12 Wales destinations you’ll never forget
Rugged mountains, wave-smashed coasts, exciting cities and castles galore: small but mighty Wales has many places that enchant visitors.
Wales appears small on the map of Europe, it’s true. But looks can deceive.
Encompassing heathery moors and sheep-nibbled slopes, ruined medieval castles and charismatic market towns, castaway coves and puffin-populated islands, this pocket-sized nation is one of a kind. Whether you’re wending along a remote single-track lane into hills brimming with beauty and legend, clambering up a hulking mountain as the morning mist rises, kicking off your boots in a timber-beamed pub over pints of ale and singsong voices, or peering up at distant galaxies in some of Britain’s darkest skies, Cymru touches deep, in every season.
We’ve combed the country to bring you 12 of our favorite places to visit. But let’s face it: anyone who visits Wales quickly finds their own favorite spots, too.
1. Swansea and Gower
Best for coastal hikes
More gritty than obviously pretty, Swansea packs a hefty cultural punch, with its coolly revamped Maritime Quarter (crowned by the National Waterfront Museum) and the enduring legacy of bad-boy Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas (1914–53). Follow in his lyrical footsteps all over his hometown, taking in his Edwardian-era birthplace, where he penned two thirds of his work, and going for a pint in the 17th-century No Sign Wine Bar, one of his many beloved watering holes.
After a day or two in town, you’ll be craving a blast of refreshing sea air and a bracing coastal walk – and the AONB Gower Peninsula, just west of Swansea, delivers. Pin down your favorite beach – candidates include Oxwich Bay and Rhossili, with their pounding surf, expansive sands and rippling dunes; or cliff-hugged beauties like Brandy Cove, where pirates once stashed their booty.
Planning tip: Gower’s glorious coast is best explored on foot on the 39-mile (63km) coast path from Mumbles to Crofty.
2. Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park
Best for mountain drama
If you love nothing more than a mountain, Eryri comes out on top – quite literally. Spreading across the country’s northwest, this spectacularly buckled and contorted region welcomes hikers in their thousands to the summit of mighty Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), at 1085m (3560ft) the country’s loftiest peak. Yet time it right or stray from the trail and you can still find pockets of peace and true wilderness. Glowering crags, deeply gouged valleys, thundering rivers and falls, ink-blue lakes of myth and endless miles of hiking and biking trails: beauty here comes with a shot of adventure.
And Snowdon is just one peak experience among many. Other equally enchanting hikes dip into the remote, glacier-scoured, waterfall-splashed Ogwen Valley up to Glyder Fawr via the Devil’s Kitchen, or climb the boulder-strewn slopes of Cadair Idris at 893m (2930ft), where lore has it a giant carved out a chair to peer up at the night skies. Speaking of skies, Snowdonia’s International Dark Sky Reserve dazzles with some of the country’s starriest.
Planning tip: Still set on summiting Snowdon? To dodge the hiking crowds, avoid summer weekends and eschew the popular Llanberis Path in favor of quieter, lesser-known, more-challenging routes like the Rhyd Ddu and Snowdon Ranger paths. 
3. Hay-on-Wye
Best for book lovers
If your idea of a good time is spending hours browsing musty secondhand bookshops in search of rare, well-thumbed tomes, Hay-on-Wye will be your heaven. Deep in the Black Mountains and close to the English border, this cute-as-a-button Georgian market town has carved out a reputation as the UK’s literary capital. You could spend days lost in its bookshops (standouts include three-floor Richard Booth’s) – but don’t forget to factor in time for walking and canoeing along the River Wye, and for relaxed afternoons spent curled up with a novel in one of the town’s artsy cafes.
To truly revel in Hay’s literary vibe, time your visit to the main event: the Hay Festival in late May and early June, an 11-day cultural feast of readings, poetry, discussions, workshops, book signings and concerts that attracts the crème de la crème of the publishing world.
Local tip: Rent wheels for a road trip to remember, heading south into the thrillingly wild Vale of Ewyas. As you cross the snaking Gospel Pass, Wales’ highest road at 549m (1801ft), landscapes of lonely moors and wooded heights unravel. (These provided inspiration for Bruce Chatwin’s On the Black Hill.) Halfway along you’ll read the evocative ruins of Augustinian Llanthony Priory, immortalized in 1794 by JMW Turner.
4. Blaenavon
Best for digging into mining heritage
The tradition of mining runs deep in Wales. At the height of the Industrial Revolution, the country’s rich deposits helped to stoke the world’s coal stoves and put slate on roofs all over the world. For a brush with this rich heritage, head to the dramatically scarred South Wales Valleys and UNESCO-designated Blaenavon, which rekindles the flames of its industrial past at Big Pit National Coal Museum.
In a space that was an active mine from 1880 until the 1980s, exhibits are presented in mining galleries and at pit-head baths. Kitted out with helmet and headlamp, you’ll descend in a pit cage to a dark maze of shafts, coalfaces, engine houses and stables. You can’t help but be moved by the stories recounted by the ex-miner guides, who spent a tough life cutting coal, breathing in dust and barely glimpsing daylight.
Planning tip: It’s free to visit Big Pit, but during busy times it’s worth paying £5 (US$6.50) for a Job-A-Knock ticket, which lets you book timed slots for underground tours in advance.
5. Bannau Brycheiniog National Park
Best for a walk on the wild side
Rolling like great waves across the country’s southeast, the bare, flat-topped summits and bracken-cloaked moors of Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) are Welsh wilderness with the volume turned up. Height-wise, these mountains can’t rival those in Eryri, further north – but they bring just as much drama, their fins swooping above glacier-carved valleys, patchwork-quilted hills and fern-flecked forests. While everyone wants to bag Pen-y-Fan, the highest peak at 886m (2907ft), there’s much more to discover.
Muddy your boots on other memorable trails, such as at those at Llyn-y-Fan Fach in the park’s west, where verdant slopes drop to a glacial cirque lake steeped in Lady of the Lake myth; Iron Age hill fort Crug Hywel, Crickhowell’s very own “Table Mountain”; and the Blorenge near Abergavenny, where arresting views of the Black Mountains, Beacons and Severn Estuary open up.
After a long day’s stomp, beamed country pubs, idyllic villages like Crickhowell and food-loving market towns like Abergavenny encourage you to rest and indulge. And when night falls and it’s silent but for bleating sheep, stars glitter in Wales’ first International Dark Sky Reserve.
Local tip: Trains stop on the national park’s periphery, at Abergavenny, Llandeilo, Llangadog and Llandovery; to reach the remotest reaches, you’ll need your own wheels. Be prepared to go at tractor’s pace on single-track roads. 
6. Ynys Môn (Isle of Anglesey)
Best for breezy beach days
Across from Snowdonia’s dark, rugged peaks and well battered by waves from the Irish Sea, Ynys Môn (the Isle of Anglesey) off Wales’ northwest coast is a wild beauty. Cross the Menai Strait and you’ll be faced with some of the country’s finest beaches – from bays lashed by booming waves to cliff-clasped coves. Stitched together by the multi-day Anglesey Coastal Path, the island’s 130-mile coast is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Yet Ynys Môn doesn’t rest on looks alone: dotted with Iron Age hill forts, standing stones and ancient burial chambers, this island runs deep with Celtic history (lore has it this is where St Patrick first washed up on Welsh shores). Beach-wise, top billing goes to Traeth Lligwy, a vast swathe of blonde sand and rock pools; dune-flanked Traeth Mawr in Aberffraw; and pine-fringed, three-mile-long Traeth Llanddwyn.
Local tip: Vist at low tide to skip over to Ynys Llanddwyn and its 16th-century ruined chapel, which will forever be associated with the earlier Celtic nunnery that stood here and its connections to St Dwynwen, patron saint of lovers (consider him the Welsh St Valentine).
7. Wye Valley
Best for poetic landscapes
As it twists and turns along the English-Welsh border (from just south of Hereford to castle-crowned Chepstow), the River Wye flows through the steep-sided, thickly wooded Wye Valley and past some of Wales’ most compelling landscapes. Romantic? You bet. Often dubbed the birthplace of British tourism, this is where artistically minded, poetically inclined souls took to the water as they set out on the Wye Tour some 250 years ago. And the valley still looms large in the imagination today, having inspired the likes of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Turner.
Whether seen veiled in mist, in the tawny-gold colours of autumn or in the hazy light of a summer sunset, this valley is a knockout. High up on your list should be the haunting Gothic ruins of Tintern Abbey (arrive early to dodge the crowds) and Symonds Yat Rock, with far-reaching views of the Wye, Forest of Dean and – if you’re lucky – peregrine falcons.
Local tip: Lace up your hiking boots, as the Wye Valley is made for exploring on foot. For soul-soaring views, trudge up to the Devil’s Pulpit above Tintern, or hook onto the long-distance Offa’s Dyke. 
8. Pembrokeshire Coast National Park
Best for castaway fantasies
With smugglers’ coves; dune-backed beaches; stratified limestone eroded into arches, blowholes and sea stacks; and knobbly volcanic rocks that have been around since dinosaurs walked the earth, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park wraps up some of Wales’ most impressive coastal scenery. All of the joy here is outdoors – whether you’re striding along the 186-mile Pembrokeshire Coast Path; foraging for shells and edible seaweed among rock pools with childlike glee; or embracing the water and elements while coasteering, sea kayaking or surfing.
Choose your base wisely as the county is bigger than it looks. Birthplace of Wales’ patron saint in 500 CE, St Davids is an instant heart-stealer, topped off by a resplendent medieval cathedral. Other charmers include pretty Solva, a pastel-painted village wedged deep, fjord-like harbor; seaside-y Tenby and Saundersfoot; and Newport, with its galleries, street cafes and restaurants championing regional produce.
Planning tip: Haverfordwest is Pembrokeshire’s biggest transport hub and is well connected to the rest of Wales by train. Coastal buses can be useful for hikers, with services including the summer-only Puffin Shuttle (St Davids–Marloes), Celtic Coaster (St David’s Peninsula) and Strumble Shuttle (Newport–St Davids). 
9. Cardiff
Best for culture past and present
Built grand from the riches of coal mining and revived for the millennium, Welsh capital Cardiff moves from past to present without skipping a cultural beat. Gone is the grime of its industrial age – and in its place is a thriving, energetic city, with vibrant arts offerings and upbeat food and nightlife scenes, plus an outstanding collection of parks, museums and concert halls that could easily occupy you for days.
Winging you from its Roman origins to the romance of mock-Gothic, Cardiff Castle is unmissable, as is the adjacent Bute Park on the banks of the River Taff. The nearby National Museum Cardiff showcases everything from dinosaur bones to Impressionist masterpieces in a grand neoclassical building. For a glimpse of Cardiff’s changing face, head down to the revamped waterfront, Cardiff Bay, where you’ll be struck by architectural big hitters like the shimmering, bronze-tiled Millennium Centre.
Planning tip: Ticking off many sights from the water, the Aquabus is a relaxed, scenic way to get from the city center to the bay.
10. Preseli Hills
Best for prehistory
Stonehenge gets all the love – but many an archaeologist will tell you that its famous bluestones most likely hail from the wind-battered, drizzle-lashed moors of the Preseli Hills in northern Pembrokeshire. Opening a fascinating window onto prehistory, these wild, cairn-dotted heights are a giant treasure hunt for anyone interested in the mysteries of past civilizations. They’re jam-packed with standing stones, Iron Age hill forts, burial chambers and Arthurian legends.
As a starting point, trek from Newport up Mynydd Carningli (“Mountain of Angels”), an extinct volcano topped by an Iron Age hill fort and sprinkled with hut circles, and visit Pentre Ifan, Wales’ largest megalithic tomb.
Local tip: For a deeper dive still, lace up your boots and brave the bog on the 7-mile (11¼km) Golden Road, once part of a 5000-year-old trade route between Wessex and Ireland. Along the route, you’ll pass Carreg Coetan Arthur, a Neolithic burial chamber with links to Arthurian legend.
11. Llangollen
Best for vintage train rides and aqueduct highs
Hugging the banks of the waterfall-splashed River Dee and hemmed in by wooded hills, Llangollen sits prettily on southern fringes of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in North Wales. The region is all about slow travel and back-to-nature adventures – whether you’re chugging through the countryside to Corwen on the vintage, standard-gauge Llangollen Railway; hooking onto the ancient national trail Offa’s Dyke Path; or bouncing through rapids and currents white-water rafting down the River Dee.
Culturally, the showstopper is the UNESCO-designated Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, a 38m-high (125ft-high), 307m-long (1007ft-long), 3½m-wide (12ft-wide) marvel designed by preeminent Georgian engineer Thomas Telford. Stretching across the River Dee, it’s the highest canal aqueduct ever built – and you can cross it by foot, canoe or kayak.
Planning tip: Time your visit to catch July’s International Musical Eisteddfod and Fringe Festival, a feast of concerts, competitions, comedy, dance and art.
12. Skomer Island
Best for puffin encounters
As you cross choppy waters on a little blue boat and spot cliffs reaching high above the tide-ripped Atlantic, Skomer Island emerges like a vision off Pembrokeshire’s southwest coast. Whether seen in lashing rain or dazzling sunshine, this island is pure magic for binocular-wielding bird-watchers. Guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and peregrines, terns, fulmars, choughs, red-billed oystercatchers are everywhere. But – cutting to the chase – the puffins are the true stars here. And with 42,000 of them hanging out during the summer season, you’ll never get closer to these adorable, clown-like birds.
Bring a picnic and hike the 4-mile (6½km) circular trail over wildflower-stippled cliffs to The Wick, where puffin close-ups are guaranteed. You’ll see them darting in and out of their burrows, gathering for chats, launching themselves off cliffs and bringing in sand eels for their pufflings. To ramp up the drama, book well ahead to stay overnight at the Old Farm and head out with the midnight twitchers to see Manx shearwaters dive-bombing burrows. The island is home to the world’s largest colony of these birds, who fly here each year from their wintering ground in South America.
Planning tip: From Tuesday to Sunday, April to August, boats depart Martin's Haven for Skomer Island half-hourly from 10am to noon, returning from 3pm; the crossing takes 15 minutes. There is a reduced service in September. Pre-book online.
