Trip planning advise

I am not a fan of Brighton and wonder why you are planning to visit Newhaven and Stoke-on-Trent? If going to Liverpool, I would suggest you also visit nearby Chester. When going back to London from Edinburgh, it would make more sense to stop off at York for 1 night as it is on the direct rail route (East Coast Mainline).

You can see the centre of Cardiff and Cardiff Castle in 1 day but to see *St.Fagans Castle/Museum plus Caerphilly Castle (a 20 minute local train ride N of the city) plus the waterfront at Cardiff Bay needs longer than 1 day. *St.Fagans Castle is currently undergoing renovations with the building closed to the public. However, there is still plenty to see in the grounds plus the modern galleries about Welsh history.

In just going to Glasgow and Edinburgh you are not seeing the highland scenery to the north.

Newhaven is a dump - there is no sugarcoating it. Stoke on Trent has some niche interest if you are into ceramics, but again it's a post industrial town with a lot of challenges that most people ignore for a reason.

I love Glasgow but if it's your first time I would spend more time in Edinburgh.

Dublin is the least exciting part of Ireland, whose joy is in the more rural spots, particularly on the opposite side of the island.

Cardiff is OK but nothing special, you are doing a lot of moving around and one day stops like this I would personally avoid.

London looks good although I would add more days there (you can spend years in London and keep finding things to do), Harrods and the London Eye are tourist traps, if you want an aerial view of the city there are a number of skyscraper viewing platforms that do a better job. Richmond Park/Richmond Town is great for a half day out of the city centre but still in London activity.

It can get very hot in August, particularly in London, you may want to consider a hotel over an Airbnb, the former will likely have A/C, the latter almost certainly won't.

Thanks for the feedback , New Haven is basically to bring ashes to a family plot , can’t be avoided, Stoke on Trent is about the ceramics not my thing but part of the marriage lol 😆.
My question really was the best route to get to Liverpool? From Cardiff or Stratford ? As I’m trying to figure out the best train route.
Cheers

OK, so that explains Newhaven. If you are on the south coast of England, you might wish to consider going to see the Seven Sisters = chalk white cliffs which are best viewed from the west (Cuckmere Haven) - see:>https://www.sevensisters.org.uk

It is easy to go by train from Cardiff to Chester with direct trains every other hour and this route goes through lovely countryside. From Chester (well worth seeing) - it is just a short hop to Liverpool with frequent local electric trains or on the hourly Transport for Wales service.

You also might like to consider going to Conwy/Llandudno on the north Wales coast (direct trains from Cardiff via Chester to Llandudno Junction) but Conwy and Llandudno also have stations.https://www.visitconwy.org.uk
More info on Wales in the RS Wales forum section.

Note that Stoke / Liverpool and Conwy could all be done as day trips by train in an hour or less from a base at Chester. However, to see more of NW Wales - such as Bodnant / Snowdonia National Park, you really need to stay in that area.

If going to Brighton, rather than a day trip from London, consider an overnight and then going by train directly west (via Southampton) to stay for 2 nights in Salisbury - from where shuttle buses operate to Stonehenge. Then from Salisbury, you can go by direct train for your stay in Bath before moving on to Cardiff.

Bodnant Gardens can be reached by bus from Llandudno. See You Tuber Video.

This is what 2 South Africans made of Cardiff for their You Tube video.

From Stratford on Avon to Liverpool you take the train to Birmingham Moor Street, then walk a few minutes up the street- well signposted - to Birmingham New Street- for the hourly direct train to Liverpool Lime Street.
OR- to avoid that walk stay on that train after Moor Street to Smethwick Galton Bridge High Level, take the steps or elevator down to the Low Level Platforms, and the Liverpool train calls there at 41 minutes past each hour.
It is 8 minutes past each hour from Stratford for the 1 hour journey to Smethwick GB, then a 30 minute interchange time.

If you're interested in seeing Big Ben, you can actually go up inside behind the clock, but you need to book tickets as soon as they go on sale (three months in advance): https://www.parliament.uk/visiting/visiting-and-tours/big-ben-tour/

I did it a few months ago and it was really fun- I definitely recommend it.

You could easily fit Stoke in on the way from Stratford to Liverpool. Then you can come back down the east coast from Edinburgh to London.

Here's another recommendation for Chester. It's a charming town and a wonderful place to visit. And it's a very easy day trip from Liverpool.

Picking up on the Harrods point, my advice is skip it, and visit Fortnum & Mason and Liberty instead - much nicer, and close to each other. Personally I don't like Harrods at all.

By 'Theatre District' I assume you mean Haymarket, which is close by, so you can walk up Regent Street to Liberty, then down Piccadilly to Fortnums. Burlington Arcade is also worth a visit, as is my favourite bookshop, Hatchards.

You can then go left on St James Street, walk past St James's Palace, down Marlborough Road to the Mall, past The King's residence at Clarence House towards Buckingham Palace.

The visit to Stoke-on-Trent would need to be well planned in advance. A number of potteries have closed or relocated in recent years, and a limited number of working potteries remain, some with visitor centers, demonstrations and workshops. There are also a few pottery museums in the area.

Stoke-on-Trent comprises six towns, and places of interest on the pottery trail are relatively spread-out. For example, the World of Wedgwood is located near the village of Barlaston, about 6 miles from Stoke-on-Trent station. Bus services in the area may not always work for you, but Uber operates in the area, and is relatively inexpensive.

If you decide to stay over, the Premier Inn at Trentham Gardens—a tourist destination in itself—is decent and relatively 'affordable', or there's the Upper House—the former home of Josiah Wedgwood's grandson—near the World of Wedgwood, that has an 'olde worlde' charm, and is not expensive.

There's plenty of relevant information to be found on-line, and it's advised to plan your itinerary rather than just rock up and absorb the Stoke-on-Trent vibe!

We have been to all the places you listed.
You didn't list York, my favorite place in those isles.

Liverpool is OK, but I was not wowed by it. I liked the Beatles, but a Beatles tour didn't interest me.

The Cotswolds was great. We did a day at Stratford upon Avon, it was wonderful. Do the four site Shakespeare tour that starts at the site of his birth.

Loved Wales, my ancestors came from a small village in Cardiganshire in SW Wales, we visited it and the B&B people were speaking the Cymru Language when we arrived and moved from the bar to the dining room for dinner. Loved Temby and St. Davids.
Cardiff Castle, St. Fagan's and Caerphilly Castle.

Dublin, is great, take a city tour and do the Book of Kells and Trinity College. Don't miss the Guiness Brewery.

One thing that I loved in Ireland was the west coast with the Cliffs of Moher and the Ring of Kerry. Near
Belfast is the Giant's Causeway.

We did a month in England and Wales JUST doing smaller cities and towns (no London) it was wonderful. My favorite places, other than already mentioned are Bath, Winchester, Oxford, Blenheim Palace, Stonehenge, Salisbury, Cambridge, the Yorkshire Moors, the Lake District, Durham and more. In Scotland, outside of Edinburg, loved Inverness and Loch Ness up north; St. Andrews and the area.