Need a SW base

Maybe SW19 for Wimbledon?

South West England?

Sorry...........I do mean the South-western part of England.

Our UK friends will have much better train info, but I can't imagine doing justice to more than a couple of those smaller cities on a four-day visit, especially trying to connect to them all by rail. This would be a challenge to train buffs for whom the journey means more than the destinations. Also, if you want to see anything of London from your SW base, you'll be spending time on trains and money on fares instead of London accommodations. It may be a false economy, especially if you value your time.

Consider spending the whole time in London (which has plenty of cathedrals and museums along with the other "touristy stuff" you don't want), or basing yourself in one of your other cities and foregoing some of them. Bath might be a good choice if there are good train connections to Oxford and Cardiff, as I expect there are. Portsmouth might be another if it and Brighton are priorities.

Hope this helps. I don't want to discourage your planning, but rather to encourage more of it. :-)

dad wheeler, what does SouthWest of England mean to you?

BTW - to me it has to be beyond Exeter ...

Exactly how much luggage do you have to lug? That's a red flag indicating that you may be taking too much.

I'll echo what others have said. You need to cut way back -- especially if the 4 days you mention include your arrival day. BTW, is that 4 full days, i.e. 5 nights?

Based on my preliminary research on places to stay outside of London, I also agree that staying in London might be cheaper than going elsewhere. When you add in the costs in time (train and bus schedules will affect where you go and when), I think it would be more enjoyable, too.

London has incredible cathedrals and museums. You can definitely avoid the "touristy stuff," whatever that means to you. And you might be able to do a day trip that would get you out into the countryside and route you through some villages.

Yes Nigel, I too think beyond Exeter.
Polperro or Mevagissey would be my choices.

If you want to do a lot of travelling by train, you'll need to decide which side of Exeter you want to be. Trains to the London side are pretty frequent and quick, less so on the Cornish side, so if you're wanting to go to Cornwall and west Devon, you want to be based towards the west. Otherwise, there are plenty of lovely, and reasonable, places in Somerset & Dorset.

I think that Bath or Salisbury would be your best bet for a base that would provide good rail links. Of the two, Salisbury is likely to have the cheaper accommodation - and has the shuttle bus service to nearby Stonehenge. Salisbury also has direct trains to these places of interest :> Exeter (Sherbourne on the same line is also worth a look); Direct trains also operate on the Portsmouth > Salisbury > Bath > Bristol > Cardiff route hourly. However, due to a shortage of diesel trains, these can be crowded at peak times - try and avoid Fridays & commuting time. Sundays can be prone to engineering work / reduced services. (The situation will be resolved in 2017/18 with transfers of diesels from electrified routes).

Note that it would take 2 hours to reach Cardiff from Salisbury and getting to Oxford by train is 'awkward'. Bath is more central as a base but a long way from Portsmouth. It is more easy to reach Oxford from Bath - with 1 change at Didcot (where by splitting the fare may work out cheaper).

I would not favour staying in Bristol as it is a bit of a sprawl. I would not bother with Brighton. If visiting Portsmouth, alight at Portsmouth Harbour as this is the location of the Historic Dockyard & waterside restaurants.

Should you choose Salisbury; land at Heathrow and take the coach link to Woking for the train. Check out train times & fares at www.nationalrail.co.uk (Note that some fares stay the same whilst others can be cheaper by advance booking).

I would consider staying a night or two in different places. You do have the inconvenience of packing up and moving on but you don't have to waste time making return day journeys. For example, a day trip to Cardiff would allow you to see Cardiff Castle (www.cardiffcastle.com), the city centre & bay area but not time to visit Caerphilly Castle - which is a 20 minute train journey north.
http://cadw.gov.wales/daysout/caerphilly-castle/?lang=en
Neither would a day trip give you time to visit St.Fagans Castle and Museum of Welsh buildings - which is a 20 minute bus journey west of the city & takes at least half a day:> http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/stfagans/about/
Go to the Wales forum and look at posts about Cardiff.

www.visitwiltshire.co.uk/salisbury
http://visitbath.co.uk
http://www.visitcardiff.com
http://www.heartofdevon.com/exeter
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/United_Kingdom/England/Hampshire/Portsmouth-306849/Things_To_Do-Portsmouth-TG-C-1.html

Thank you all for the great advice. When I said SW I thought it the best area to go back and forth from. Of course all the towns I listed are not all in the SW. Also, those are just ideas. Certainly we cannot see them all. Salisbury sounds like the place. As for luggage: the plan is two good backpacks and one moderate sized suitcase.
After reading the replies I started looking into room rates and it does seem that London is not really that much more expensive. We shall revisit the thought process. We have 14 days total and must end with 3 days in Mainz, Germany. It would be nice to squeeze a night and day in Paris.

Thank you all again!

You will probably find cheaper flights to mainland Europe from Southampton, Bristol or Cardiff Airports than from Heathrow. (Beware of baggage in hold charges). You can find the flights by going to www.skyscanner.net & insert your UK departure airport & destination. Then select the monthly view box and click a date to find out the airline.