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Transportation Options From Bath

Hello, I'm planning a leisurely 7-day trip to England with my mom and sister. We'll most likely fly into London and then use Bath as our base to do day trips to the Cotswolds, Oxford, and other nearby places (I'm still researching. Suggestions are welcome). The issue is that we do not want to rent a car, so we are researching the best transportation options. How convenient would it be to take a train or bus to these places? What about hiring a private driver? Has anyone done that before and can you recommend a company?

We've already been to London on a separate trip, so we don't plan on staying there for any length of time.

Posted by
3797 posts

Bath is close enough to the Cotswolds for day tours, but your best bet without a car is to take a minibus tour through the Cotswolds. Trains do not run throughout all the Cotswolds from Bath. Bath is also not close enough to Oxford to do a very good day trip. It can be done, but you won't have much time there.

Bus service between towns in the Cotswolds can be a once a day from one town to the next, or every other day from one town to the next. Some towns have bus service a couple of times a day, maybe 2 buses thru per day. So it could take you a good while to see a half dozen towns. It could be done by bus, but not very easily.

The way I would do your trip:
1. Train to Bath. Stay a couple of nights in Bath. On the last day you are there, do this tour first thing in the morning. You want tour Number 2, which takes you to the Cotswolds:
http://www.madmaxtours.co.uk/flip-box-tour-2
Mad Max Tours use small mini-buses and have a great reputation. This will save you a lot of driving hassle.
http://www.madmaxtours.co.uk/

Then...(2)--Train from Bath to Oxford. Check into a hotel or B&B in Oxford. Stay a couple of days. There is a lot to see in Oxford, and many beautiful streets to see on a city walk. There is a very good museum in Oxford, the Ashmolean, which you may want to spend most of a day browsing.

You would see not very much if you tried to do this as a day trip from Bath. You would have the train trip that morning, and train trip back to Bath that afternoon, so you would just have a couple of hours. Most of the day would be spent on the train.

Then...(3)--Take the train from Oxford to one more close-by destination. Directly on the train line from Oxford is the Cotswolds town of Moreton-In-Marsh. You could train to there and stay two or three nights. At the end of your stay, you can easily train back to London from Moreton-In-Marsh.

OR you could train to Stratford-Upon-Avon, a short train ride from Oxford (25 minutes). This is one of my favorite places in England. It is a town that becomes more terrific the more you walk around in it. See Shakespeare's house. Walk down to Trinity Church, where Shakespeare is buried, and it is just the way it was in the 1500's. The River Avon is beautiful, with swans, ducks, and canalboats in the basin near the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Stratford-Upon-Avon has great little coffee shops, cafes with great food, and cute shops.
Easy train ride to London when your time is up.

Posted by
2628 posts

I can vouch for the Mad Max tours - small group and a great guide. We had a lot of fun with them.

Posted by
2440 posts

You can easily do a day trip from Bath to Salisbury by train. Take the shuttle bus to Stonehenge and then back to Salisbury to view the magnificent medieval cathedral.

You can also easily take the train for a day trip to Cardiff. However, to see the various sights in this area takes more than a day. These include St.Fagans Castle & Museum - about 6 miles from the centre - bus 32/320. Caerphilly Castle is just a 17 minute train ride to the north of the city. However, 2 very good mini bus operators do guided tours from Cardiff so you may like to base yourselves in this city as well as Bath. Check out www.wherewhenwales.com & www.seewales.com

Trains = www.nationalrail.co.uk

https://www.gwr.com

Posted by
69 posts

Thank you all for your suggestions! Very helpful. I'll show these to my family and get their thoughts.

Posted by
2779 posts

I would make Moreton-in-Marsh, Chipping Campden or Broadway in the Cotswolds as home base for a couple of days. From any of those villages you can get a bus to the other villages I've mentioned also to Stow-on-the-Wold, Stanton, Broadway and a couple other. There isn't bus services to all of the villages.

Posted by
2440 posts

Please note that if checking train schedules from Bath to Cardiff, that the line under the Severn estuary is currently closed for electrification. It reopens in late October (2016). Normally it takes about 1 hour to do this trip with the trains at hourly frequencies.