UK 8 days - Brit Rail Pass or National Rail Card

Day 1 around 11 a.m. LHR Terminal 2 - Paddington Station

Let’s deal with Q1. Where are you staying. Do you need to go from LHR to Paddington? Is Paddington where you are staying?

Q2. What is a “nationalrail card”?

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/railcards/ is the site to go to for information about Railcards that give a third off most fares. It sounds like the 2 Together Railcard for £35 is the one that you should be looking at. Note that this has a not before 9.30am restriction on weekdays.

Quit worrying, all the stations have clear signage and you just go to the relevant platform when your train comes up on the electronic sign. If you are unsure about anything, staff are around to help and of course, you could just ask the locals.

Burford is a problem in that this Cotswold town is not on the railway. If you are really set on Burford, then a bus from the nearest rail station would be needed. Neither is it best to go from London to Bath to Burford to Cardiff due to transport links. Bath to Cardiff is easy with direct trains hourly and the journey takes about 1 hour. So, a rethink is needed regarding the Cotswolds. (Others on here often suggest doing a day tour from Bath).

Click the following link and select the first map of the rail system:>https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/travel-information/maps-of-the-national-rail-network/

To go from Cardiff to Windermere is a 5 to 6 hour journey. Train planning websites offer a choice of routes. Prices vary according to route & time of day.

You are spending too much time travelling around and not enough time actually seeing places. For example, seeing the Museum of Welsh History at St.Fagans Castle - 7 miles W of Cardiff city centre takes the best part of a day including the 30 minute bus ride each way. Your flying visit would just be enough time to see the city centre & bay plus Cardiff Castle. (Caerphilly Caslte & Castell Coch - no time).

Day 1 around 11 a.m. LHR Terminal 2 - Paddington Station. Day 2 maybe take a train from Southwark London to the Royal Ballet

A comment on your first couple of days as you’re mixing up the national rail network with other forms of transport.

Heathrow is not on the main rail network (apart from the Heathrow Express, I guess). There are various ways to get into central London, and if you’re staying in Southwark then the Heathrow Express to Paddington isn’t the best route so therefore a BritRail pass won’t be relevant here. Let us know where you’re staying and we can give good advice on how to get there from Heathrow.

By Royal Ballet, I assume you mean the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden? This will be a tube journey (or bus journey) rather than train. So each of you just needs to tap a credit card or Apple Pay. BritRail passes and railcards are irrelevant here.

Others will have better advice on the rest of your journeys, but Burford will be a sticking point as it’s not accessible by train. But I do wonder at your plans, which give you just four hours in Bath - and then everything else is such a rush. Is Burford specifically important? Could you stay overnight in Bath and maybe do a Cotswolds day trip by coach, then get the train to Cardiff from Bath?

If Burford is an essential, then probably the easiest way from Bath would be train to Swindon then a 20-mile taxi ride I think. Then get a taxi back to Swindon the next morning for your train to Cardiff.

One more thing: given that you have very precise timings, you could look at a type of ticket called Advance (with a capital A). These will be the cheapest for your longer journeys and can usually be bought a couple of months in advance, but must be used on the exact train you booked on. You would need to do the maths yourself to work out if spending £35 (?) on a Two Together railcard to get you a third off train tickets would be worth it, bearing in mind there are some time restrictions.

I suspect BritRail passes would be overkill for you - they’re best for travellers who are a bit more spontaneous and want to leap on any train without preplanning.

Heathrow IS on the main rail network in the form of the Elizabeth line.

The buses to Burford are the #S2 from Oxford to Cheltenham Spa, so that is a slightly awkward journey by public transport.

Cardiff to Bowness is probably easiest as train Cardiff to Crewe, train Crewe to Oxenholme, train Oxenholme to Windermere, open top bus #599 to Bowness. In normal circumstances it is a same platform change at Crewe, at Oxemholme it is a cross platform change.
Bowness to Haymarket - easiest is bus #508 Bowness to Penrith station, then train.
Business to Hilltop- easiest is the launch from Bowness pier to Ferry House then the mountain goat service bus up the hill, or it is walkable.
Cheapest is the #599 Bowness to Ambleside, the #505 Ambleside to Hawkshead, then the Mountain Goat bus in the other direction.

For Bowness to Hawkshead the cheapest bus fare will be a Central Lakes Day rider each- buy on bus.

Booked on an Advance fare the train Penrith to Haymarket is often well under £10 with a railcard, and the bus is £3.

Heathrow IS on the main rail network in the form of the Elizabeth line.

Oh, I didn’t think that counted in some way, as I was trying to think on the OP’s behalf of where she might be able to get benefit from a BritRail pass or a railcard: can they be used on the Elizabeth Line and/or the Heathrow Express? But anyway I bow to your far superior knowledge and with acknowledgement that I may have used the wrong description.

Britrail can be used on HEx (whereas a UK rail rover can't). And HEx fares get railcard discount - even the £10 lead in fare which becomes £6.65.
And Elizabeth line fares get railcard discount so £13.90 to central London becomes a bit over £9.

I was looking at the all line rail rover the other day as I will be having the 14 day 1st class version in a month or two's time, so checked on the various airport express trains. I get a nearly £400 discount off that rover with my railcard, for what will be an amazing fortnight.

Given the OP's specifications it is possible that Britrail is the best product in her case.

This is all very helpful! I was thinking of taking the Elizabeth line into Paddington Station. I like the idea of going from Bath to Swindon and then getting a taxi to Burford. And then reversing that and going from Swindon to Caridiff.

After reading the comments and thinking some more, it seems that in my case the Brit Rail Pass would be less expensive and more flexible than the National Railcard.

I've read that with the Brit Rail Pass you can reserve seats for a small fee. So, as I was thinking about it, if we used that and not the National Rail Card, even if we did miss a train, we wouldn't have to re purchase a ticket, we'd just be out the cost of the seat reservation but could still try to catch the next train.

How early should I arrive to Paddington Station, Bath Spa Station, Cardiff Central, and Bowness on Windermere to catch the train?
Do you recommend that I make seat reservations or are there generally plenty available?

It is not necessary to make any reservations on UK trains and for the most part you should be able to find seats. But there may be some trains in your plan that you would benefit from making reservations and avoiding having to stand.

I don’t think that you have to pay to reserve seats but you will need to ask for them at stations beforehand I.e. not as you arrive for the train.

Typically most UK travellers would arrive just a few minutes before a train’s departure. With you being less used to train travel you will want to leave a bit more time but 15-20 is plenty.

One final point - the station in the Lakes is Windermere and not Bowness-on-Windermere. The latter is right by the lake but the station is up the hill a mile or so in Windermere town itself.

To reserve seats on any UK train you create a free account on the GWR- Great Western Railway- website or app. You can then reserve seats for free.

Windermere is a single platform where the buses stop outside the front door so five minutes is more than adequate there.

By the way I was checking earlier, and in your case it looks like the better connections for Cardiff to Windermere are actually at Birmingham, rather than Crewe. I was trying to avoid changing you at a big station like Birmingham New Street, but that seems to have been a well intentioned but vain hope.

Thank you! This is super helpful!

I take it that you do realise that to get from London (Paddington) to Bath or Cardiff that most trains call at Swindon on the way. Therefore, would it not be better to go London > Swindon > taxi to Burford > back to Swindon > Bath > Cardiff > Windermere?

Also consider going straight from Heathrow to Oxford fo a night and then the following day, bus S2 to Burford:> https://www.stagecoachbus.com/routes/oxfordshire/S2/oxford-burford/XODS002.I

Heathrow to Oxford buses:> https://www.oxfordbus.co.uk/services/OXBC/OXF

You can usually find unreserved seats on most trains.

This video will show you what to expect on a London to Bath journey by train.