With a coastline stretching almost 1,700 miles, more castles per square mile than any other country, plus a fine industrial heritage and Celtic culture, Wales is packed with standout staycation destinations.
Gower Peninsula
Rhossili Bay, with Worms Head (Image credit: James Osmond / Getty Images)
Stretching towards the west from Swansea, the Gower Peninsula was the UK’s “first ever Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty”, said the Daily Express. Follow the Castle Trail to see “some of the area’s finest remaining castles including Oystermouth and Pennard”. For “the very best beach vistas”, said former resident Lucy Shrimpton in The Independent, head to Three Cliffs Bay and Rhossili (Worms Head), both of which you’ll probably recognise from “every glossy calendar” showing Welsh landmarks. Visitors who are “nimble-bodied can also go off-piste” to discover the Blue Pool, “nature’s own paddling pool” in the rocks near Broughton, and the “mysterious walled cave”, Culver Hole.
Cardiff
The red-brick Pierhead building hosts an exhibition on the history of coal (Image credit: Joe Daniel Price / Getty Images)
“More castles than any other city”, mountains to the north, coast to the south, and both medieval and “hyper-modern” architecture, plus a “leaning tower”, said The Telegraph. The Welsh capital is a “cracking” destination that can hold its own against Europe’s best. Cardiff’s many highlights include the city’s castle, plus the “warren of arcades in the Castle Quarter”, now “regenerated with bars, boutiques and bookshops”. Meet “characters from Welsh myth and legend” on free audio story trails in Bute Park, and go “behind the scenes” at the Principality Stadium. Cardiff “isn’t shy about showing visitors its many charms”, said The Times. From the city’s “half a dozen Victorian and Edwardian-era shopping arcades” to the waterfront pleasure and leisure complex of Cardiff Bay, it all adds up to a “thrusting ebullience”.
Anglesey
(Image credit: Mark Youlden / Getty Images)
Anglesey, or Ynys Môn in Welsh, is home to the world’s second-longest place name, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantysiliogogogoch. “Dangling off Wales’s northwesternmost tip”, Anglesey is also the “epitome of a British island”, said The Telegraph, composed of “vast dunes, gentle coves and knife-edge cliffs”. To discover it by foot, said BBC Countryfile, “look no further than” the 124 mile-long Anglesey Coastal Path (although “don’t feel you have to do the lot”). For rainy days, visit Copper Kingdom museum, which details the island’s 4,000-year history of mining copper and other valuable minerals. Alternatively, explore the “extensive grounds and lavish interiors” of National Trust property Plas Newydd, set in a “beautiful position” on the Menai Strait.
Brecon Beacons
(Image credit: steved_np3 / Getty Images)
It’s not quite a “hidden gem”, said Time Out, “them being massive hills and all that”. But “this breathtaking part of Wales doesn’t get the attention it deserves” for its wealth of walks and outdoor adventure, and “wonderful culture and tradition”. Now known by its Welsh name, the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park encompasses “three adjacent but distinct ranges”: the Black Mountains, Fforest Fawr and Black Mountain. To appreciate this “four-in-one scenic diversity”, said The Telegraph, hit the walking trails, which include the 99-mile Beacons Way between Llangadog and Abergavenny. This “wilfully circuitous meander”, usually completed over eight days, takes in “wild upland moors, glacial lakes, standing stones, sheer escarpments and sweeping views”. And, below ground, you can “gawp at” the three caves at the National Showcaves Centre: monumental Cathedral Cave, Bone Cave, where 42 Bronze Age skeletons were found, and Dan-yr-Ogof, “adorned with glistening limestone formations”.
St Davids
Britain’s smallest city (Image credit: Ffoto Keith Morris Aber / Getty Images)
St Davids is Britain’s smallest city, in terms of both population and urban area, but this pocket-sized city has “history and heritage in spades”, said The Guardian. There’s also plenty on offer for nature lovers, including the “eco-friendly” gallery and visitor centre, Oriel Y Parc, with exhibits on local nature, geology and archaeology. No visitor could miss the “mighty medieval” St Davids Cathedral, a “riot of soaring stone pillars and intricate coffered ceilings” in the heart of the city, said The Telegraph. The cathedral has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries, as home to the shrine of “Welsh hero and patron St David”, born here in the sixth century. Visitors should also check out the hour-long circular walk around St David’s Head, where “ragged, gorse-draped cliffs” offer “stirring views” of Ramsey Island, and lead to an Iron Age hill fort and Neolithic burial chamber.
Blaenau Ffestiniog
(Image credit: R A Kearton / Getty Images)
As you approach Blaenau Ffestiniog, said Wales Online, you’ll see “towering mounds of slate come into sharp focus”. This historic mining town is known as the “slate capital of the world”, and the surrounding “beguiling slate landscapes” became the UK’s 32nd Unesco World Heritage Site in 2021. Blaenau Ffestiniog’s industrial past and more recent repositioning as an “outdoor adventure capital” draw “thousands of visitors” of year, as does the Ffestiniog Railway, the world’s oldest independent railway company, established in 1832. Ride the “picturesque route” to Porthmadog, through “magnificent forests, past lakes and flowing waterfalls”. Also within a short car drive of the “dour slate landscape”, said The Times, are the “Italianate village of Portmeirion”, Harlech’s castle and beach” and Snowdonia’s “striking mountains”.