Before I reserve travel with a new company to trek across a country, state or city, I always look for detailed reviews of their service to know what I’m getting into and set expectations. However, I often find that these kinds of detailed reviews don’t exist.
There are general travel reviews, but I prefer to know the nitty gritty so I can mentally prepare for what I’m about to do and hopefully not make additional mistakes that traveling in another country can easily result in.
So this was my experience using a National Express Bus to travel from Bath to London Heathrow in the summer of 2025. Let’s see how it went π .
Background
I had looked at trains before going to the UK and they looked abundant, but I hadn’t paid attention to the prices π so I planned to buy tickets closer to when we needed them. However, similar to me thinking I should do the same for a tour of the Cotswolds, – I was very wrongπ€£.
When I met with a reader in London, they mentioned that trains from London to Bath and vice versa are very expensive and that’s why they had never been to Bath. I was surprised to hear that, but I looked online and yep – they were completely right.
At the time, a one-way train from Bath to London Heathrow was $100 USD per person, which is more than we paid for the flight we were trying to take from Heathrowπ€£. It also would take a long time because the train makes you go into London and then backtrack an hour to Heathrow. No thx π .
So I started looking for alternatives. My beloved Rome 2 Rio came in clutch once again and showed me all the possible ways to get from Bath to Heathrow. And the easiest and most cost efficient seemed to be the National Express Bus.
National Express has a bus stop at the Bath Bus Station, which is right next to the train station downtown and near where we were staying. The bus would then drop us right at our Heathrow terminal in about 2 hours – there was no need to go into London unnecessarily. Also, it cost $18.72 USD per person. Nice!
So this is my experience on my first National Express Bus. Let’s see if it’s a good option for getting around the UK since they have a lot of different routes I might use when I return if I have a good time π .
Pre-Trip
After purchasing our tickets, I received an email with our ticket and a QR code. The email itself included information on when we should arrive at the bus stop (10 minutes before departure), how much luggage we can bring (1 carry on and 1 piece of hold luggage for our tickets), and how we are able to track any of National Express’ buses on their website (cool!)
And a day before my trip they, emailed again reiterating the above information and that they have a Stop Finder to help find your exact bus stop. So helpful!
Bus Details
- When: August 2025
- Where: Bath To London Heathrow
- Bus: NX 403
- Bus Time: 2 hours, 20 minutes
- Distance: 101 miles
- Cost: $18.72 USD
The Journey
Bath Bus Station
We arrived at the Bath Bus Station via Uber 30 minutes before our 6:45am bus was set to depart. When we arrived at the bus station, there were TVs with departure gates, but National Express wasn’t on it. Uh oh π .
However, I then noticed a door that said National Express on it that also had an empty bus sitting behind it. Bath is the first stop for this bus so it makes sense the bus was there and that was the only door with National Express on it and there wasn’t another bus on the TV scheduled to leave from that bay – so we assumed that was our bus.
We posted up near that bay door, and saw that there was already one person waiting near that door. While we were waiting, I explored the wifi options and was surprised to see that the National Express Bus’ Wifi was available so I joined it π .
20 minutes before we were set to leave, the bus that we thought was ours left the bay, did a loop of the parking lot and came back to the same spot. No idea what that was about.
National Express had sent me several emails like I mentioned, but none mentioned a boarding time. However, people started forming a vague line and one guy just went up and stood in front of the door, cutting the line and blocking the way for people wanting to see the TV. Fascinating π€¨.
Meanwhile, I heard other people asking those in line if this was the line for National Express, so it wasn’t just me who was confused. I’d suggest the company actually add their name and bay number to the TVs at this bus station. I’m not sure why it wasn’t on there already since they had an actual bay parking spot.
The Bus
15 minutes before we were set to leave, the bus started saying 403 London on the side – nice. Then the bus driver opened the door to the station. A few other people had skipped the line at that point, but hilariously they weren’t ready with their bags or tickets so people walked past them to the driver. Amazing π .
When I reached the front of the line, I showed the bus driver the ticket I had received and downloaded over WiFi, which showed 2 tickets. He then took my rolly bag and put it under the bus.
I then looked back and noticed that my partner had been stuck behind the glass door to the outside this whole time. Comedy π . I told the driver he was on the ticket too and the bus driver opened the glass door, which I guess you can only do from the outside.
He then took my partner’s rolly bag and we boarded the bus. It was almost empty since we were the first stop, but about half the seats had red signs on them saying “someone in the know reserved this seat” which you can pay to reserve online in advance and I didn’t because I didn’t think we needed to and in this case I was right.
Then I was surprised because my relatively thin Travelpro Backpack didn’t fully fit in the storage rack above our heads or under the seat in front of me. So I put it between my legs, which wasn’t a big deal but I was just surprised those storage areas were so small. But maybe this is my “everything is bigger in America” brain talking π .
On the plus side, the seats were lovely – leather, clean and comfortable. There were also two USB chargers on the bench of each seat and a little tray table and a little mesh pocket under that for small items. There were also light and air con controls above our seats like on an airplane. And the WiFi I’d connected to in the station kept working – Nice!
Hilariously, the only website the Wifi couldn’t seem to load was the National Express Bus Tracker so I got off of it for a hot second to see when we’d be stopping and just used my data.
The Drive
At 6:45 on the dot we pulled away from the bus station. Nice! We drove through the almost empty streets of early morning Bath and it was a relaxing and lovely goodbye to the city. We passed all the hits including the giant Jane Austen book made of flowers, that was at Parade Gardens at the time, and the Abbey.
Then we left Bath and were driving on small roads going through the beautiful countryside – it was a wonderful way to start the morning π . Given the calming scenery I just popped in my A40 Earbuds and listened to some jams while watching the countryside go by.
When we stopped periodically to pick up passengers, an automated announcement came over the loudspeaker saying that there was a bathroom at the back of the bus, that CCTV is on the bus, and that you should use headphones when listening to anything (love it π ). They also mentioned that we should contact the driver or use their texting line listed on stickers inside the bus if we feel unsafe – I haven’t heard that before and I really appreciated it.
After that, I went back to looking at the lovely scenery, which was unlike what I’d seen before since we came to Bath from Scotland and our trains went in this direction. Then around 7:35am we left those beautiful little roads and got on a highway.
Heathrow Terminal 2
Before I knew it, we were at Heathrow. We rolled up a little before 9am and were on time even though we had been running 10 minutes behind as of our last stop. Sweet!
When we arrived at the bus drop off area, all of the bays were full so our bus went in a little loop around the parking lot until a bus left a few minutes later so we could grab their spot. After we parked, we got off the bus and the driver took all the bags out from underneath the bus and put them to the side.
We grabbed our bags and followed signs towards “All Terminals,” which took us through the bus station waiting area and towards the check-in section of the airport. And soon after, we were on a plane to Iceland π .
The Review
Overall I was very impressed with National Express. It’s a much more affordable and comparably comfortable transportation option over a train, and it got us where we needed to go on time. I also very much appreciated their live updates of all their buses on their website and their helpful emails.
I would suggest they add themselves to the Bath Bus Station TVs to help avoid confusion, but overall, I was very impressed. By comparison, a bus at this price in the US that I’ve been on is pure discomfort and chaos, so I’m definitely checking out National Express when I’m back in the UK.
Conclusion
And that was my experience riding a National Express Bus from Bath to London, England. I continue to be very impressed with the transit options outside of the US and I’m excited to know about an alternative to short train travel around the UK. I hope this post was helpful if you’re looking to ride with National Express or are just curious what transit options are out there.