transit from Heathrow to Bristol airport

Rome to Rio are, as usual, incorrect.

You take National Express at least hourly to Bristol Bus Station.

There you change onto the Airport Flyer #A1. That runs every 7 1/2 minutes 24/7 (every 15 to 30 overnight).
Buy tickets on arrival, preferably on your phone to save money. You can actually book a through fare, rather than paying separately.

Alternatively you could use trains every 30 minutes to Bristol Temple Meads, the #A1 also stops there. Again you can just buy on arrival and you can buy through rail/bus tickets. Or pay separately, same price.

Thanks very much for your response!
I did see that the bus arrives at the Bristol Bus station and not the airport. It sounds like you are saying that relying on Rome2Rio is not a good idea. I did see that the buses are National Express or Flix.
Was the information correct that the journey takes about 2 hours and is about 17-20 GBP?

Looking now for immediate travel it is £34.60 to Bristol Bus Station, or £43.60 to Bristol airport. If you booked well ahead you may if lucky get to Bristol for about £20, but the Airport will be closer to £30, no matter how far ahead you book.
In fact it is often illogically cheaper to go National Express from Heathrow to Victoria, then Victoria to Bristol.
You might get it on Flixbus for about £24 all in. But if I was at Heathrow now the next flixbus is £30.49 + booking fee just to Bristol, so I think R2R fares are very optimistic.
Once in a blue moon you might get £19 or so, but not regularly.
Many of us here have low opinions of R2R from experience. Often they give reasonable guidance on what is possible, but don't trust the detail. There are many discussions on here about the subject.
Yes it's around 2 hours to Bristol, add on another half hour for the airport.

thanks for the insight!

Rome2Rio are not a reliable source of information.

Presumably your friends are not going to hang around at Bristol Airport - then where are they going? Rather than you drag out to Bristol Airport - which can be slow going due to traffic, I suggest that you meet them at another place - such as Bristol or Bath.

James - Yes we have decided to meet them at the bus station in the city as it doesn't make sense to go out to the airport.

Is trainline.com or the app a good place to find information on time and prices of trains in the UK?

use National Rail. It is official and sends you to the actual operator of the train. https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

Please please please only "use" Rome to Rio for the very most high level search and don't believe a word of what they tell you.

Meeting in central Bristol makes more sense.

Trainline is very good for European train travel as some of the country sites such as SNCF (France) & Renfe (Spain) can be more difficult to use and sometimes do not show cheaper rival services on the same roots. However, for Britain, Scotrail comes up with the same prices as Trainline with any booking fee. (You don't have to travel on Scotrail as it will sell tickets for any route in Britain. However, like Trainline, Scotrail only comes up with 1 split to reduce price from a to b.

So, what am I taking about? Well, on some routes it works out cheaper to split the ticket even though you stay on the same train. www.nationalrail.co.uk don’t tell you that and simply put you through to the main train operator for a given route. Sounds bonkers but true. Here are some sites that work out if splits are cheaper but they charge a commission:>
https://www.traintickets.com/?/
https://trainsplit.com

Also note that you can buy Advance specific train tickets which get loaded about 10 weeks ahead - though this can vary. Such tickets are not refundable. Sometimes, returns can work out cheaper - especially if travelling say between 10am and 4 pm or late evening.

Also consider getting a Railcard as that can knock a third off the price but costs £35.
For short journeys, people just pay on the day & it usually makes no difference to price.

The best thing to do now would be to work out where you want to go, come back on this forum & I am sure that people will chip in with suggestions as to whether or not that is a good routing or if they have other suggestions.

More train advice:> https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-britain.htm

Also see this for maps of the rail network.

hi James
Thanks for the additional help. I will look into that.
Likely the train from Bristol to Haverfordwest will be the only train we use because I plan to take buses while we are traveling around in Wales for 2 weeks. We will do short day trips and then a longer one up the west coast to Porthmadog.
Based on that I didn't think a rail pass would be necessary. I thought the buses looked quite inexpensive and took the routes I wanted.

Bristol to Haverfordwest is a clear example of a route where I would do a manual ticket split.
You have to change trains anyway at Cardiff or Newport.
So I would book an Advance Single from Bristol to Cardiff, and another from Cardiff to Haverfordwest. You should get it for around £20 total each.

I don't think it will affect you but Powys Council are doing big service enhancements on 31 August. One effect is that the T12 Machynnleth to Newtown is being taken out of the Traws Cymru network, and becoming the X85 on a higher frequency. Thus that will become part of the Powys day rover scheme.

Bristol bus station is a not a pleasant place to spend any time and there is no cafe there or anything so if you’re going to be waiting any length of time I’d suggest meeting somewhere nearby. You won’t want to be hanging around in there.

These forums are amazing! I am impressed by the time people take to provide information.

Thanks everyone! I am an appreciative Canadian!

Pembrokeshire - the County in the SW of Wales - the Council have a website of the local bus routes.
https://traws.cymru/en are the longer distance bus services in Wales.

You may like to consider going by train from Cardiff to Tenby on the south coast of Pembrokeshire. The direct trains on this run stop at every station so it is *slow going - even though the train could do 100mph track permitting. * On summer Saturdays a GWR express goes from London to Tenby departing Cardiff at 10.37 to arrive Tenby at 13.16.

Journey planners will tell you how what trains to take to get from Bristol to Pembrokeshire and where to change.

https://www.visitpembrokeshire.com
https://www.visitwales.com/destinations/mid-wales/ceredigion-cardigan-bay
https://www.sherparwyddfa.wales

If going up the west coast, Aberaeron is worth a stop for an hour or so if that can be done according to the time tables.

thanks James!

Note that trains often split in Swansea. Should that be the case - it is the rear portion that goes west to Pembrokeshire.

good to know. Thanks again James!