Can you help me plan an itinerary for about a week in Wales and Cornwall?
 

Here's what we did with almost 3 weeks, 5 days in London, then most of the rest in Cornwall and Wales
https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...-more-1655185/

You don't have time for either of them in much depth much less both; it takes LOTS of time to get from place to place. And if you want countryside, etc., you will do better with a car. I'd pick one.

That being said, others more expert than I could advise on trains, as that might work ok. But a car will give you more access to sites.

So I'm not offering much in the way of planning your itinerary, but here's info in my TR I hope helps.

Also, do you really mean in 3-4 weeks? You may have trouble with accommodations in particular spots, so I would decide soon.

>>we should rent the rental company’s GPS? Or use Google Maps on our phone? I might try the Mercedes.<<

Just quick -- any GPS (phone or car) is fine. But you absolutely also need a proper paper road atlas. AA/Michelin/whomever. Do not rely 1005 on a GPS (and especially not google map. Otherwise you may end up in some really weird places like farm yards and dead end roads. Plus in a lot of areas in very rural North Wales the coverage is not great. In other words -- the paper road atlas is primary and the GPS is secondary.

Don't worry about make/model of car. Pick the class you need for you and your luggage (hopefully not a lot of luggage). No company can guarantee an brand/make/model unless that is the only thing they carry. Check out AutoEurope . . .

yes, agree. FYI, it's called 'Sat Nav' in the UK if you're communicating with car hire agencies.

Traffic can be very bad in the summer (or any time) and Google has a bad habit of redirecting you down VERY minor roads to the point where they can become impassable (i.e. single track roads that would normally have extremely few cars all of the sudden become flooded with cars and major problems can ensue). Be warned!

Travel time in Wales can be very great. The countryside is not well served by trains and in Wales, you want to be in the countryside and not the cities or towns (IMO).

>>Do not rely 1005 100% on a GPS<< :)

Yes, its called a Sat Nav. If you are renting through AutoEurope, they will call it a GPS, but once you are dealing with the agency on the ground, it'll be a sat nav.

Amen, brother. That happened to us outside of Aberystwyth last summer. It got our attention. We loved our 3+ weeks in Wales, but driving was not a highlight. YMMV.

though special trains may nice nice like the famous Ffestioniog former mining railway built to get slate from hills to the sea, you'll be much better off with a car for those areas where trains and even sometimes buses are spotty. But for general train info check www.nationalrail.co.uk; www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com. If doing all by train look into the Brit England Railpass which lets you hop right on any train anytime that is covers - all regular trains.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ffes...w=1008&bih=613

An old town I loved on sea between Cornwall and Wales was Clovelly - which literally spills down to the sea with its cobbledstoned main stream lined by ancient cottages. Today a real tourist-oriented place in olden days donkeys were used to transport until fairly recently before animal right's groups put a kibosh on it I understand.

Down at the sea at Clovelly is a renown Life Boat station: https://rnli.org/find-my-nearest/lif...feboat-station to visit.

I'd have two bases, one in St Davids and one in Conwy. The two are about a 4.5-ish hour dive apart - but it is a gorgeous drive along the coast and then through the National Park, and it would just be for your 'moving' day.

"Just quick -- any GPS (phone or car) is fine. But you absolutely also need a proper paper road atlas. AA/Michelin/whomever. Do not rely 1005 on a GPS (and especially not google map. Otherwise you may end up in some really weird places like farm yards and dead end roads. Plus in a lot of areas in very rural North Wales the coverage is not great. In other words -- the paper road atlas is primary and the GPS is secondary. "

We were searching for Pentre Ifan on a day trip from Aberaeron. The sat nav led us down a road that was flooded and the paper atlas was useless. Somehow we lived and it became part of the adventure. A lot of the less known sites are tucked away with little signage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentre_Ifan

I do agree with Janis that Conwy and somewhere south would be good places from which to explore.

We did the drive between St. Davids and Conwy (actually Bangor), but spread it out over several days with intermediate stops because of things to see along the way: Pentre Ifan, Llanfair slate cavern tour, Harlech Castle, Portmeirion, Caernarfon. They were just as many other sites on the "possibilty list" that we didn't get to.

But you can certainly do the drive in one long day. St. Davids and Conwy both were great bases for us, so janis's suggestion is a good option.

Google did get us to Pentre Ifan OK, but there was no flooding and I also had the Ordnance Survey map app, with maps for both pre-downloaded for offline use. And a paper map! Which I didn't need in that case. Still there was some level of trust in following the apps directions. Prior studying of the route had me reasonably sure we were on track. It was worth it, Pentre Ifan was a nice stop.

P.S. That is a great TR texasbookworm, I remember it from last year.