48 Best Sights in Wales

For hundreds of years, South Wales has been famous for its mining industry. Decades of decline—particularly during the 1980s—left only a handful of mines in business. The mines around Blaenavon, a small town 7 miles northeast of Abergavenny, have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and this fascinating museum is the centerpiece. Ex-miners lead you 300 feet underground into a coal mine. You spend just under an hour examining the old stables, machine rooms, and exposed coalfaces. Afterward you can look around an exhibition housed in the old Pithead Baths, including an extraordinary section on child labor in British mines. Children under 3½ feet tall are not allowed on the underground portion of the tour.

About 5 miles southwest of Brecon you encounter mountains and wild, windswept uplands that are tipped by shafts of golden light when the weather's fine, or fingers of ghostly mist when it's not. This 519-square-mile park is one of Wales's most breathtaking areas, perfect for a hike or scenic drive; it's also one of the world's few accredited International Dark Sky Reserves, which means it's an excellent location for star-gazing. Start at the visitor center on Mynydd Illtyd, a grassy stretch of upland west of the A470. Also known as the Mountain Centre, it's an excellent source of information about the park, including maps and advice on the best routes (guided or self-guided). There's also an excellent tearoom where you can fuel up for the journey or reward yourself with an indulgent slice of cake afterward. If you want to see it all from your car, any road that crosses the Beacons will offer you beautiful views, but the most spectacular is the high and undulating A4069, between Brynamman and Llangadog in the park's western end.

To explore the moorlands on foot, come prepared. Mist and rain descend quickly, and the summits are exposed to high winds.

This peninsula, which stretches westward from Swansea, was the first part of Britain to be designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Its shores are a succession of sheltered sandy bays and awesome headlands. The seaside resort of Mumbles, on the outskirts of Swansea, is the most famous town along the route. It's a pleasant place to wander on a sunny afternoon, with a Norman castle, an amusement pier, and a seaside promenade, as well as a variety of independent cafés and boutiques. Farther along the peninsula, the secluded Pwlldu Bay can only be reached on foot from nearby villages like Southgate. A few miles westward is the more accessible (and very popular) Three Cliffs Bay, with its sweeping views and wide, sandy beach. At the far western tip of the peninsula, Rhossili has perhaps the best beach of all. Its unusual, snaking causeway—known locally as the Worm's Head—is inaccessible at high tide. Gower is a popular destination with surfers and you'll find many other water sports offered here.

Bordered by lush forest and emerald green hills, Lake Vyrnwy is a haven for wildlife. It's rich in rare bird species, from falcons to siskins and curlews. Stretching out along the shores of the lake near the visitor welcome point, the Lake Vyrnwy Sculpture Park is a collection of pieces by talented local artist Andy Hancock. Arranged along a paved walking trail, many of the wooden sculptures resemble oversize versions of the lake's wildlife, including a 15-foot-long dragonfly. It's an extremely popular cycling route, and there's a bike shop and coffee shop near the visitor welcome point.

This splendid neoclassical museum in Cardiff's civic center houses the National Museum of Art and the National Museum of Natural History. It is renowned for its exquisite collection of impressionist and modern art, featuring many of the art world's major players as well as one of the world's best collections of British silverware. This is also the main venue of the biennial Artes Mundi, the United Kingdom's largest contemporary arts prize. The Evolution of Wales gallery, showing the country's history from the Big Bang onward, uses inventive robotics and audiovisual effects. Kids, however, will be more interested in the dinosaurs and the enormous, 9-meter (29-foot) skeleton of a humpback whale that washed ashore near Cardiff in 1982.

By far the smallest of the country's three national parks, Pembrokeshire Coast is no less strikingly beautiful than the other two. The park has several Blue Flag beaches and a host of spectacular cliff-top drives and walks, including some of the most popular stretches of the Wales Coast Path. The park has a smattering of historic sites, including the impossibly picturesque St. Davids Cathedral, built in a Viking-proof nook by the Irish Sea. The information center in St. Davids is a good place to start.

Stretching from the Welsh midlands almost to its northern coast, Snowdonia National Park covers a vast swath of North Wales. The park consists of 823 square miles of rocky mountains, valleys clothed in oak woods, moorlands, lakes, and rivers, all guaranteeing natural beauty and, to a varying extent, solitude. Its most famous attraction, by far, is the towering peak of Mt. Snowdon ("Yr Wyddfa" in Welsh), the highest mountain in Wales. The view from the top is jaw-dropping: to the northwest you can see the Menai Strait and Anglesey; to the south, Harlech Castle and the Cadair Idris mountain range. To the southwest, on an exceedingly clear day, you can make out the distant peaks of Ireland's Wicklow Mountains. There are six different walking paths to the top, but a far less punishing way is via the Snowdon Mountain Railway in nearby Llanberis.

Perched at the top of Snowdon is Hafod Eryri, an eco-friendly replacement for the previous visitor center (once described by King Charles III as "the highest slum in Wales"). The granite-roof building, which blends beautifully into the rocky landscape, has a café and exhibitions about the mountain, its ecology, and its history. If you're planning to make the ascent, the visitor center in Betws-y-Coed is the best place to stop for information.

The idyllic valley location of this cathedral helped protect the church from Viking raiders by hiding it from the view of invaders who came by sea. Originally founded by St. David himself around AD 600, the current building dates from the 12th century, although it has been added to at various times since. You must climb down 39 steps (known locally as the Thirty-Nine Articles) to enter the grounds; then start at the Gatehouse, with its exhibition on the history of the building. In the cathedral itself, the 15th-century choir stalls still have their original floor tiles, while the Holy Trinity Chapel contains an intricate fan-vaulted ceiling and a casket said to contain the patron saint's bones. Don't miss the Treasury and its illuminated gospels, silver chalices, and 700-year-old golden bishop's crosier. At the rear of the grounds of St. Davids Cathedral are the ruins of the 13th-century Bishop's Palace, particularly beautiful at dusk. The cathedral has a good café serving lunch made with local produce.

On 100 acres of gardens, this excellent open-air museum celebrates the region's architectural history with a collection of farmhouses, cottages, shops, chapels, a school, and a 16th-century manor house. All but two of the structures were brought here from around Wales. Of special note are the string of ironworkers' cottages, each reflecting a different era from 1805, 1855, 1925, 1955, and 1985, from the decor to the technology to the gardens. Craftspeople work at the museum using traditional methods; most of the work is for sale. Galleries display clothing and other articles from daily life, and special events highlight local customs. The native animal breeds are popular with kids.

Built early in the 11th century, this castle witnessed a tragic event on Christmas Day, 1176: the Norman knight William de Braose invited the neighboring Welsh chieftains to a feast, and in a crude attempt to gain control of the area, had them all slaughtered as they sat to dine. The Welsh retaliated and virtually demolished the castle. Most of what now remains dates from the 13th and 14th centuries. The castle's 19th-century hunting lodge houses an excellent museum of regional history. There's a re-created saddler's shop and a World War II air-raid shelter, but the Victorian Welsh farmhouse kitchen, with its old utensils and butter molds, is perhaps the most diverting exhibit.

The British writer Caitlin Moran once wrote fondly of Aberystwyth's "Glitter-glue sea and smashed-cake castle," and these crumbling ruins at the southern end of the bay do have an endearing quality. Built in 1277, the castle was one of the key strongholds captured in the early 15th century by Owain Glyndwr, a Welsh prince who led the country's last serious bid for independence from England. Today it's a romantic, windswept ruin, rather incongruously used as a cut-through walking path by locals for whom it's nothing out of the ordinary at all. To find the ruins, just walk along the bay, away from the town center; they are located just after the small pier.

Modest on the outside but surprisingly cavernous on the inside, this cathedral stands on the hill above the middle of town. The cathedral was built on the site of an 11th-century priory, which was destroyed during Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s. It was rebuilt as a parish church fairly soon after and was remodeled in the 1860s. It became an Anglican Cathedral in 1923. The heritage center does a good job of telling the building's history, and there's also a handy café-bookshop called the Hours. Local choirs perform concerts here regularly; check the website for event listings.

Dating from around 3000 BC, this megalithic passage tomb is the most complete site of its kind in Wales. You enter via a narrow opening built into a burial mound. The passage extends for around 25 feet before opening out into a wider burial chamber. The far wall, made of quartz, is illuminated at dawn on the summer solstice. Bring a flashlight, as the tomb has no artificial lighting. Next to the entrance is a replica of a stone pillar carved with Celtic spirals, found here in 1928. The original is in the National Museum in Cardiff. The site is 7 miles southwest of Beaumaris.

One of the great drives of North Wales, the sweeping, vertiginous panoramas of Bwlch y Groes (Pass of the Cross) form the second-highest mountain pass in the country at 1,788 feet. From Lake Vyrnwy, drive for a mile on B4393 before heading west on the mountain road.

Perhaps the most potent symbol of Cardiff's 21st-century rebirth, this regenerated district is a 15-minute bus ride from St. Mary Street. It's the location of Senedd Cymru, the Welsh Parliament, and Wales Millennium Centre, as well as a good selection of restaurants and bars. Don't miss the Norwegian Church Arts Centre, where children's author Roald Dahl was baptized; you can also take a boat trip around the bay. It was from Roath Dock in 1910 that Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his crew left aboard the SS Terra Nova for their ill-fated British Antarctic Expedition.

This romantic hilltop ruin looks out over a breathtaking patchwork of green fields and mountains. The fortress was built in the 1260s on the site of an earlier castle, which was an Iron Age fort before that. Its heyday was incredibly short lived; by the end of the 13th century it had been captured and abandoned by English forces after which it gradually fell into ruin. The castle is located on top of a hill just north of Llangollen town center. There are no roads to the summit; the best walking path starts at Canal Bridge in Llangollen and zigzags up the side of the hill. The rather punishing hike is a little over a mile long.

Housed on the upper floor of a flamboyant 1905 Edwardian theater, the Ceredigion Museum has collections related to folk history and the building's own music hall past. Highlights include a reconstructed mud-walled cottage from 1850 and items illustrating the region's seafaring, lead-mining, and farming history. There's a nice café here selling local products, and the tourist information center is downstairs.

At the northern end of the beach promenade, Constitution Hill dominates the skyline. From the top you can see much of the Welsh coastline (and, on exceptionally clear days, Ireland). There's a small café at the top and plenty of space for a picnic. If you're feeling hale and hearty, there's a long footpath that zigzags up to the 430-foot summit. From there, a 5-mile-long coastal path stretches to the village of Borth, a smaller, sleepier resort north of Aberystwyth where the remains of a 3,000-year-old petrified forest may be seen on the beach at low tide.

Situated on the banks of the Tawe in the Maritime Quarter, the Dylan Thomas Centre celebrates the life of the writer with an excellent permanent exhibition as well as literary events and activities. In summer, guided tours showcasing Dylan's Swansea start from here. There's also a cozy little café serving locally sourced products. Fans of the poet can buy a booklet here that outlines the Dylan Thomas Trail around South Wales. It includes the Boathouse (now a museum) in Laugharne, where the poet lived and wrote for the last four years of his life.

A substantial collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts is on display here, including bead necklaces from the time of Tutankhamun and the beautiful painted coffin of a Theban musician.

A modern version of a Victorian amusement, Great Aberystwyth Camera Obscura is a massive 14-inch lens that gives you a bird's-eye view of Cardigan Bay and 26 Welsh mountain peaks. It's reached via the Aberystwyth Cliff Railway.

Betws-y-Coed is bordered by Gwydir Forest, which has several well-marked walking trails. The forest also contains a half dozen or so mines, the last of which was abandoned in the 1940s. On the western approach to the village, you'll find Swallow Falls, where the River Llugwy tumbles down through a wooded chasm. The trail to Swallow Falls is a strenuous circular walk, which takes at least a couple of hours

On a hilltop are the handsome remains of a 12th-century castle keep, jutting out from behind a 16th-century manor house. The castle has been renovated and is now owned by Hay Castle Trust, while the manor has been turned into an arts center with a café. There are daily tours of this historic site. 

According to Dylan Thomas, this attractive estuary town 39 miles west of Swansea was the "strangest town in Wales"; nonetheless, he spent the last four years of his adult life here and is buried in the graveyard at St. Martin's Church. Visitors should first head to the Boathouse, where Thomas lived with his family from 1949 to 1953 and where he wrote Do Not Go Gentle and Under Milk Wood. Then head for a drink at Brown's, his local pub. Be sure to also check out the ruined castle, browse the secondhand bookshops, and enjoy a coastal walk. Laugharne buzzes in spring when the arts festival, Laugharne Weekend, takes place.

The town of Llanberis stands beside twin lakes at the foot of the rocky Llanberis Pass, which cuts through the highest mountains in the park and is lined with slabs popular with rock climbers. There are trails from the top of the pass, but the going can be rough for the inexperienced. Ask for local advice before starting any hike. The Snowdon Sherpa serves this area, and there is a parking lot and café at Pen-Y-Pass.

In a suburb that retains its village feeling, you can visit this cathedral, which was repaired after serious bomb damage in World War II. The cathedral includes the work of a number of Pre-Raphaelites as well as Christ in Majesty, a 15-foot-tall aluminum figure by sculptor Jacob Epstein (1880–1959). To get here from Cardiff, cross the River Taff and follow Cathedral Road for about 2 miles. Buses 24, 25, 62, and 63 from Wood Street in Cardiff stop in Llandaff.