9 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.

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.

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.

Located within the remains of one of only three permanent Roman fortresses in Britain (built AD 75), this fascinating museum looks at all aspects of Roman life, and includes an exquisite collection of gemstones and a coffin complete with male remains. Of particular note are the ruins of the amphitheater, the baths, and the only Roman barracks on view in Europe. The reconstructed Roman garden is particularly attractive. Caerleon is 4 miles northeast of Newport.

In Padarn Country Park, this museum in the old Dinorwig Slate Quarry is dedicated to what was once an important industry for the area. The museum has quarry workshops and slate-splitting demonstrations, as well as restored worker housing, all of which convey the development of the industry and the challenges faced by those who worked in it. The narrow-gauge Llanberis Lake Railway departs from here.

Housed in a construction of steel, slate, and glass grafted onto a historic redbrick building, the National Waterfront Museum's galleries have 15 theme areas, presenting Welsh maritime and industrial history through state-of-the-art interactive technology and a host of artifacts. Highlights of the collection include a monoplane built by amateur aviation enthusiasts in the early 1900s, one of the oldest British aircraft in existence, as well as one of the last carriages from the Mumbles Train, the world's first passenger rail service (1807–1960). You'll also learn about Swansea's important international role in copper smelting in the 19th century.

In Memorial Gardens, this museum tells the story of the town's development from prehistory onwards and includes a small collection of Roman and medieval artifacts. The largest and most interesting section is devoted to the town's Victorian heyday, with some of the "cures" at the spa explained in detail.

Founded in 1841, this museum contains a quirky and eclectic collection that includes an Egyptian mummy, local archaeological exhibits, and the intriguing Cabinet of Curiosity, which holds artifacts from Swansea's past. In 2016, a forgotten Flemish masterpiece by Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678) was discovered in the museum's storeroom and is now on show.