Train to Bath

Not directly. You can go from Terminals 2-3 to Hayes and Harlington and then to Reading, to catch a train to Bath Spa. That is 2 changes on the way. From T5, you can go to Bath Spa with a single change at Paddington, but it takes slightly longer.

You can use the National Rail travel planner to see this—use Heathrow (all terminals) as your start and Bath Spa as your destination.

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

There may be a bus option, or a bus from Heathrow to Reading, and train from there. Hopefully someone can help you with that.

You can go from Terminals 2-3 to Hayes and Harlington and then to
Reading, to catch a train to Bath Spa.

There is also a direct bus from Heathrow to Reading.

Hi. I asked a similar question on 4/7.
Going from Heathrow to Bath/Wells
I got some great bus info about a direct bus fromHeathrow to Bath.

Bus (coach) directly from Heathrow to Bath is the easiest way to go, in my opinion.

We took the bus/coach to Bath directly from Heathrow. When you get off your flight, follow the signs inside the terminal that direct you to the bus/coach station. You can walk up to the ticket window and buy tickets. Then go through the double glass sliding doors out to the stalls, have a seat on a bench, and wait for your bus. Your bus will pull in; it will have "Bath" on the header on the front of the bus. There is no loudspeaker that announces the arrival of the bus. The bus will stay about 5-10 minutes, then pull out.

If you have only carry on luggage, you will keep it with you on the bus, and put it on the seat beside you or in the rack above.
If you have large pieces of luggage, the bus driver will put it under the bus for you in a locked compartment.

We enjoyed our bus trip to Bath, and got to see lots of towns and small villages as we passed through. Because you sit up high on the bus, you get to see a lot. On the train, you are down in a cut, and both sides of the ditch you're in have hedgerows, so you don't see much!

The bus/coach station in Bath is right beside the train station, and it is a short walk, one or two blocks away, to coffee shops and cafes. If your hotel is in the center of Bath, you are walking distance to it when you get off the bus (or train).

For more information and other comments, here's the thread Gerrie mentioned:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/going-from-heathrow-to-bath-wells

Let me add, the buses (coaches, the British call them) in England are far superior to our buses here in the USA.

The English buses (coaches) are brand new, modern, clean, with comfy seats; better than what you get on most airlines. The buses have WiFi on board, so you can check your email, Facebook, etc. or even go online and book a hotel if need be.

You can take a nap, read a book, or just enjoy the scenery.
It's amazing how much better a bus journey is in England than back here in the states.
On the bus to Bath, there were only two other passengers besides myself and my husband.
Much easier than trying to go into London and catch a train.
Cheaper, too.

Thanks, Balso and Rebecca. I knew someone would jump in with the bus (coach) information. Sounds like a better option for June.

We'll be traveling from Heathrow to Bath in June, and thanks to these helpful people, we're taking the coach (bus) to Bath. A no hassle, relaxing ride at a good price seems like the best way to go.

We will take the bus to Bath! May take it back to London as well though the train looks to be faster and possibly more frequent. Thank you all.

similar thread at https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/transportation-options-lhr-to-city-of-bath

We took the bus from LHR to Bath. Turns out bus times don't necessarily line up that well with flight arrival times. It ended up taking several hours to get to Bath with the wait for the bus and then the slow traffic for the first part of the journey. The train would have been faster. And right at the airport they had desks with people selling train tickets at least into London (those tables may be gone given Covid)

junehross, you probably want to take the train from Bath into London. On this route the train will be much faster than the bus. But it's your call--you'll see more by bus.
If your itinerary is not already "set in stone", I would consider taking the train from Bath to Salisbury for 2 nights, then leaving Salisbury to go into London. Salisbury is a lovely medieval town with a magnificent cathedral. And Stonehenge is right outside of town, with the Stonehenge Bus that leaves from the town square. I can suggest a couple of good hotels in Salisbury if you decide you want to add it into your schedule.
Bath and Salisbury are fairly close and connection by rail is quick and easy.
You can also go by bus.

John, the desks you speak of with people selling train tickets into London are for the Heathrow Express, a high-speed train that goes directly into Paddington Station in London.
Many people who wish to travel by train from Heathrow to Bath take the bus to Reading, then hop off and catch a train from Reading to Bath, thus avoiding going all the way into London only to catch a train right back out again.
Many people who travel from Heathrow to Bath wish to avoid going into London entirely, regardless of how much faster the train from London to Bath might be. They wish to avoid the hassle of going into London. I am one such person, which is why I take the bus, Heathrow to Bath.

Just my own personal preference, but I don't care whether it is fast or not. I want to relax and enjoy the scenery. If the transportation is not lightning fast, that's fine with me. I get enough of rushing around in a hurry in my daily life, so when I'm on vacation I take it easy.

I'm actually trying to get to Salisbury from Heathrow, and I had a response (from another thread), to take the bus to Woking, then the train to Salisbury. I looked at the National Express website, but it says that that bus service to Woking has been discontinued for now. Does anybody have any other suggestions?
Thank you

Deborah, it's a different bus company that runs the Railair2 bus. Not National Express.

https://www.firstbus.co.uk/railair

The confusion around the Railair to Woking is that the service used to be run by National Express but they dropped it during Covid, hence the reference to it being suspended on their website. However, First Bus has re-routed its existing RA2 Railair bus to Guildford (which started in 2019) to go via Woking to pick up the slack.

My motion sickness causes me to not do well on buses. We took the short bus ride from Heathrow to Reading and hopped on the train to Bath from there. Easy and fairly quick.

@Deborah : As mentioned in the thread, Heathrow to Salisbury on the Rail-air coach You might find the rail map below useful, In square E4 at Heathrow you will see a dotted line that goes to Woking station then onto Guildford, the Heathrow to Reading Railair coach is also shown as a dotted line.

From Woking you can see your train line that goes to Salisbury.

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/London_South_East_Network_Railcard_map_Dec-2021.pdf

Thank you so much Frank, Marco, and Dennis, for the great info and clarification. That Railcard map is so helpful!