Edinburgh to Bath

By car or train?

By train or by plane would probably work best for us.

I would fly, Easyjet do flights from Edinburgh to Bristol, Bath is a very short distance from Bristol .I last did this trip about 2 years ago and costed train and plane, plane was far cheaper even when you include transfer, time wise it was a great deal quicker flight time is only about an hour train can be 12 hours or more.You have to take in cost of luggage on the plane though and if you need to check bags this can add significantly to your cost.

Everyone has their own preferences, but for your suggested journey I would probably opt for taking the train. It's about 7 hours with 1 change, and if you buy your tickets 12 weeks in advance the fare on the National Rail site is £177.50 for an Anytime Standard Class ticket. There are also quite a few railcards available, and depending on the number of passengers and ages, that could save about 1/3 off your tickets.

If you take the train - Edinburgh's Waverley train station is an easy walk or short cheap taxi ride from the Royal Mile and most nearby B&Bs, you just show up 15 minutes or so before your train's scheduled departure time, hop on the train and stow your luggage, sit back and watch the countryside go by, then get off the train actually in Bath. By contrast, if you fly - getting to the airport is about a half-hour bus, tram or taxi ride, you need to get there about an hour or so ahead of your flight time plus time to go through security, and then once you land you'll probably need to go through immigration again, as well as getting to Bath itself.

Just my 2 pence :-)

You don't need to go through immigration flying from Edinburgh to Bristol!

There is a bus that runs twice an hour between Bristol airport and Bath which takes about an hour.

The train will also require at least one change on the way and on average takes 6.5-7 hours.

""…if you buy your tickets 12 weeks in advance the fare on the National Rail site is £177.50 for an Anytime Standard Class ticket."

whoa.. Anytime Standard tickets are not the ones bought 12 weeks in advance, they're walk-up ticket prices

Edinburgh to Bath from £39 with Advance tickets (which are the ones you buy in advance).

Note that cross country trains are particularly stingy with their advance quotas so you will need to book as soon as the tickets are released for the best prices.

I guess I should have prefaced the fare I mentioned earlier was selecting a train leaving around 10 AM (so no mad early morning dash from lodging and missing breakfast), and with only 1 change (to minimize hopping on and off with luggage, or schlepping from train station to tube to train station in London if the cheapest fare is selected).

If you can figure out in your planning for this future trip what day of the week you're likely to take the train from Edinburgh to Bath, just start using the National Rail site to gauge prices and schedules. If you're lucky, one of the trains with a great Advance ticket fare will suit your needs. As Marco noted, cross country trains are stingy on Advance tickets (especially ones with the fewest changes), but I would still take the train over flying.