York to Bath rail trip

On the national rail planner, there is an option for Route via / Avoid. Use this and put in avoid London Kings Cross and it will come up with a different route.

Ticket prices might be a bit steep as this "custom" route will likely not have cheap Advance fares. You may have to split your tickets into different legs to reduce the cost.

Trains run every hour from York to Bristol Temple Meads (the train goes on to Plymouth), change for a local train to Bath.

You don't say if you are buying tickets or travelling on a pass, such as Britrail.

If you are buying tickets it is often cheapest to buy this as York to Birmingham, then Birmingham to Bath, but staying on the same train at Birmingham.

If you are on a pass then if the aim is to see more of the country then another route from Birmingham is Birmingham to Reading, change trains, then Reading to Bath.

I am buying train tickets, no pass.
But I tried to purchase advance tickets from York to Bristol Temple Meade but it said No Tickets available.....do you know why it would say that?

Either-
a. You are booking too soon, or
b. (More likely) I don't think such an Advance fare exists as York to Bath (only a full priced fare for which you have to re-mortgage the house!) . I believe you probably have to break it up into two halves- York to Birmingham, Birmingham to Bath. Each half should have an advance fare.

I found a fare from York to Bath transferring in Bristol Temple Meads for 73.25GBP It was called a Super off peak single. Is that a good price? Or should I continue to check different routes.
1st class tickets were over 250GBP Yikes!!

The Super Off Peak Single is a fully flexible fare (so can be purchased on the day)- would be £111 without the railcard (shows the benefits of a railcard) so that is the best walk up you will get on that route.

By fiddling round the best fare combination on that route (as opposed to via London) seems to be-
1043 York to Birmingham New Street arrive 1305 £28.80 with railcard;
1342 Birmingham to Bath Spa via Bristol arrive 1541 £23.80 with railcard (this train does not route via Gloucester- see below);

These are both Advance Train Specific fares, but that saves you another £20 or so.

You could save more money by taking train splitting to the nth degree-
1330 Birmingham to Gloucester arrive 1425 £7.70 Advance;
1440 Gloucester to Bath Spa via Bristol arrive 1601 £3.95 Advance

So £28.80 + £7.70 + £3.95= £40.45

It depends how much you want to save money, how far ahead you book, how much you value time and direct trains, and whether you want to juggle with lots of tickets.

But at least you have been given options!!

Thank you for all the options. Now to decide which route to take.....money vs time!