Places to Visit in South Wales

South Wales holidays and short breaks

How long you need depends on what you have come for. A weekend covers one city and one stretch of coast, Cardiff and the Gower for instance, or Tenby and the coast path around it. Four or five days lets you add the Brecon Beacons without spending the trip in the car. A week is enough to take in the whole region from Chepstow to Tenby at a pace that still feels like a holiday.

Most people base themselves in one place and drive out from it. Cardiff works if you want a city with the coast and the mountains both within an hour. Swansea puts the Gower on your doorstep. Tenby suits a trip built around the beach. If you are coming without a car, Cardiff is the easiest of the three to manage.

Late spring and early autumn give you the best combination of weather and space. The coast is at its busiest through the school summer holidays and on bank holiday weekends, and the Brecon Beacons car parks fill early on fine weekends all year round.

Our plan your visit section has the practical detail: how to get here, how to get around, and what to expect when you arrive.

Where to stay in South Wales

Where you base yourself matters more here than in most places, because the region is spread out and the good bits are at opposite ends of it.

Cardiff and Swansea have the range you would expect of cities, from budget chains near the station through to hotels on the bay and the seafront. The coast is where the holiday parks and caravan sites are, concentrated around Porthcawl, Barry and the stretch west towards Tenby. Inland, the Brecon Beacons and the Wye Valley are country inn, farmhouse bed and breakfast and self-catering cottage territory, and that is the part of the region where booking well ahead actually matters.

Roughly: a first visit without a car, stay in Cardiff. A beach holiday, stay west. A walking trip, stay inside the national park rather than driving into it every morning.