Hotels near the venue vs hotel in main city centre

KatieJane

Hi guys

I just wanted abit of advice...

I am getting married in Bath, the reception is in Bradford on Avon (Approx 5 Miles away). We had to make a compromise and the place we are holding our reception doesn't have any accomadation.

We have family and friends from all around the outside of Bath but only a few within, however seeing as this seems the central point I am wondering whether to hire a coach and bring everyone back to Bath for a hotel stay or to carry on home, or go for b&bs in Bradford on Avon, leave the coach and expect people to make their own way to a b&b or home?

This seems like such a simple thing but its really stressing me out

sarah69696pink

I think so long as there are plenty of B&Bs available on your date in BOA you can leave the coach, but if not then I'd consider it, as someone who lives nearby taxis are not the cheapest and public transport not great, so I think it's a nice touch to offer transport to somewhere like Bath if there is not enough available accommodation in BOA for everyone

LEJC

I would personally leave it up to guests to decide where they want to stay...

I know both the areas well and can only say that any city centre hotel in Bath if it comes with car parking is usually very expensive...or the cheaper ones have to use the NCP car parks and pay the standard costs...sadly with Bath there are very few places to park a car in the centre of town where there wont be a charge for it.

Personally I would give details of the nearest car park to your ceremony and suggest that people park there before the ceremony on a 2 hour limit and move their cars to the reception in BOA afterwards...although its only 5 miles its probably realistically about a 20 min journey,as its mainly country or smaller roads rather than dual carriageway,but it is a nice journey once you clear the town area...I would suggest you have a practice run between your ceremony location and reception location as whilst its only a few miles,one of the routes out of Bath towards BOA can become very congested on a Saturday and if thats a route you plan for your guests to take then getting through the centre and out to the uncongested area could take a lot longer than you think...depedant on the flows of traffic what sometimes is a clear run can take over an hour, so it may be worthwhile you co orinating with your reception over arrival times.

B and B's....not sure there is a wide choice in the BOA area but you also have Trowbridge and westbury not too far away and I think there is a travelodge or one of the other chains at Beckington,which isnt a great distance from BOA....the travelodge in Beckington is usually about 3 x cheaper than the travelodge in Bath just to give you a comparison on costs...

I wouldnt bother with a coach unless it was only going to drop off and pick up at a set location, and not all the cheaper central hotels are located in the same area of Bath and it will still mean pepole will need to walk to their hotels...for example a coach will probably suggest a pick up and drop off point at the bus/coach station,there are 2 travel lodges/holiday in expresses in Bath and none are really close to the bus station...the closest 2 being about a 10 min walk in 2 different directions and the third about a 15 min walk up through the centre of Bath...unfortunately parking and dropping restrictions in central Bath probably mean that a coach wepuldnt be able to multiple drop your guests at individual hotels.

What time of year are you getting married....if its next summer or a weekend tagged to a bank holiday you might want to think about approaching "outside Bath " hotels etc now...Bath is quite an expensive place for hotels and realistically lots of tourists do opt for the out of town places and they are booked up quite quickly.

LEJC

Just as a footnote you might really want to consider hotels outside Bath if your wedding is in May next year....the Bath international music festival runs from mid may to beginning of June and hotels can get booked up quite early especially for the weekend around the bank holiday at the end of may...

Of course it really depends how many guests you have travelling to the area for your wedding but if you do need hotel or b&b accomodation during that time then its a good idea to plan it now...

seashore22

If it was me, I would let them sort out for themselves where they want to stay. Everyones preferences will be different and if I was a guest I would like to decide for myself.

You could always give your guests a list of accommodation in Bath and Bradford. I live in Bath and there are so many lovely places to stay. They will be spoilt for choice.

Also if it helps, my daughter got married this year and did just this.

I really wouldn't bother with providing transport. I've only been to one wedding which had a coach laid on and it meant we couldn't be flexible about when we wanted to go home.

Edit - as others have said, Bath is expensive to stay in. Car park costs are ridiculously expensive too. Saturdays in the summer are heaving with tourists and I tend to avoid it for that reason.