Getting to Bristol - Transport

Bristol is the largest city in the West of England, and a transport hub, by the junction of the M4 and M5 motorways and less than 2 hours from London on the Great Western Railway - it also has one of the largest regional airports in the UK, with flights from numerous budget (and not-so-budget) airlines connecting across Europe.

Flights

Bristol (BRS)

Bristol airport is a local hub for both easyJet (http://www.easyjet.com/en/routemap) and Ryanair (https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/cheap-flight-destinations), as well as some flights on Wizz, BMI Regional, KLM, SN Brussels, Aer Lingus and others.

To get from the airport to the city centre, there are 2 options - the "Airport Flyer" bus (route A1) or a taxi.

The Flyer is £7 one-way or £11 return to the city centre, or £5 one-way or £6 return to the "West Street/Parson Street" stop in South Bristol, for those short on cash and high on energy for walking.

A taxi will cost somewhere around £25 to the city centre, so only really makes sense for a group of 4 travelling together.

Stansted (STN) and Luton (LTN)

These two are the budget airline capitals of the UK - that's the good news.  The bad news is that they're at least 3.5 hours away from Bristol, by train (see below) - and significantly more if you go by coach (bus) via central London.

Heathrow (LHR) and Gatwick (LGW)

London's two main airports.  If you happen to be coming via one of these, the coach is your best option - it's about 2 hours from Heathrow to Bristol, nearly direct (there's one side-stop on the edge of Reading), and closer to 3 hours from Gatwick.  These used to all be National Express, but Megabus have now got the right to run some as well. There are train options, but it quickly gets either complicated or expensive.

Birmingham (BHX)

Yes, the "second city" of the UK (don't get in the way if Glasgow or Manchester decides to contest this) also has an airport, and a pretty busy one.  There are some buses from here to Bristol (though fewer than from Heathrow/Gatwick - again, look at National Express and Megabus), and it's about an hour and a half by train (via Birmingham New Street) - again, see below about trains.

Cardiff (CWL), Southampton (SOU) and Exeter (EXT)

There are flights to all of these, but not that many - in all cases, you'd potentially have to go via the relevant city centre before connecting to Bristol

Trains

The UK has a very extensive rail network, connecting all the major cities and linking quite a lot of smaller towns as well.  However, it is also remarkably expensive, unless you book it in advance and specify the exact train you will travel on.

All the UK train operating companies have their own websites, and all of them can sell tickets on all trains.  For an overview, you can start by looking on http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

The costs of tickets if you turn up and book on the day are often terrifying.  There are 3 ticket types that are always available: Anytime (full price), Off-Peak and Super Off-Peak.  These are, respectively, horrifyingly expensive, rather expensive, and expensive.

The way to travel on the UK's rail network without selling your granny or your soul is Advance tickets - a limited number of these are made available on each train, and they are released about 10 to 12 weeks before travel.  Travelling away from peak/busy times, you can sometimes get reasonable prices for this (e.g. one-way between Bristol and London for less than £20).  You have to specify the exact train, and you are given a seat reservation - you must sit in that seat.  You usually need to collect these from the station your journey starts from, from an automatic machine, using the card you booked online with.

If booking tickets to Bristol, you want Bristol Temple Meads station - unless you are staying with a host who lives right out on the northern edge of the city, you do not want to get tickets to Bristol Parkway!

Connecting with London, the trains leave from Paddington station, and (as long as there aren't engineering works happening) take 1h45m.

Coaches(buses)

The UK has two major coach (long distance bus) companies - National Express (http://www.nationalexpress.com/home.aspx) and Megabus (http://uk.megabus.com/).

They're pretty competitive on price, though National Express (NX) tends to have slightly more departures so there are usually a few more options.

Connecting with London, the coaches leave from Victoria Coach Station (this is not the same as Victoria Station, for the trains - they're about 10-15 minutes' walk apart) and take between 2h30m and 3h on the schedule (and can be longer than this if stuck in rush-hour traffic in or out of Bristol or London)