Long-distance transfers
A private car from any London address - Mayfair, the City, Paddington, Canary Wharf, Heathrow or an outer borough - to any Bath address, priced before you book and held whatever the M4 does. About 2h 20m on a clear run, one driver, no changes, no meter.
London to Bath is 115 miles by road: about 2h 20m off-peak, up to 3h 10m in a Friday or bank-holiday peak. A Saloon is £345 fixed, a six-seat MPV £435, an eight-seater £485. The fare is per vehicle, includes fuel, tolls, the Bath Clean Air Zone and the driver's hours, and does not move once you have booked. Operated by Get London Transfer Ltd, TfL private hire operator licence 11588.
| Vehicle | Capacity | Best for | Fixed fare |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saloon | up to 4 passengers, 2 large cases | couples, business trips, a spa weekend | from £345 |
| MPV | up to 6 passengers, 4 large cases | families, a hen or stag group, wedding parties | from £435 |
| 8-seater | up to 7 passengers, 7 large cases | larger groups, university moves, filming kit | from £485 |
Fares are per vehicle, not per person. They cover fuel, the M4, the London congestion and ULEZ charges where they apply, the Bath Clean Air Zone, and the driver's hours and legally required break for the whole 115 miles. Nothing is added at the end. Split a Saloon between four and it is about £86 a head door to door; an eight-seater between seven is under £70 each.
Seen a cheaper "from" price elsewhere? Look for what it excludes. Our figure is the whole vehicle, the whole distance, at any hour, with the return quoted at the same rate. There is no night rate, no bank-holiday rate, no waiting charge on the way in and no "from central London only" small print.
The £345 headline is a central London pickup. Where you start changes the miles, and we quote the real distance rather than a notional city-centre point, so three common variants are worth spelling out.
Central London to Bath - Mayfair, Westminster, the City, Kensington, King's Cross or Canary Wharf - is the 115-mile run the page is priced on, out along the A4 or the Westway to the M4 at Chiswick. Paddington to Bath is the same route from the station forecourt; people book it when a GWR service is cancelled, when they are landing at Paddington on the Elizabeth line with luggage, or when a group of four has done the maths. Heathrow to Bath is about 15 miles shorter because the airport already sits on the M4 at Junction 4b, so the fare is lower and the journey around two hours; we meet you in the terminal with a name board, track the flight and give 60 minutes of free waiting after landing.
Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and London City to Bath are all quoted the same way, on the real distance, with the same meet and greet. Tell us the terminal and the flight number and the timing is ours to manage.
From London the route is the M4 west past Reading, Swindon and the Membury services, off at Junction 18 near Tormarton, then the A46 south over the Cotswold edge at Cold Ashton and down Lansdown into the city. It is 115 miles, and on a clear run that is about 2h 20m including the break the driver is required to take on a journey this length.
There is an alternative for anyone heading to the east side of Bath - Bathampton, Batheaston, Bathwick or the university at Claverton Down. Leave the M4 a junction earlier at 17, take the A350 to Chippenham and the A4 through Box, and you arrive along the London Road without crossing the city. It is a few minutes slower on paper and often quicker in practice on a Saturday.
The stretch that decides your arrival time is the M4 between Reading and Swindon on a Friday afternoon, and the last three miles on a Saturday: the A46 and A4 junction at the bottom of the hill and the descent of Lansdown Road into the centre. Leaving London before 06:00 or after 19:00 avoids most of it. On a bad afternoon the same drive stretches to 3h 10m, and the fare does not change.
| Leaving London | Typical door to door | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 05:00 - 06:30 | 2h 10m - 2h 20m | Quietest run of the day; ideal for a Bath meeting or a spa booking |
| 07:00 - 09:30 weekday | 2h 40m - 3h | Slow leaving London; the M4 itself is usually fine past Slough |
| 10:00 - 15:00 | 2h 20m - 2h 40m | Steady; the sweet spot for a leisurely departure |
| 15:00 - 19:00 Friday | 2h 50m - 3h 10m | Weekend traffic to the West Country; leave early or after 19:00 |
| Saturday midday | 2h 30m - 2h 50m | Motorway clear, Bath approach roads busy; ask for the A4 via Box |
| After 19:00 any day | 2h 10m - 2h 20m | Same fare as daytime; no night rate |
Bath is a compact Georgian city with a pedestrianised core, a Clean Air Zone and streets that were laid out for sedan chairs, so knowing where a car can actually stop matters more here than in most cities. Your driver will, and it is worth knowing too.
Roman Baths, Bath Abbey and the Pump Room sit in the pedestrian zone. The nearest drop-off is on Orange Grove or Terrace Walk, a two-minute walk to the Abbey churchyard. Thermae Bath Spa is a short walk from a drop on Hot Bath Street or Westgate Buildings. The Royal Crescent and the Circus can be reached directly: the driver pulls onto Brock Street or the Crescent itself for the Royal Crescent Hotel. Pulteney Bridge and Great Pulteney Street are reachable from the Bathwick side, which is also where the Holburne Museum sits. Bath Spa station has a proper drop-off on Dorchester Street. The University of Bath at Claverton Down is up a steep hill east of the centre and is the one address where the Chippenham and A4 route is nearly always better. The Royal United Hospital is at Combe Park on the west side, straight off the A4 without entering the centre.
Hotels we drop at most weeks: the Royal Crescent, the Gainsborough Bath Spa, the Bath Priory, the Macdonald Bath Spa on Sydney Road, the Francis and the Abbey Hotel on the south side of the centre, and the Apex by the river. Give us the name and we know the door.
Bath's Clean Air Zone charges older taxis and private hire vehicles to enter the centre. Our vehicles are compliant, and where a charge applies it is already inside the fixed fare - there is nothing to pay at the Bath end and no "CAZ fee" on the invoice.
Most of the year the last mile is straightforward. A handful of dates change that, and we plan around them rather than discovering them at the Lansdown roundabout.
The Christmas Market, late November to mid December, closes streets around the Abbey and fills the park-and-rides by mid-morning; we drop on the edge of the closure and it is a five-minute walk in. Bath Rugby at the Rec closes Great Pulteney Street and the Bathwick approaches for two hours either side of kick-off, so a Saturday match day means the west-side route in. The Bath Half Marathon in March closes most of the city centre until early afternoon. The Bath Festival in May and Bath Racecourse meetings at Lansdown add traffic on the A46 approach itself. Tell us the date and, if it is one of these, we build the pickup time around it and tell you where the car will actually stop.
Worth setting out honestly, because for one person travelling light the train is often the right answer and we would rather say so. GWR from Paddington to Bath Spa takes about 1h 25m and costs roughly £40 to £140 depending on how far ahead you book. National Express from Victoria Coach Station takes around 3h 15m and is the cheapest seat, at the cost of a fixed timetable and a coach-station walk at each end. The car does the whole thing door to door in about 2h 20m with your bags in the boot.
| Private car | GWR train | Coach | |
|---|---|---|---|
| City centre to city centre | 2h 20m | 1h 25m | 3h 15m |
| Door to door, realistically | 2h 20m | 2h 15m - 2h 45m | 4h+ |
| Cost for one | £345 | £40 - £140 | £10 - £30 |
| Cost for four, per head | about £86 | £40 - £140 each | £10 - £30 each |
| Luggage | whatever fits the vehicle | rack space, carried by you | hold, limits apply |
| 03:00 or Sunday engineering | same fare, runs anyway | no service or rail replacement | limited |
| Stop at Stonehenge or Windsor | yes, on request | no | no |
The comparison changes with numbers and luggage. £345 split between four is about £86 each, door to door - no getting to Paddington, no concourse, no taxi queue on Dorchester Street at the far end. Add luggage that will not go on a rail rack, a Sunday engineering closure, or two addresses to collect from, and the car wins on everything but the bare journey time.
A private car is the only option on this route that can stop, and the road to Bath passes more than most. Windsor Castle is ten minutes off the M4 at Junction 6, on the way out of London. Stonehenge is the classic detour: M3 and A303 to the stones, then north on the A36 through Warminster into Bath, about an hour longer in total. Castle Combe and Lacock, two of the most photographed villages in England, are minutes off the Chippenham route. Avebury, Longleat and Bradford-on-Avon all sit within a short reach of the city. We price a multi-stop day as a day hire rather than as separate legs, which is cheaper and keeps the same driver and vehicle with you throughout.
At the other end, Bristol Airport is about 20 miles from Bath and Bristol Temple Meads 13, so a Bath stay that ends with a flight from Bristol or a train north is easy to build into the same booking.
The return runs the same way at the same price. Book both legs together and the driver either waits with you for a same-day return or comes back on a set date. For an early flight or an early meeting at the London end we set the Bath pickup from your arrival time, allowing for the A46 hill and the M4, rather than guessing.
On an overnight or longer stay it is usually cheaper to book two one-ways than to hold a driver in Bath, and we will tell you which is better for your dates rather than selling you the more expensive option. Bath to Heathrow for a flight home is the most common return we run on this route.
Any address inside the M25 and most outside it. The quote is built on the real distance from your door to Bath, not from a notional central point, so a Croydon pickup and a Camden pickup are not quoted the same, and a Heathrow pickup is quoted lower than either.
Collecting two or three people from different addresses costs nothing extra when they are broadly on the way out west, which is how most group bookings on this route actually run: one from Fulham, one from Chiswick, one from Ealing, then the M4.
A Saloon at £345 takes four people and two large cases; an MPV at £435 takes six and four cases; an eight-seater at £485 takes seven and seven cases. The case count is the number that catches people, not the seat count, and over 115 miles it matters: four adults wedged around four suitcases is a miserable way to spend two and a half hours, and we would rather size it correctly at the quote stage.
Child seats and boosters are free but must be named in advance with the child's age, since the seat is fitted before the vehicle leaves. Skis, bikes, instruments, golf clubs, flight cases, wedding dresses on a rail and wheelchairs all travel when flagged at booking. Parties above seven - a hen weekend, a wedding party, a university intake - go in several vehicles routed together, leaving from the same address at the same time.
However you book - online, by phone or on WhatsApp - you get the same thing: a written confirmation with the fare and the time, then the driver's name and registration ahead of the journey. Card, bank transfer or a business account, with monthly invoicing for firms that run this route regularly. Nothing is added at the end - no meter, no checkout fee, no fuel surcharge, no surge.
Plans change, and on a 115-mile trip they change more than most. Move the time or date and the fare holds, provided the route is unchanged. A genuine change of route - a different pickup, an extra stop - is requoted before you commit, never added afterwards.
The £345 is the £345. It does not move for traffic, for the hour, for the day of the week or for how busy we happen to be. A meter passes every delay on the M4 to the passenger; a fixed fare keeps it with the operator who chose the route, which is where it belongs.
It also means the number works before the journey: you can put it in an expense claim or split it between the people travelling without waiting to see what the meter says. The only thing that changes a quoted fare is you changing the journey.
From £345 in a Saloon, £435 in a six-seat MPV and £485 in an eight-seater. That is the whole fare for the vehicle, not a per-person rate, and it is fixed when you book rather than metered. Split four ways a Saloon is about £86 each.
About 2h 20m for the 115 miles on a clear run, and up to 3h 10m if you leave in a Friday-afternoon or bank-holiday peak. The driver's required break is already inside the time quoted.
No. Heathrow sits on the M4 about 15 miles closer to Bath, so a Heathrow to Bath taxi is quoted lower than the £345 central London fare and takes around two hours. Every pickup is priced on its real distance.
For one person booking early, usually yes: GWR from Paddington takes about 1h 25m and costs £40 to £140. For three or more the car is level or better, door to door, with no luggage limit, no Paddington and no taxi queue at Bath Spa.
The Roman Baths and the Abbey are in the pedestrian zone, so the driver drops on Orange Grove or Terrace Walk, two minutes' walk away. The Royal Crescent and the Circus can be reached directly by car, as can Bath Spa station, the university and the hospital.
No. Our vehicles are compliant and, where a charge applies to a private hire vehicle, it is already inside the fixed fare. Nothing is added at the Bath end.
Yes. Windsor is ten minutes off the M4 on the way out; Stonehenge is about an hour extra via the A303 and the A36. We price a multi-stop day as a single day hire, which is cheaper than separate legs and keeps the same driver with you.
Yes. There is no night rate, no weekend rate and no surge. A 04:00 departure on a bank holiday is quoted at the same figure as a Tuesday lunchtime.
Yes, and a return booked at the same time is the easier arrangement. The driver either waits or returns on a set date, and you get the registration and driver details in advance either way. Bath to Heathrow for a flight home is the most common return we run.
Up to four with two large cases in a Saloon, six with four cases in an MPV, and seven with seven cases in an eight-seater. Larger groups travel in several vehicles routed together from the same address.
We know the closures - Great Pulteney Street on a match day, the streets around the Abbey during the market - and route in from the west side, dropping you on the edge of the closure a few minutes' walk from where you are going. The fare does not change.
The fare was fixed when you booked, so a closure or a long queue costs you nothing extra. The driver re-routes - usually the A4 through Chippenham and Box - and keeps you informed, and if the delay threatens something fixed at the Bath end we tell you early rather than late.
A few days is comfortable and is when the fare is at its most competitive against a walk-up rail ticket. We do take same-day bookings when a car and a driver's hours allow it, but the choice of vehicle narrows.
Yes. Get London Transfer Ltd holds Transport for London private hire operator licence 11588. Every booking on this site is operated by us, drivers hold enhanced DBS clearance and vehicles are inspected to licensing standards. Our only website is getlondontransfer.co.uk.
Fares are fixed at booking and shown per vehicle. Distances and journey times are approximate and vary with traffic and the exact pickup address. Drop-off points in Bath reflect current pedestrian-zone and event arrangements; check bathnes.gov.uk for temporary closures. Page reviewed 25 September 2026.