Bath-Bristol

Do you plan to rent a car? That would make seeing the Cotswolds a lot easier. Only Moreton-in-Marsh has rail service, then there are some buses. However, it's usually pretty challenging to visit more than two small towns in a day via bus, and those Cotswold villages are tiny. Unless you plan to do some country walking, you'd probably want to move faster than the bus schedules will allow.

Wells is doable from Bristol via public transportation. So is Cardiff, Wales.

Bath and Bristol are extremely close together. You would expand your range of day-trips if you chose two bases a bit farther apart.

Your questions are hard ones to answer. What's "best" for you depends on what you're interested in, and whether it's better to take an organized tour or go on your own depends a lot on where you want to go. Will you have a car, or will you be relying on public transportation? How far afield are you interested in traveling from your home bases, and why did you pick those cities as home bases in the first place? Have you traveled in the UK before?

For example, when I lived in Bristol, I'd often take day trips into London (very doable at about a two-hour trip each way by bus or train) - but I'd assume that if you wanted to see London, you'd be staying in London. A popular day trip in that part of the country is to spend half a day in Glastonbury and half a day in Wells. Also in that area is the Cheddar Gorge (great hiking, and caves of prehistoric significance) and the town of Cheddar (home to the original cheddar cheese).

I can come up with more ideas for you, but it would help a lot if you could tell me some more about what you're looking for.

Thank you so much for your replies!I have been to UK before visiting London on my previous visits so that time something different to the capital city was chosen.
We are not to rent a car so we would lie to transport systems only. Besides spending some days within the cities we would have also the time needed to acquaint ourselves with the nearby beauties as well. Cotswolds I suppose is an area that seems to require for more organised tours that's the reason I was thinking of picking a guide tour instead of just taking the train.
I would be grateful if you could share more recommendations concerning Bristol and things to do there too.
Thank you once again!

A day is long enough for me in Bath and two in Bristol. The Cotswalds are a sprawl in between and probably require a car to see thoroughly. However, my advice is about air transport. Bristol has an active international airport so I suggest you check out a multi-destination flight itinerary, flying either into or out of Bristol and connecting through another another international gateway, London being the most obvious. Use a multi-destination search function.

Salisbury & Stonehenge is an easy day trip from either. You could do an organised trip with Mad Max from Bath.

Or just hop on the train from Bath or Bristol to Salisbury - takes about an hour. From Salisbury station you can pick up a tour bus to Stonehenge, and then spend some time exploring Salisbury too.

You could go to Cardiff from Bristol by train, too, if you want to see Wales.

I just did my 2nd tour with MadMax last month. I did their Cotswold day tour from Bath which included Castle Combe, Badminton (drive by), Stow-on-the-Wold, Broadway and Bourton on Water. It was a quick glimpse but worked fine for our purposes. The previous tour was in 2013 or so, going to Stonehenge/Avebury/Lacock and Castle Combe.

I agree with Jane on the suggestion of a day trip to Salisbury, either with or without Stonehenge. To me there is more than enough to do in Salisbury for a day tour on it’s own.

As to Bath, I’m crazy about it. I’ve visited several times, spending 6 nights one time. I find a lot to do there and still haven’t crossed everything off my list. Besides The Roman Baths, the Royal Crescent, the Circus, the Assembly Rooms/Fashion Museum and the Abbey, there is Prior Park landscape Garden (very neat and rare Palladian landscape bridge), #1 Royal Crescent museum, Holburne Museum, Parade Gardens. Last month I finally got down beside the river and walked to the Kennet and Avon Canal near the train station. The others I was with didn’t really want to continue to walk so we turned around. Next time I’ll go further!!

Have fun!

Bristol is a very nice city that's not on many travelers' radars. Be warned, though, that there are a lot of very steep hills, and city-wide public transportation is not that great, so I hope your leg muscles are in good shape.

Two of the city's claims to fame are the Clifton Suspension Bridge (an early example of its kind) and the SS Great Britain (a Victorian era passenger ship that's done up with a good reconstruction of what life was like on board). Both are worth a visit.

There are also a number of free museums that you can read about here: https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/ Of them, I recommend the Red Lodge and the Georgian House, two centrally located historical house museums. Blaise Castle is similar and also nice, but it's in the middle of nowhere and a lot harder to get to. The Bristol Museum & Art Gallery didn't make much of an impression on me, but its eclectic collection might be more to your taste than mine. M Shed opened after I moved away, so I can't tell you anything about it.

The St. Nicholas Market is a lot of fun to explore, with different vendors selling used books, knickknacks, food and drink, and all sorts of things. The indoor market is supplemented by an outdoor market with different themes on different days of the week.

Beyond all that, the city's just full of charming corners to be discovered. Some of my favorite were the Christmas Steps (a pedestrian lane that's literally a giant staircase lined with shops and restaurants), Victoria Square (with sandstone row houses on all four sides that rival the more famous ones in Bath) and the connecting archway to Clifton Village. Since you'll be in the area for a while, invest in a good map (there's an A-Z street atlas that covers both Bristol and Bath, and probably numerous apps with all the same information) and don't be afraid to explore. Have a great trip!

Thank you all so much for taking time to offer me so many precious information about my trip!Regards from Athens, Greece.

I think that in choosing Bath & Bristol, that you are choosing 2 places that are too close - only 15 minutes by train. Of the two, I would favour Bath but you might find cheaper accommodation in Bristol. (Of course, you may have already booked your accommodation in both Bath & Bristol).

From Bath, as has been said - take the train to Salisbury and then the Stonehenge shuttle bus - and see Salisbury cathedral before returning to Bath.

Cardiff is about 1 hour from Bath/Bristol by train but has so much to see that you could not do it all in one day. I would suggest that your second base is in Cardiff - which has a more compact city centre than Bristol. The city centre has Victorian & Edwardian (1800’s) arcades as well as modern shopping malls. Most tourists head for Cardiff Castle - about a 13 minute walk from the station. About 1.5Km south of the city centre is Cardiff Bay - which has waterside restaurants etc.
St.Fagans Castle & Museum (free) is about 8Km west of the city centre - Easyway Bus 32A. (This requires at least half a day).
https://museum.wales/stfagans/castle-and-gardens/

About 10Km north of the city is Caerphilly Castle - use local trains.http://cadw.gov.wales/daysout/caerphilly-castle/?lang=en
Castell Coch is also north of the city .http://cadw.gov.wales/daysout/castell-coch/?lang=en

Dyffryn Gardens (around £8 to enter) is about a 27 minute bus ride (use the First Cymru bus that is going to Porthcawl) to the village of
St. Nicholas and then a 1.5Km walk down a country lane.https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/dyffryn-gardens

You could also consider taking a train from Cardiff to Chepstow - and then take a bus (hourly) uptake Wye Valley to Tintern Abbey (ruin). Chepstow also has a castle. http://cadw.gov.wales/daysout/tinternabbey/?lang=en

http://www.visitcardiff.com

Of course, you would still not have seen the real Wales = mountainous country in the middle or the more spectacular parts of the coast. Consider taking tours from Cardiff with these:> www.seewales.com & www.wherewhenwales.com

For finding bus travel in England use www.traveline.info or in Wales >https://www.traveline.cymru
Best site for trains = www.nationalrail.co.uk