at Didcot but those at x43 minutes do.
Cheaper fares can be found by booking in advance. Such fares will tie you down to specific trains.
If you want to use the cheaper but longer option from London (Waterloo), you must select 'other options' and put via SAL (Salisbury) or it will simply direct you to the dearer Paddington trains. Anyway, paying today & going today from Waterloo to Bath will be £40.40 return with a journey time of 2 hours 44 minutes. You must say that you want a Waterloo to Bath off-peak return VIA SALISBURY. A direct train leaves Waterloo at 9.20am to arrive Bath at 11.46. This train will split at Salisbury with one half going to Exeter. Make sure you board the Bath & Bristol bound section. A direct train back departs Bath at 16.07 to arrive at Waterloo at 18.49. (You can also depart Bath at 16.35 or 17.36 on the Cardiff > Portsmouth trains & get off at Salisbury to switch to a London (Waterloo) train. (It does not matter that the Cardiff > Portsmouth trains are a different company).
You may want to ask the staff at Salisbury if you can leave the station to see the Cathedral = about 13 minutes walk.
On www.eastcoast.co.uk, I'm seeing a same day return on Saturday July 26th for £41.10. Leaving London at 7:00 arriving Bath at 8:24 returning from Bath at 19:43 arriving London 21:14. I'm not sure this date fits into your schedule.
Joel has found the cheaper fare because he has selected a Saturday (in Advance) and the departure from London is quite early and the return is rather late and you are tied to these specific trains. If a special event takes place at a destination on a Saturday, then fares will be higher.
Yes I'd kind of discounted the 7am train. In the winter it is possible to get advance fares reasonably cheaply the day before but the demand is much greater in July.
