US to London to Wales, within 10 days, covid test requirements

Would you consider simply staying in England for your ten days?

London is a vibrant city with free museums, theatre, parks, galleries, street markets, etc. 3 airports to fly from, large rail systems to get you else where in England. Whitsable, Oxford, Durham, Cambridge, Brighton, Rye and Bletchley….Fall colors should be occurring. Kew Gardens, Richmond Park, Hampstead Heath, along with the Thames River path provide wonderful walking and strolling options.

Just a thought.

Yes, absolutely, we have been to London multiple times, and we're happy to try something new within the country. I'd just gotten onto some sites in Wales and it looked great. I foolishly hadn't thought about the added test question.

While we can regroup for new plans, I'd still love to hear if I've interpreted that correctly or not - that US to London for four days then Wales, means day 2 test in London and another day 2 test in Wales.... and after 3 nights in Wales and return to London, maybe another day 2 test there? If that's the case I clearly need to simplify things.

If you take your day two test in England then you do not have to take another test to enter Wales from England. From the Welsh gov site:

Exemptions – people who don’t need to take the two tests after arriving in Wales
You do not need to take these tests if you began your journey to Wales from England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.

As long as you remain in the UK there will be no further requirements for tests for the duration of your time here. The only test will be the initial day two test after arrival from the US, travel between countries in the UK, Ireland, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are free from testing.

That is so helpful. And has no mention of the 10-day period, which is where we were hung up. Here is one example:

"If you are arriving in Wales from within the UK (England, Scotland or Northern Ireland) and have not been outside the Common Travel Area (Ireland, Isle of Man or the Channel Islands) in the 10 days before entering Wales, you will not need to complete a passenger locator form to provide your journey or contact details or isolate."

-- because we will have been in the US in the 10 days before entering Wales, we weren't sure if Welsh gov was ok with our London testing or wanted more.

Have you considered returning to the US from France. There are no COVID-related travel requirements for you if you're fully vaccinated.

https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/coming-to-france/coronavirus-advice-for-foreign-nationals-in-france/#sommaire_1

You will need another test if you decide to come back to the UK before you leave and the US may require the same though I am not sure.

Thanks Samuel, we did consider that... but our daughter now lives in London so we'd wanted to return there for a last visit before heading home. I made reservations for this trip back in Feb and March when hope dawned that we'd be in a much better place by now.
As reassuring as JC's note is, re Wales travel, we keep running into wording on gov sites that also say there is no need to do day 2 test if you are coming from within common travel area and have been in the CTA for 10 days. We won't meet that 10-day threshold..

just to be careful, Paris became Wales and now those 3 nights will become somewhere in England. We've already got 4 nights in London and 3 nights in the Cotswolds reserved. So I'm open to ideas. It's a bit overwhelming as every direction holds great options and we aren't picky. Maybe I'll just throw a dart at a map!

Just to put a bookend on this, maybe help others like me who have struggled with this, an email from the Welsh gov. this a.m. clarified, just as JC told me, (sorry I doubted at all JC,) that you only need one day-2 covid test when entering the UK CTA.... so our London test will suffice.
Of course that was as of yesterday!

We returned from a 3 week trip to Italy, Czech Rep and England on August 10th and I thought I would offer some advice to any traveler who hasn't yet decided whether to self test for Covid using a kit or going somewhere to get tested. To make a long story short, we paid $150 for a 6 pack of kits from eMed.com (the kit is mfg by Abbott) before we left for Europe. The first supervised online test went off reasonably well. We had to wait about 15 minutes for the person monitoring the test to come online and it took about another 15 minutes to take the test. We got the negative results back the same day. The next test using the eMed kit was 3 days prior to returning to the U.S. We spent 5 hours online holding ("someone will be with you shortly") before we gave up and booked a test the following day at a testing site in London. The cost for each of us was 149 Pounds and we got the results back the following day. But we lost a half day of sightseeing the previous day holding for eMed and we were pissed. So we now have four unused kits and when I contacted Emed upon our return, they were only willing to refund any amount on the condition that I return all 6 kits to them. At that point I decided to let it go. Anyway, I don't recommend using a kit. There are plenty of places to get tested in cities (without going to the airport). Buon viaggio!