St Davids to Glasgow

Welsh borders around Ludlow
Shrewsbury & Ironbridge
Chester
Liverpool
Manchester
Lake District

All on or close to the route. Lots of other choices of course.

far to early to speculate on schedules or to book anything but worth looking at the journey on a map. The overal journey is likely to be 10-12 hours but the St Davids-Cardiff section could be around 5 hours of that because bus connections out of St Davids are not as frequent - or integrated with trains - as would be hoped! And the railway west of Swansea isn't so fast. So the point at which you want to call time on the first day could be much further south than you expect. It also depends on when you can start, and I believe Sundays are not a good idea.

Logically, if you just wanted to stop for dinner and bed to resume after breakfast next day then Crewe would be the place - but not even I would suggest it fits your plan for spending two nighst and doing some sightseeing

From the list already given I would say the Lake District is way too far in journey time.

Shrewsbury is good because it is on the route and has more trains from south wales than anywhere further north - and is worth time.

Chester has some trains from Cardiff, it's a little off route but not terrible because you can get back on to Glasgow trains at Warrington and Chester is worth your time for historic sites and buildings.

Manchester is off route but interestingly still very viable because the "on route " trains continue to Manchester and there is a train every two hours from there to Glasgow. This is not a pretty place but it has museums, art and music - plus easy access into the Peak District for scenery. This guy didn't even start his excursion from Manchester until early afternoon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ud9-geNDvs

Liverpool is a wild card because it's easy to reach from Chester or Crewe and does have some decent direct trains to Glasgow which a lot of people haven't noticed.

For a simple journey there are a few trains from Haverfordwest or Fishguard that run all the way to Manchester (without changing at Cardiff), calling at Shrewsbury and Crewe - but there is the moot point of bus connections from St Davids. Going to or via Chester would lose the benefit of this because you would still have to change trains.

But really, we need to know what you want to see/do - and 6 more months to get a better idea of what the schedules will be.

With 3 nights to do the journey I'd find it hard to resist going up the west coast of Wales on the Traws Cymru bus network, rather than using the trains.
My thought would be to take the Fishguard route out (preferably the 404 Strumble Shuttle), connecting into the T5 to Aberystwyth at Fishguard (the toilets at Fishguard are pay toilets as are most en route as far as Chester), probably with a mid route stop over (various options).

Next day the T2 on the new double deckers (or the new limited stop coach which will be running by then). There are a variety of routes- either up to Bangor via Caernarfon (then train from Bangor to Conwy or Llandudno for two nights), or a change at Dolgellau into the bus to Corwen. You could continue onto Chester by direct bus from Corwen or break the long journey at Corwen or Ruthin.

From Caernarfon you can also use the Snowdon Sherpa network to Betws-y-Coed for Conwy/Llandudno.

Next day onwards on the bus to Chester for the 3rd night.

Final day onto Glasgow by train via Liverpool or Warrington. You could have most of the day in Liverpool before catching what is currently the 1612 direct TPE train to Glasgow.

Thank you so much for your replies. You've given me a lot to think about! I'll be in St Davids for a Pembrokeshire Coast walking holiday and traveling to Glasgow and further to walk the Great Glen Way. I'll leave St Davids on a Saturday and need to be in Glasgow on Tuesday. Other than walking, I like scenery and 19th and 20th century art galleries.

I have been to Chester, Ludlow, the Lake District, Manchester (and will be back next month), and Liverpool. I've changed trains in Crewe a few times and wondered if it was worth a stop. I plan to stop in Cardiff for a night or two on my way to St Davids. I missed the Walker Art Gallery when I was in Liverpool a few years ago so that is appealing. I'll check into the bus routes as that is appealing, too.

For next month (when you layover in Grange on the way to the C2C) I don't know if you have Abbot Hall at Kendal on your list- https://lakelandarts.org.uk/abbot-hall/

I can assure you that Crewe itself isn't worth a stop. And I live here!

Good for a dinner to breakfast break in a journey, or as a base for day trips to a range of different places like Chester, Shrewsbury, Manchester, Liverpool and even Glasgow but otherwise the station is the most interesting part.

Stuart, I'd like to visit Abbot Hall but I'll have to save it for another trip as it's only open Wednesday to Saturday. I'll be in Grange on Monday and Tuesday. I don't know if I can make a quick trip on Wednesday morning before my afternoon train to St Bees. Many thanks for the recommendation!

me.crewe, thanks for the information! And thanks for the video!

I would consider heading up through Wales by using the buses to eventually reach Chester - then trains to Glasgow.
Bus routes across Wales:>https://tfw.wales/ways-to-travel/bus/trawscymru

not much in Crewe other than a football ground and a few trains. I had to often visit Crewe for work and that was my impression.