Travel from Heathrow to Bath

No need to stress on Day 1.

In re reading your post it appears that the Best of England tour starts in Bath? Is that correct?

It’s immigration not customs that you’ll encounter upon arrival at Heathrow. Always a crap shoot regarding length of time to get through it. Often depends on how many staff are on duty and how many planes have arrived and deplaned at the same time.

I think you’ve already answered your own question.
Stay the night near Paddington ( there’s a Hilton adjacent to the station….also a nearby Novotel…also a Premiere Inn.)

Get a good nights sleep and depart for Bath the next day. Enjoy a hearty breakfast and board GWR train at Paddington to Bath Spa. If memory serves about an 1.5 hour ride.

At this point, I'm thinking that I'll be out of Heathrow by 10ish pm? I don't really want to deal with a bus, unless I need to. I'm an older adult, and I'm looking for "easy".

The answer is stay at Paddington.

But I'm not sure I understand that premise. After 10pm there are only two trains to Bath from Heathrow- at 10pm and at 11pm. The first is a 4 minute change at Hayes and Harlington then a further change at Reading. The second is a change at Paddington. Both of those seem harder to me than getting on a bus at Heathrow at 2215 for a 2 hour ride direct to Bath, with a later bus at 0015 if the flight was delayed. That seems "easy" to me.

4 May will be a busy day on the trains being the Saturday of the May Day public holiday weekend. I am also nervous that the trade unions will choose that day for a strike on the railways.

This strike day, yesterday, GWR ran no main line trains- every other strike day they have run main line trains to Bristol, but not always stopping at Bath. So that was an unwelcome development.

If that happened you would end up going to Victoria for a bus, or possibly Waterloo for an alternative rail route.

So maybe just stay at Heathrow then if there is a train strike you have an alternative bus service.

easiest is to stay at Heathrow then the next morning national express coach straight to Bath

Thank you for the replies. I'm sitting here smiling. Sometimes it takes a while to see the obvious.

It's either Heathrow or Paddington for my first night, depending upon my choice of bus or train. And to keep my eyes on a potential rail strike.

Staying at Heathrow (Hilton Garden Inn) and taking the bus to Bath the day after. Easy.

Thanks again.

Steve, so glad you found a solution that works well for you. Enjoy your trip.

This strike day, yesterday, GWR ran no main line trains- every other strike day they have run main line trains to Bristol, but not always stopping at Bath. So that was an unwelcome development.

There were emergency engineering works between Paddington & Reading on the main line to attempt to sort out the problems with the track & points which has been an almost daily issue. This also happened the previous weekend when most trains from the West were turned round at Reading. I do think it likely though that the Saturday was picked for this work because of the existing strike, rather than the Sunday as previously.