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It depends on how long you wait and where you are bitten. The further a bite is from the brain, the longer you have to live, and the larger a mammal is, the longer it takes for the rabies to develop (so, for example, a whale bitten on the tail will take almost a decade for the rabies to develop and kill it).
However, even then, the shots aren't just a one-time ordeal. You need to find a way to get a shot a day for I think twenty or so days before the rabies affects the brain. Remember that these are vaccines. There are no cures, you can only race against time to prevent it (or you can vaccinate yourself before there is any reason to fear, which is common in certain occupations).
Unless your circumstances are generous, like if you got bitten in a lucky spot with a lenient amount of rabies and then rushed immediately to the hospital, your chances of surviving are next to zero. The reason bat bites mean certain death is because they always bite on the neck, with people who don't know the signature thorn-like feeling of a bat bite not realizing they were bitten fast enough to react in time (so yeah, if you feel a thorny sensation while walking at night, call someone immediately).
You got some misinformation here
The current Post Exposure rabies Prophylaxis (PEP) regimen is definitely not "a shot a day" for 20 days
First day you get a dose of vaccine and a dose of human rabies immune globulin (HRIG)
Then you get an additional vaccine dose on days 3, 7, 14, and if you're immunocompromised you get an additional dose on day 28
And if you've previously received the rabies vaccine (for either pre- or post- exposure) you only need a booster on days 0 and 3.
And the incubation period varies, like you said location and viral load plays into it, in humans it can be as little as a week, but more commonly it's a couple months, and even up to a year. There are a lot of variables at play, and the sooner you can start PEP the better of course, but generally speaking it's usually not a "rush immediately to the hospital in an ambulance or you will die" situation. If it comes to it, you usually have at least a couple days of wiggle room to start PEP.
And no, bats don't always bite the neck. Head and neck are pretty common, they're usually pretty exposed, and bats fly so it would be kind of weird for them to bite you on the leg for example, but it's not like they're magically drawn to act out the plot of a vampire movie. It is true though that a lot of people don't recognize a bat bite for what it is.
I figured I was probably missing a bunch of nuance. Thanks.
I guess bats could bite on the head, but what would that do with a hard skull protecting you?
I am no expert on the subject, but I think the kinds of bats that bite humans aren't looking to bite a chunk out of you. From my understanding, they want to make a wound and then consume the blood.
Apparently, the bites are small enough to often not be visible, so sometimes if you find a dead bat in your house you should collect it to be tested for rabies, as you may not be aware of having been bitten.
Again, not an expert. Almost all of the above was learned by reading Reddit posts back when I went there.
I live in the UK, so rabies isn't a thing. Is there a vaccination I should get before travelling?
Not anymore than any other vaccine.