Traffic on Fridays Heathrow to Bath?

Yes it will be busy as you will catch both the daily and weekend commuters at that time. You don't say what terminal you arrive at, nor from whom you are hiring your car, which may have an effect on the local journey. Heading out to Bath you really don't have a much of a realistic choice apart from the M4.

Just about the worst time of the day for westbound M4, just about the worst day of the week.

So, yes, expect to creep along.

The only thing that could make it worse is if you are trying to do the drive on the getaway Friday of a Bank Holiday weekend at the start of May, the end of May, and the end of August.

Hi Susan,
I travel this route quite often and yes unfortunately Friday afternoon is the worst day and time to do the trip. However it won't be too bad unless there is an accident. The slowest point will be at the start when you need to get out of Heathrow airport onto the M25 for about 5 miles until you turn off onto the M4 Westbound. I can almost guarantee you that at 4-5pm on a Friday is will be creeping along but once you are on the M4 the traffic will steadily improve until you get to the Bath turn off. Google maps says that the journey along the M4 will take about 2 hours but on a late Friday afternoon I estimate it will take you 3-4 hours. The scenery is lovely in parts however, so just suck it up and enjoy the trip :-)

Steve.

Susan, have you considered taking the train to Bath (very easy to do with only 1 change) from Heathrow and then picking up a rental car in Bath? We did so on our trip a couple years ago and found it work more smoothly. Either way, happy travels! England is so beautiful and the people are great.

Thank you all for your informative comments! They are so helpful to me. I do think the idea of taking the train to Bath and picking up a car after arrival does sound inviting. Would any of you have train (from Heathrow) and rental car company (in Bath) suggestions?

Susan, you can take the Heathrow Express from the airport to Paddington Station in central London then buy a ticket from Paddington to Bath (trains every 30 minutes, about 2 hours trip). Once in Bath, we used the Enterprise rental location on Lower Bristol Road (easy to find if you Google it). The location is maybe 30 minutes walking from the city center (I would use a taxi to get there if I had luggage), but the advantage is the quiet residential area allows you to drive on the left without significant traffic at first, if that is an adjustment for you as it was for me. There is a bus from Heathrow to Bath, but I haven't taken that. I understand it takes a little longer, but is direct. However, I found the Heathrow - Paddington - Bath trains easy and quick.

Thank you all very much. We can take the train, then pick up a car in Bath or decide to drive it from Heathrow and be thankful for slow traffic while we adjust to driving on the left! I am leaning towards the train idea.... So grateful to all of you. There is nothing as great as learning from your experiences!

You would be well advised to advance book the train with First Great Western & get seat reservations. The trains will also be packed at this time. An advance reservation will be for a specific train and not applicable to other trains - they are every 30 minutes on the Paddington > Reading> Bath route. So, if your plane is late & you miss a pre-booked train at such a busy tine - you may well be charged a surcharge. (I have been on the 'wrong' train & they have not surcharged me even though it was peak time). www.nationalrail.co.uk will have the schedules & fares and the company to book with is:>https://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk

A bus (coach) link does operate between Heathrow & Reading station - where you can board trains to Bath - so this is an alternative to going via Paddington (London). http://www.railair.com

The Great Western main line is being wired & around 2017>18, the present diesel fleet will be replaced with new electric trains - which will have more capacity. In late July & August, they will be putting up the wires in Bath so this will disrupt trains at this time.

You will probably find that the 16.27 & 16.55 departures from Reading are the last of the cheaper off peak services to Bath (about £31 one way). 17.24, 17.38, 17.55 - will all be about double that price unless you can get the price down by booking well ahead - like 10 weeks). From Paddington, you will probably find the price rockets with the 17.00 departure. Reading to Bath takes about 1 hour and from Paddington, it will be about 30 minutes longer.

Don't forget, that you will not need a car in Bath as it is all walkable - so you will save yourselves at least 2 days of car rental - if you use the trains. It would also not be that wise to get off a flight and then have to cope with driving on the wrong side of busy roads in the rush hour.

If you have loaded Google Earth - open the side bar and tick for 'traffic'. Now, if you can work out the time difference from home on Friday to 5pm UK time > open Google Earth and zoom down on to the M4 going west from London. Little dots will appear. Hover mouse on dots & you can see how fast the traffic is moving - black is crawling, red is slow & green = fast.

Hi Susan,

the train will be a nicer experience at that time of the week. Best to book tickets though so you can relax. When on the train you will be able to see the bronze age Uffington white horse on the left hand side as you go between Didcot and Swindon stations. It's a beautiful carving in the chalk hillside. Here's the info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffington_White_Horse

Steve.