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.

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, 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.

Do you know where in Wales your ancestors came from? As mentioned above, Wales is very different in the various areas. You can find out more about Wales by reading the responses in the RS Wales forum section.

Most Brit’s would go and spend an entire week (or more) in just one area of Wales / England or Scotland - although I get it that foreigners try to cover too much territory in the time available. You could easily spend at least a week exploring Cornwall alone.

If you click here, you will see a You Tube video of a British TV programme about the Cambrian Line in Wales. (It could have been better but hey ho - give it some shot).

For Bodnant Gardens - check out this You Tube video. I suggest that Bodnant Gardens is likely at its best during the last week of May. This summer (2026) has seen drought and heatwaves in England & Wales which has led to the land becoming parched and looking very different later on in the summer from normal.

We have spend many days touring the UK and Ireland. Love the countryside. Many focus on large cities like London.
Do not miss the countryside.

Southern England has way more traffic than the rest of the country. Traffic is terrible in London and in Cornwall.

We have visited North and South Wales (my ancestors came from Cardiganshire in SW Wales). Great to visit, Conwy is amazing in the North, as are very scenic areas.
In the South, Cardiff, The Museum of Welsh Life and many great castles in both Wales and the English border. Don't miss St. Davids and Tenby.
For Cornwall and Devon we did a wonderful Rabbies Tour (very inexpensive) with a group of 15 in a small bus. Our driver/guide was super and knew how to take back roads to avoid the terrible traffic snarls in Cornwall.
Recommend looking at this Rabbies Tour, if you do it yourself you will have to negotiate huge traffic snarls. Also, parking is a problem in many places were you stop.

Our favorite cities in England are York Durham, Stratford Upon Avon, Winchester, Salisbury, Bath, Whitby, Cambridge and Oxford.

Thanks for all the helpful information and insights! I appreciate all the perspectives. I am I apires to go, now I juat need to make it happen! Thank you!