Wales

Wales is the friendly green hilly bit on the western side of Britain. It is about 2 hours west of London by rail or by road. It might not take you long to get here, but you will find that Wales is a very different place.

North Wales
North Wales is walkers paradise: Snowdonia National Park boasts the highest mountain in England and Wales, Anglesey’s full of spectacular sea cliffs, and the Borderlands offer tons of historic places to explore.

Mid Wales
Mid Wales is a fantastic place in which to get lost. Avoid the main roads and you will discover some of the most beautiful spots in the country.

Ceredigion
The west coast of Wales is dotted with award winning beaches, rocky smugglers’ coves and great cliff top scenery backed by the grand Cambrian mountains. Ceredigion is great if you just want to get away from it all and hang out with some real Welsh characters the resident dolphins and seals for example.

South West Wales
South West Wales stretches out from Swansea and the Gower peninsula across garden county Carmarthenshire to the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. It’s perfect for a long weekend by the beach or a family holiday in rural countryside.

Southern Wales
Southern Wales is home to about two thirds of Wales’s population, and it’s a great place for a city break, for active holidays, or for exploring the rich heritage.

Activities and Tours

Caernarfon Castle
Caernarvon is architecturally one of the most impressive of all of the castles in Wales. It's defensive capabilities were not as overt or as powerful as those of Edward I's other castles such as Harlech and Beaumaris (which indicate the pinnacle of castle building and defenses in Britain), but Caernarvon was instead intended as a seat of power - and as a symbol of English dominance over the subdued Welsh.

Devils Bridge
Devil's Bridge is a village about 12 miles inland from Aberystwyth which is famous for its water falls, three bridges on top of one another and its legend about the Devil and for its narrow gauge railway.

Millennium Stadium
The Millennium Stadium (Welsh: Stadiwm y Mileniwm), is the national stadium of Wales, located in the capital Cardiff, and is used primarily for rugby union and football home internationals. At the time of its construction it was the largest stadium in the United Kingdom with a capacity of 74,500, but has since been overtaken by Old Trafford, Twickenham Stadium and the new Wembley Stadium.

Portmerrion
Portmeirion is an Italianate resort village in Gwynedd, on the coast of Snowdonia in North Wales. The village is located near Penrhyndeudraeth, on the estuary of the River Dwyryd, two miles southeast of Porthmadog, and one mile from the railway station at Minffordd, which serves both the narrow gauge Ffestiniog Railway and Arriva Trains Wales

St Govans Chapel
This sliver of a chapel, wedged into a slot in the cliffs just out of reach of the sea, dates from the 5th or 6th century. The land arrives here flat as a tabletop and falls off to churning, thrashing surf. Bizarre rock formations rise offshore like spectres.

Travel Tip and useful information

Climate
Wales has the sort of climate often described as "temperate". This means that it never gets very hot or very cold. May, June, July and August are the sunniest and driest months, but even in the winter a raincoat and sweater will usually cope with the worst that the weather has to offer.

Time Zone*
Current time zone offset: UTC/GMT +1 hour

*Population
The official languages in Wales are English and Welsh. English is spoken by almost all people in Southern Wales and is the main language. However, North Wales retains many areas where only Welsh is spoken, and English is learnt as a second language.

Transport
The main road artery linking cities and other settlements along the south Wales coast is the M4 motorway which also provides a link with England and eventually London. Rail is also extensively developed throughout the country, with Cardiff Central and Cardiff Queen Street stations being the busiest and the major hubs on the national network. Regular ferry services operate from Holyhead and Fishguard to Ireland.

Currency and credit cards
The currency is that of Britain in general i.e. the pound sterling, sometimes referred to on the Net as the GBP.

Safety and security
Wales is generally a safe place in which to live and visit, especially away from the major inner city areas and public housing estates where petty and alcohol fuelled crime does occur but if you use your common sense it will be highly unlikely that you will experience any of these.