England, Wales and Scotland public transportation 20 days

It looks like, if you were to stick with that 3 night per place plan, that you would have to eliminate 4 places from your list. Not knowing your interests or priorities, it's difficult to say. I'd recommend making a list of the things to do and see in each place, and eliminate those places that have the least things of interest to you. Or perhaps only stay 2 nights in a couple of places that have only a few things that you really want to see/do.

You are going to get different opinions on which places to cut out depending on who you ask.

My suggestion is to look at each location in depth and prioritize which places seem of more interest to you.

Examples:

While Liverpool has some interesting ship building sites, if you're not a big Beatles fan, you could probably skip it.

You could do a day trip into the Cotswolds from Bath eliminating an overnight stay in Moreton-on Marsh.

Conwy is an outlier on this itinerary. While interesting, and a good place to also include Caernarfon, you might want to eliminate it.

Glasgow or Oban. You can do day trips to Oban and the islands, Glencoe, etc from Glasgow.

With the limited time you have, and your desire to see as much as possible, you will have to cut some corners. Others will probably have different ideas.

If you let us know what you are interested in it will be easier to give you more useful advice. History, art, scenery, culture? If you haven’t already done so it’s also worth looking at some other guide books, websites to get a wider view of possible sites. The RS guidebooks concentrate on areas where his trips visit so miss quite a lot.

As Frank says everyone will have a different opinion. It does also depend on when you are planning to visit. The weather will make a difference.
Personally I would skip Keswick and for that kind of scenery focus on North Wales, which to me has more to see and do. Bath is a pretty city but I have never understood why it is always so high up so many peoples lists to visit other than it is a good jumping off point for the Cotswolds. Even Jane Austen didn’t like it :-) For me it could be skipped but others will disagree.

I would definitely include Liverpool which has much more than just the Beatles- 2 cathedrals, good art galleries/museums, WW2 history, a good food scene, the riverfront and docks ( but sorry Frank no ship building, that happens over the Mersey in Birkenhead :-) )

I’m biased but would also include Chester, which is between North Wales and Liverpool on the train. It’s a pretty city with lots of history going back to the Romans.

As I said let us know where your interests lie and we can provide more useful advice.

This itinerary is essentially where Rick's tour buses stop, and is not cast in stone.

For instance you could easily swap Conwy for the very close by Llandudno.

The Keswick to Oban then Glasgow routeing seems an odd one to me, as you have to pass through Glasgow to reach Oban.

Instead that could be Keswick to Glasgow to Oban to Edinburgh direct (avoiding Glasgow).

As for the Lake District Keswick is not the only place in the area- there are other places which are equally as easy to reach (and get around from), such as Grasmere, Ambleside, Coniston and Ullswater.

It is interesting that he cuts out Ironbridge from the public transport version, quoting public transport difficulties. Yet there is a direct bus from Shrewsbury several days a week- Shrewsbury is on the way from the Cotswolds to North Wales.

For my money you could easily swap Bath for Bristol (Rick's new guidebook apparently includes Bristol for the first time).

I generally agree with some of the above comments. Stay Bath (or Bristol) and include a Cotswolds day tour from there. It may shock Americans but 95% of Brits have no idea what Moreton in Marsh is or why you would go there. Few could find Conwy on a map either until Discovery channel's "Salvage Hunters" show took off! And Conwy only has a small amount of accomodation, especially when RS and other bus tours are in town, which is why we usually suggest Llandudno 7 miles away. But since this area is your only Welsh stop I wouldn't cut it from the intinery. Google for info about the "1Bws" day ticket for the regional and local buses around north Wales including Snowdonia

Liverpool? What exactly do you expect to see? It's attractions are somewhat specific, good if they match your interests but otherwise it may seem a let down.

And the Glasgow stop should be between Keswick (although Penrith as a base would make it all easier for luggage handling) and Oban. If you used Penrith as a base to see the lake district by bus you could catch the train at 08:55 to Glasgow and have nearly 6 hours to see something of the city before the evening train to Oban, without having the actual Glasgow stop. It's a compromise but I think that's what you were asking for.

Then use direct Citylink bus Oban-Edinburgh for different scenery. Needs reservation with only one suitable deporture per day around 09:20.

Those of us who don’t have cars know what Moreton-in-Marsh is because it’s one of the only railway stations in the Cotswolds, and takes you the closest to a lot of the main Cotswolds attractions (eg Stowe-on-the-Wold, the Slaughters).

Thanks for the responses. We enjoy a lot of history. We get around well but aren’t looking to do a lot of hiking.
Our trip starts in October 2026. I’ve narrowed it down to six stops with excursions from those places . We are seniors and don’t really want to be hauling luggage etc…
Here is what I came up with.
Bath 3 nights, Chester 3 nights, Glasgow 3 nights, Edinburgh 4 nights, York 3 nights then London 4 nights before we journey back home.
Thanks again

I agree with Emma's Chester rec but I'm not sure that you need three nights there (what do you think, Emma?). Chester is easily seen as a day trip from Liverpool (it's a short train ride away), so if you wanted to see Liverpool, you could spend your three nights there and then allot one day for Chester. Or spend your three nights in Chester with a day trip to Liverpool, although Liverpool has a lot more to see. Chester really is lovely though. It has an old-world charm with quaint buildings, narrow cobbled streets, and many shops, cafes, and pubs. It really creates a charming atmosphere for strolling and exploring. And if you don’t have a fear of heights, you can even walk along the city walls.

But you can see a lot of that in one day. That said, do stop at Huxleys, which is a cafe with a porthole where you could look out and see a lovely view of the city. They have really good food, too. I tried their Bakewell Tart, and it was delicious. The owner told me his wife makes it and that it's better than the original Bakewell one. It had been quite a while since I ate the original one, so it was hard to tell, but it was very good.

I also spent three days in Liverpool (I stayed with a friend and her husband who live in the Wirral), and I really enjoyed the city. I enjoy the Beatles, but I'm not a huge Beatle fan, and I wouldn't go to Liverpool just because of that. In fact, we didn't visit any of the Beatles sites except for one trip we made to the Philharmonic Bar. And that was mainly to see the men's toilet., which is pretty grandiose. 😂. Port Sunlight is also worth a visit if you make it there. It's easily reachable by train.

From Chester you can easily do a day trip by train to Conwy Castle (and Caernarfon Castle by bus from Bangor Station), also Bodnant Gardens (and the Great Orme at Llandudno).

But you can also do a good day trip into Snowdonia by hourly bus (#T8) from Chester Railway Station and Bus Interchange- get a 1Bws ticket for £7.50 for as many buses in Snowdonia and North Wales as you want.

I did that a few weeks ago and had a brilliant day. While my focus wasn't Castles that day (it was St Asaph for it's Cathedral), if it had been I could have visited 4 Castles- all not quite on the usual tourist trail, but all good ones (I'd switched to the T51 at Ruthin).

I hadn't even realised the T51 also went past the Marble Church at Bodelwyddan (a pleasant bonus).

If I'd stayed on the T8 to Corwen I could have switched to the T10 to Betws-y-Coed, Capel Curig etc- the absolute heart of Snowdonia (or Eryri, as it's now known).

Whether 3 nights in Chester is too much does depend on what you want to do there.
You can certainly see most of it in a day, although it might be a bit rushed if you want to visit the cathedral, walk the walls and explore the Rows.

It is a good base to travel into North Wales for the day which I really do recommend. If you just want to see Conwy Castle etc taking the train is very doable.
If you want to see more, into Snowdonia etc, personally I would do it via an organised tour rather than by public transport, especially if you aren’t use to travelling on local buses.

With a tour you are guaranteed to ‘hit’ the main sites more directly and efficiently in a day. Looking at the above suggested bus routes I had to google if Corwen is in Snowdonia, because to me it isn’t. Apparently It’s not but is classed as a ‘gateway’ to the area. The route will take you through nice scenery but I don’t think it will show you the full Snowdonia ‘splendour’, hence my suggestion to do an organised tour,

You can get to Liverpool in an hour on the train. Even if you have little interest in the Beatles it is a good city to visit. If you get off the train at Birkenhead it’s fun to travel over on the Mersey ferry which gives you a world class view of the skyline. If cities aren’t really your thing you could combine it with a couple of hours in Port Sunlight which is a station stop between Chester and Liverpool. It has an interestIng history and is very pretty, bordering on cliche ‘quaint’. :-) The Lady Lever art gallery is definitely worth a look.

I am a typical Cestrian ( resident of Chester) being half Welsh, half scouse with the accent to match, so if I can be of any further help just ask.