Bath or Cardiff as a base?

We spent three nights in Bath and two in Cardiff back in 2017 so we know those places very well.

First, forget using Cardiff for a base to see Bath. Way too much travel involved, you would waste a lot of time doing that. Cardiff is worth a couple of days to see the Cardiff Castle, St. Fagan's Museum of Welsh Life and Caerphilly Castle (take the train).

Bath, stay at the Brooks Guesthouse and dine at the Scallop Shell (best fish and chips in England). You can take a day trip to Wells and Glastonbury if you like.

For the Cotswolds, I recommend Chipping Campden, stay at the Volunteer Inn which has a great pub as well as an Indian Restaurant.
You can see the Cotswolds in two days from there. You do need a rental car. If you stay only at Bath and do the Cotswolds, you will spend way more time driving.

Split up our base cities.

Great advice, thank you. Do we need a car while in Cardiff? Also we head home on Oct 28th with a flight leaving LHR at around 2pm.....so would it be best to travel from London to Cardiff first, and then go to Bath? That way on our last day we would train to LHR from Bath rather than Cardiff. I believe the trains run pretty often from both places but just wanted to be sure we are doing the most logical sequence of things.

Any recommendations for accommodations in Cardiff?

christina,
I don't remember the hotel in Cardiff where we stayed, it was downtown and we had to park in a garage two blocks away. It was OK. Check on TripAdvisor.

You won't need a car to see Cardiff Castle and Caerphilly Caste (take the train). However, if you what to see St. Fagan's Museum of Welsh Life, you would need some way to get there from downtown. It is on the western edge of the city, probably a some miles away. Not sure what public transport would be there.

Bath would make a better base for visiting parts of the Cotswolds. We had a rental car on our last Wales trip and used Tintern as a base for three days. From it we visited Tintern Abbey, Caerphilly and Coch castles, Monmouth and a few other castles such as, Raglan, White, Skenfrith, and Grosmont. Nearby are Harold’s standing stones, a Neolithic site. In Tintern we stayed at Parva Farmhouse and thoroughly enjoyed it.

We didn’t go into Cardiff on that trip since we had visited it, basically the castle area, before as a day trip from Bath. Cardiff is just over an hour’s drive from Bath. On that same trip, also had a rental car, we also took day trips to Wells, Salisbury, Cheddar Gorge, Glastonbury, and Stonehenge. I can’t say I’d base myself from any one spot for more than a few days since you spend a lot of time getting back to the base town after taking the day trips.

If you do have a rental car when visiting Caerphilly castle, rather than try to park in the lot in front of the castle, park in the lot on the backside of it along Crescent Road (Crescent Road Car Park). It’s easier to access, less crowded, and a little less expensive.

It was before Covid, but there was a bus that left from the front of the Holiday Inn going to St. Fagan's-it was easy and there wereseveral times in the afternoon when it was coming back to Cardiff.

You do not need a car if staying in Cardiff city centre. Of the bigger hotels, consider the Holiday Inn (near the Castle), Premier Inn (on Churchill Way), Hilton (on Kingsway) or St.David’s Hotel (facing Cardiff Bay). All the above are walkable from the Central Station except the St.David’s Hotel.

I highly recommend a visit to St.Fagans Castle & Museum (in a village on western edge of Cardiff). See bus 32:> https://www.cardiffbus.com/services/CB/32

Also go to Caerphilly Castle = a 20 minute train ride to the north. (Caerphilly is a dump but the castle is a huge moated medieval part ruin from the 1100’s). Castell Coch is also worth a visit if you can hike up the steep hill from the bus stop in Tongwynlais - on northern edge of Cardiff.

It is possible to do Bath as a day trip from Cardiff by train as the journey is just over an hour. It would be almost impossible to stay in Bath and do Cardiff as a day trip and see Cardiff Castle, St.Fagans and Caerphilly Castles.

Glastonbury is not worth visiting in my view. I drove through Glastonbury last week and the roads are poor and overloaded with traffic.

As suggested above, you could stay in somewhere like Tintern (famous Abbey ruin) and travel out from that base by car to visit Bath, The Cotswolds, Brecon Beacons/Big Pit coal mine (underground tour of disused mine) and St. Fagans/ Caerphilly Castle. (If going to Bath or Cardiff centre from Tintern or nearby, it would be best to drive car to Severn Tunnel Junction station and then use the trains - if not on strike). The M4 north of Bristol & round Newport is VERY busy and jams can occur. Chepstow also has a medieval castle. - which can be easily done by train from Cardiff & combine that with a local bus to see Tintern Abbey. Buses >https://www.traveline.info

One thing that we discovered driving in Great Britain, especially southern England, is that going from point A to point B will take longer than you plan.

First of all, going through those small villages where the speed limit drops to 30 MPH, they have radar cameras that take your photo and you get an expensive ticket. I got a ticket going 35 MPH in a 30 MPH zone and the ticket was for something like 40 GBP.

Also, traffic is heavier and parking is not always easy to find.

Yes, you can see the Cotswolds staying at Bath, but if you stay at Chipping Campden, it is already in the Cotswolds and your parking is close to your lodging. When we stayed in Bath, we had to park our vehicle three blocks from our B&B. Just getting out of the city of Bath, takes a while. DO a MAPQUEST for your routes prior to planning. It takes about two hours to go from Bath to Chipping Campden.

Do your research and plan your driving with the plan to minimize your wasted time driving.

I would not want to visit York on a day trip from London. There is a lot to see in Bath. Not only will you lose the 4 hours you'll spend sitting ion trains, you have to factor in the travel time from your London hotel to Kings Cross Station and the trip back to your hotel at the end of the day, plus the time to get between the train station in York and the places you want to see in Bath--and vice versa.

Also we head home on Oct 28th with a flight leaving LHR at around 2pm.....so would it be best to travel from London to Cardiff first, and then go to Bath? That way on our last day we would train to LHR from Bath rather than Cardiff.

There's no train from Cardiff or Bath direct to LHR. You could take the train into London (Paddington) and then the Heathrow Express or the Underground back out to LHR. For a 2 pm flight, I'd suggest train the day before from either Bath or Cardiff (Bath is closer) to Windsor (via Slough), see the castle if possible and spend the night, then a taxi a short distance to LHR.

I wouldn't recommend leaving Bath or Cardiff on Oct 28 to make a 2 pm flight out of LHR, by any conveyance. Too many ways you could get delayed and miss the flight.

Just a few suggestions: After arriving in London, take the train to York and spend a night or two. Doing it as a day trip from London doesn't allow enough time to explore York. Plus, depending when your arrive at Heathrow, you won't be able to check in to your London hotel until later in the day. So, use your jet-lagged arrival day to travel to York.

From York, travel by train to Cardiff. It takes about 4-1/2 hours and goes through farmland.. Premier Inn on Queen Street is convenient. No need for a car. Cardiff Castle is an easy walk; Caerphilly is a quick train ride. Fagan's is a bus ride.

Train to Bath. Take a day trip to Cotwolds on MadMax tour. Enjoy the free walking tour of Bath. See the Roman baths, the Cathedral, etc.

Train back to London.

My best advice is with only 10 days, limit yourself to London and one other destination so you have more time for exploring and lose less time to travel. Either York or Bath are good choices, and I would still suggest using your arrival day to travel by train to either York or Bath. End in London so you have easy access to Heathrow.