Best of England or South England???

If you want Wales, you need Best Of England. I have done the Best of South England and found it a great mix of the types of experiences you stated you are looking for. Time in London is easy to add before or after tour.

What time of year are you going?

I am fairly flexible with time. Trying to balance best weather with fewest crowds. Possibly late April/early May or early June.

You cover a lot more ground on the Best of England tour and that does mean that some days you are spending 5 hours sitting in the coach and viewing scenery through the window... You spnd less time in the coach on the South England tour - more usually 3-4 hours. You also spend more time walking... It sounds a slightly more 'in depth' tour and you may have more chance to enjoy the countryside too.

lori, your welsh roots should be appalled that Conwy and North Wales are considered to be part of England by the RS company! You ought to refuse to book that tour until they change the name. I saw that tour on the road last year, it was a plain white bus with no markings, had it said "Best of England" in big letters it might have provoked a "cultural" response, but not quite what the passengers were expecting..

And you wouldn't be exploring, you'd be going to where the bus takes you, and that would be a very beaten path. Since the RS Tours don't collect from and return to airports you would have to make some plans of your own, so why not evrything? Like 5 nights based one place in Cornwall, 2 nights Cardiff, 5 nights based in Llandudno, 2 nights London. I'm sure the man from Cumbria can advise which place in Cornwall would be best for their local bus network, and what they have in in the way of tourist passes. The 1Bws pass would be perfect for North Wales. And the long distance rides are easy by train and possibly "coach".

I know the RS tour has a guide, but who needs a guide walking on beaches or through gardens?

I raised the issue of naming a tour Best of England when it spends a not insignificant time in Wales a while ago and didn’t get a particularly satisfactory answer. From memory it was that many people booking the trip haven’t heard of or have no interest in Wales so they don’t want to put people off by including it in the tour name? At best it demonstrates ignorance and could be interpreted as a pretty offensive response from the R/S organisation. I’d love to see the response if they tried it with Scotland or Ireland!
Wales is definitely NOT England.

Looking at the tour itinerary I’m not sure you will have much time to really ‘explore’ Wales, a lot of it is going to be experienced out of a coach window, but that is the nature of this type of trip and not in itself a criticism.
Conwy is a nice little town. Llandudno next door is also worth exploring to see a traditional seaside holiday town. In Conwy the sausage rolls and pies from Edward’s come highly recommended

Mark Seymour is a former Rick Steves guide who now has his own company. I have not traveled with him, but have heard he and his fellow guides are very good. He has a tour in Wales that you might want to check out. You could add time in England, or do a second tour there. https://www.seymourtravels.co.uk/2027tours-1

Lori, we did BOE in 2019 and enjoyed it. We are leaving for our 10th RS Tour, the BO So England, in two weeks so I can offer a better comparison late next month. We have never been disappointed.
Why some replies seem so negative escapes me. His tours are pretty much what the tour description and itinerary states. We also did the 7 days London tour on a back to back with another tour. Pretty easy because no buses and same room every night. You might consider that. We went to Kinky Boots one evening. It was easy to setup ahead.
Ps; the sheep farm and cookout was a Wow moment for us as Border Collie owners. PM me if you like.

We did the Best of England tour this past June 14-27 which was our 7th RS trip. Although we always think our last tour was our favorite tour this one might really be our favorite tour. The roses were in full bloom, the gardens were beautiful, the scenery was gorgeous and there was a nice variety between the stops. We did have a couple of 98° days in London which was a bit rough. Our tour guide Bill Higgs was fantastic. At the intro, Bill told us this tour should be called the Best of England and Wales. Our bus driver drives both England tours and he said he prefers this one.

I've taken both tours. If you are interested in Wales do the Best of England. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the southern England tour, if I had to choose I'd pick the Best of England. There is not much time spent in Wales, but the time there is lovely.

Leaving aside the name of the Best of England tour, the question in some ways is which part of Wales you hail from. If you are wanting to bring out your welsh roots then they will be very different in South Wales to Mid Wales or North Wales.

So if you are South or West Wales you might wish to concentrate there, rather than in the North where RS goes to.

For instance my Welsh side is all North Wales (and the Borderlands)- a place near Oswestry, Bala, Caernarfon and the Isle of Anglesey, so there would be little point in my going to South or West Wales, if bringing out my roots.

Where RS goes to- Caernarfon and Conwy you will have relatively little chance to experience Welsh music, there are also other fine gardens even in North Wales than the eponymous Bodnant.

The thing is with Cornwall there is no one place, either by car or public transport to explore the whole of Cornwall.

You are, I assume, aware that the St Michael's Mount causeway is tidal, when the tide is in crossing is by boat. In some ways timing it for walk one way, boat the other is possibly the best of both worlds. I think the best place for a few nights would be Penzance, then explore the area around it.
One of the things musically you may want to try to catch is the shanty men. If you are wanting a small town then St Just or Mousehole may be more up your street than Penzance.
I know many suggest Falmouth but that is less optimal in your case.
There is a day bus ticket for the whole of Cornwall for £10 or a weekly one for £40 (either a ticket or capped credit card tapping), there is also Ride Cornwall (all buses and trains for £21), and daily, 3 days in 7, and 8 days in 15 rail rovers.

Cornwall is a long way from both London and anywhere in Wales, so those two transfers are each a full day. One of the best ways to get from London to Cornwall is the night Riviera sleeper. It is hugely better priced than it's Scottish counterpart.
I was looking the other day for myself and (admittedly in November) I could get a solo berth for just over £100- which is fantastic value (the berth supplement was just £69, then add on an under £40 base fare). Now that is the cheapest I've ever seen it, but it is never anything like the fares to Scotland.

In North Wales the 1Bws ticket at £7.50 a day or £32 a week is fantastic value.

I'm using it next week to go by bus from Chester to Holyhead (Anglesey) in 2 days, via inland North Wales and Snowdonia/Eryri, on a very meaningful route to me. There is a rather complicated Rail Rover ticket in North and mid Wales but I think it's pretty poor value.

Wherever you are on the Welsh coast there is the coastal path around the whole coast of Wales.

For full on Welsh culture the National Eistedfodd next year is the first week of August in the county of Powys. Powys has a pretty good bus network, and very good value Powys bus rover tickets, which extend far into surrounding counties as well.

Traws Cymru buses (and from 25 October 2026) a long distance Traws Cymru coach link south and north wales as well as the trains via England.