Getting there & Getting around

Getting there

National Express coaches run to London (3.5hrs) via Heathrow (2.5hrs), and to Manchester (6.5 to 10.5hrs) and Oxford (2hrs). Buses X39 and 337/8/9 run to Bristol (50mins) several times an hour. Other useful services include bus X5 and X6 to Bradford-on-Avon (30mins, half hourly), Buses X71 and X72 to Devizes (one hr, hourly) and Buses 173/773 to Wells (one hr, hourly). Map-timetables for individual routes are available from the bus station office (tel: 464446; Manvers St). There are frequent trains to London Paddington (1.5 hrs) and Cardiff (one hr), and several each hour to Bristol (11mins). Trains also go to Oxford (one hr); Weymouth(two hrs) via Bradford-on-Avon (15mins)and Dorchester West (two hrs); and Portsmouth (2.5hrs) via Salisbury (50mins).

Getting around

Bikes can be hired from Avon Valley Cycles (tel: 461880; www.bikeshop.uk.com; Arch 37). Cyclists can use the 12-mile Bristol and Bath Railway Path that follows a disused railway line. Companies run boats from Pulteney Bridge to Bathampton (50 mins). Bus 18 runs frequently from the bus station, High St and Great Pulteney St up Bathwick Hill past the YHA to the university. Bus 4 runs to Bathampton from the same places. Bath has a bad traffic problem and an infuriating one-way system. Park-and-ride services (Tel: 464446) operate at Lansdown to the north, Newbridge to the west and Odd Down to the south.