Taxi transfer Gatwick Airport to Bath

Be careful with the online booking sites.

I gave up on them ages ago, booked a cab from Gatwick to Tonbridge and the car could only manage about 40 mph on the M25 gradients. Felt totally unsafe. Grubby as well.

You might be better using a Bath based company that you know?

Gatwick to Bath is not going to be cheap, is it worth looking at one-way car hire maybe?

I'd be booking a Bath-based taxi/car.

Ask around, see who can recommend a chauffeur-type owner/driver.

National express ? there's a service from gatwick to bristol and you could collect from there. direct buses at 18:50 and 22:50. in between it changes at heathrow

Depends on the Kids age I guess, but a Taxi is going to be expensive so maybe the train is an option? The Gatwick Express is excellent and gets you in to central London (Victoria Station) then an Uber (or Taxi if you are feeling flush) to Paddington for a direct train to Bath that takes about 1 hour 20.

Thanks for the suggestions. We had looked at National Express, but it is a long time with tired children, and not that much cheaper than taxi transfer

I used to do taxi / airport runs, there must be a few different private hire guys in Bath. Just Google a few, read reviews and phone them.

Things to ask about would be waiting fees for delayed flights, if  parking charges, and method of collection. Some may charge a flat rate for everything others will be the trip rate and then additionals for waiting and parking etc.

Gatwick is a absolute pita as there's no official taxi waiting zone, and no where to wait near the airport - so you have to arrive dead on time and hope the flight isn't delayed while racking up parking charges. Heathrow has a taxi carpark, that used to be £1 an hour for private hire plates so you could just sit their and wait for the customer to call for collection.

Gatwick coach to Reading railway station, jump on a train direct to Bath from there.

Actually, ignore me as I don't think there is a bus anymore, sure there used to be, though I think there is still a train direct to Reading from Gatwick, so only a 2 train trip.

A night in a Gatwick hotel and then the above would possibly be cheaper than a taxi for that journey

yes, Gatwick to Reading is a train line but there is engineering work (signalling) between Guildford and Reading so rail replacements have been in use even in the day time. I think most of it is finished but check closures for the day they're travelling if you look at that

Will follow up on the taxi from Bath, and thanks for the tips on possible charges.

Looked at all the public transport options beforehand and they would be long and arduous for the young mother after her flight, plus possibilities of train strikes too.

So any recommendations for a good taxi/ transfer company in Bath /Bristol would be appreciated,

train looks like Gatwick - Farringdon - Paddington - Bath. Which looks like a PITA with kids.

Taxi is a bit of a hassle at Gatwick since as you say the pick up point for either terminal is a hike through the car parks (south particularly) since only the official taxi can park nearer the terminal. However taxi drivers just wait outside the airport.

Hopefully customs is going to be easier for families with U12 at Gatwick. Must have been a 1hr-1.5hr queue for customs office last week. Although that was 1/2 term.

Yeah deffo book from Bath end

Plenty of Ubers in the Gatwick area, otherwise Evo taxis are the local decent price pre booked service. Can pay up front or at your destination, cash and card accepted.

I'd book the Gatwick end as they can just assign a driver once you're through baggage collection, rather than paying for a driver to wait for potentially hours.

National express might be direct to bath though?

Wnice cars. Safe drivers, no xtras.

Meet m greet get an estate if you have lots of luggage. They can provide child seats if required.

https://www.romanbathprivatehire.co.uk

Gatwick to Bath is not going to be cheap, is it worth looking at one-way car hire maybe?

I shudder to think about how much it would cost; it’s a fiver for a taxi in town to my house, a twenty minute walk, after someone suggested catching a taxi after doing some shopping that ended up being rather heavy. I’d rather walk home a bit slower.

Well Evo charge me £100 to Heathrow, an extra tenner home (pickup fee), from the south coast. Bath is nigh on double the distance to Gatwick so I'd wager £200.

Not cheap, but other minicabs are 50% more.

I’ve used Nexus Transfers several times for Bath to Heathrow.

As a solo private hire driver (working for myself) I used to charge £115 from Stroud to Heathrow and £150 to Gatwick. I was around 10-20% cheaper than the competition at the time and very busy. But only once had a well timed drop off and collection  - I still had to wait 2 hours between jobs.

This is 4years ago though when fuel and everything was significantly cheaper. Id have thought i would be charging  around £250ish collection now for Gatwick as it's so time consuming . Any more, and companies will be pricing them selves out of the market and you may as well get 3x train tickets.

Covid killed the buisness for me, I'd only been running 2 years and it was a 2nd job for me. Lost around 10k on it and wasn't eligible for any COVID grants as I was too new as self employed. But I didn't find a great loss as I got my free time back, having very little riding time was a killer. Just wish if kept the 7seater though as it's worth the same today as it was when I bought it in 2018 - with the additional 50k miles!

Plus iirc there's no free dropping area at Gatwick Airport. Anpr auto payment for anyone driving into the airfeild..

We’ve used Windsor Cars to and from Gatwick. They are excellent (generally Merc E classes) and about £50. That’s half way to Bath. Give them a call. Or book locally from Bath and they might be able to schedule an out as well to mitigate costs.

I used these guys based nr Trowbridge who cover Bath in 2019 for a trip to Gatwick at stupid o clock, £155 then for an estate car. They also did the collection from Gatwick to home. Driver was on time, courteous and the car was modern, clean and tidy. Appreciate that's only 1 review, but they get good reviews on Tripadvisor.

We’ve used Windsor Cars to and from Gatwick. They are excellent (generally Merc E classes) and about £50. That’s half way to Bath.

I don’t think it is you know.

In all seriousness book local and it will be £200 to £250 one way depending upon time of day.

They’ll know where to wait and cost for drop off if it’s a big part of day to day work no need to worry about that part.