Thoughts on a driving route/places to stay in England and Wales

You are spending three nights in Edinburgh/York.

You only have five nights.

Does this mean you have to squish all the rest into two, or do you have five after Edinburgh?

Sorry, I didn't make that clear enough. We have 5 nights after Edinburgh.

On the face of it, getting a car in Cambridge stinks. Leaving London, it's a good ways up there; coming back, it's an even longer trip to either major airport. St Albans or similar might be a better idea. I don't know how to compare either for public transportation feasibility.

You seem to have the places in the right order. Therefore, after probably spending the night in Worcester, and since the run to Carmarthen is less than three hours, you could probably get some time in the Cotswolds on this day. Personally, I'd skip the Cotswolds and hold out for a couple of the really good castles in south Wales.

Having no idea of what you need to do in each place, it's hard to recommend where to spend the other nights. Having spent a good bit of time in the UK at all times of the year, I wouldn't bother booking ahead. (I know you said you wanted to.) My wife has never spent more than ten or fifteen minutes finding a B&B for us that suited her standards. This notion would give you extra flexibility as well.

My gut shot is that, after Edinburgh, you have about a thousand miles to cover which will involve eighteen hours (not counting the time/distance to where you drop the car).

I agree with Ed, St. Albans would be a good place to pick up a rental car. Also, just book your first night and your last nights, find a B&B as you go. Like Ed's wife, I haven't spent more then 10 minutes finding a B&B to stay at. When you think your ready to stop for the day just look for a B&B sign, when you see one stop and ask if they have a room for the night, they will usually ask if you would like to see the room before you agree to stay.

Agree no need to pre-book except for first night/there are tons of B&B's you can ask to see the room before you agree to stay there. We did this all through UK/Ireland and never had a problem. Just don't wait until the end of day when you are tired or after dark / we usually got one around 4-5pm and then had plenty of time for dinner. If you are that worried/some B&B's will call another one for the next nights lodging for you.

Given the fairly short timescale, I would look at booking some accomodation - particularly if you wanted to stay in Port Isaac, which is beautiful but very popular.

If you do stay there I would recommend the pub/ restaurant at Port Gaverne for a very good meal.

Also, see if you can get hold of a film called Saving Grace. It was where the character Doc Martin first emerged and if you liked the series, you'll like that.

Actually, I've never been to Cambridge, but I know they have some of the best museum collections, some dating back 800 years. Edinburgh is worth seeing if you've never been there. You can easily see the sites there in 2 days, Port Isaac is way out of your way and might be too much trouble for this trip. York is easily done in one day (skip Yorvick...it's too corny for words). Please consider looking at the "Treasure Houses of England" since you have a car. Most people don't realize how rural the life of England and Scotland was before Modern times. Many of the Aristocrats lived most of the year at their luxurious country estate. This is where all the antiques and fabulous art collections are in situ.
There are some lovely estates near Edinburgh, York and through the Midlands. Chatsworth, Castle Howard, etc. You really need 3 weeks to "do" what you want to see. You could possible see Bath, but leave the Cotswolds and Wales for the next trip; unless you'd rather do them instead of Edinburgh and York. Otherwise, it's just drive-by site seeing.

Just home after ending our trip with 5 days in Southern England with a rental car. I pre-booked in Bath because found that finding a place in Bath with parking was a problem. This was the only place I pre-booked, but so glad to have done so for Bath.

I've spent a decent amount of time around Llanelli / Carmarthen (my mother, and the ridiculously extended breed-like-rabbits Welsh half of my family, are from Llanelli and we always used to go down for the summers... and winters...). If I rememeber rightly you can either go via Cardiff and Swansea, or over the Heads of the Valleys Road, which involves more scenery.

Llanelli is an ok town, Carmarthen is pretty nice too. Nearby is Pembray Country Park which is lovely. I believe there are plenty of places to stay in Carmarthen - almost certainly in Llanelli too, but from what I remember from childhood visits there (early 1980s to late 1990s) I'd rather stay in Carmarthen.

Thanks for all the responses. I have now looked into renting the car in St Albans rather than Cambridge and can see that it makes far more sense.

I know that more time would be ideal, but this is already version "x" and due to various reasons I have had to decrease from my original time frame of 7 weeks to 4 for the total trip. My mother (73) thinks this will be her first and last trip so we have to fit in as much as we can whilst still having an enjoyable time.

After this section of the trip we will spend 3 nights back in London and then go Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Venice and Bellagio before flying home from Milan. I have used many suggestions off a "collection of relevant posts" to help plan our trip.

That's what I love about the Helpline: you can pull out the information that pertains to you and use it. I have used information posted By Tim "Helpful" from Minot and Michael to help do my train bookings. Last time I went we (family) had a railpass, this time I have booked almost all our rail journeys online and printed out the tickets. The big hiccough of course is Trenitalia. It doesn't like Aussie credit cards either, but I will try again!

Thanks again.

My new plan for the trip is as follows: Hire a car from St Albans, which was a great suggestion - thanks. Travel as planned to York and Edinburgh; and then back to St Albans, with roughly overnight stops in the vicinty of: Shrewsbury (6-7 hr drive). Swansea via Cardigan/Tenby (6-7 hr drive). There is a shorter route if we choose not to travel via Cardigan. Bath (2.5 hr drive). Port Isaac (5 hr drive). Windsor (6 hr drive). The driving times are from a route planner with an added 30% time factor to allow for disruptions.

I do realise that there won't be much time to stop and smell the flowers on the days of the long drives, but have I got the route in the right order? Here in Oz if I drive to visit family I usually have 10 hr driving days - sometimes longer, so I am used to long drives, although in a totally different environment. Thanks