Going to Wales in a few weeks, and was hoping for some input on this. Local food is always on the list, and also some nature sights. Traveling buddy likes gardens.... Anything you cannot see elsewhere? Thanks in advance
North-ish Wales:- Mount Snowdon (take the train up) Portmeirion - for fans of "The Prisoner" Narrow gauge railways (Festiniog & Welsh Mountain) Europe's longest zip-line.
Try the castles, Carmarthen (sp?) is a great day trip with a lovely small village. There are several dotted around that are well worth a look around. Bodnant Gardens ( great in May & June ) lovely to walk around for a more mature group. Kids may get bored but there's a lot of stuff to find. There's quite a lot to do. Visit a Tourist Information centre and pick up a few leaflets.
Carmarthen Seconded. It's a lovely place and the Castles certainly are worth seeing. My Mrs. was born there so we went to see it a few years ago. But wales is mostly worth it for the countryside, lovely pubs, villages and peaceful atmosphere. I promised the Mrs. we're going to retire in Wales one day.
Beaches - I don't know which I just remember reading an article about the best beaches in the world and Wales had at least one on the list.
Depends on where you are Museum of welsh life is OK and free, lots to see and walk around, plus some gardens etc. http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/stfagans/ snowdon is good for a walk. Gower peninsula is quite nice too. As mentioned a lot of bike trails around. There are a lot of nice places in Wales, place is often overlooked by people as most like to head south, but are missing out, just depends as mentioned where you are going in Wales really.
Not true when Wales was part of the blue flag beach scheme in only got one so it opted out and introduced it's own blue flag scheme then suddenly had loads So true lol Neath is quite a nice little town though there's even a ruin of a castle there you can walk around for free When I get back home next week I'll post some places to see, I'm assuming you're driving?
Are you sure? As far as I can see, Welsh beaches are assessed under the same Blue Flag scheme as other beaches and appear on the same official blueflag.org website. http://www.blueflag.org/menu/awarded-sites/2014/northern-hemisphere/wales OP, which part of Wales are you visiting - North, Mid, South?
Where in Wales are you going? Good suggestions so far though are Mountain Biking and not going to Port Talbot
Snowdonia is great for mountain walks (including Snowdon of course, which also has a train running all the way to the summit) and drives in the country with interesting villages to stop at and have a look around (eg Llanberis, which is at the foot of Snowdon, where the train to the summit departs from. There's also a very picturesque small, ancient Welsh castle there, set in beautiful scenery (Dolbadarn castle - Google image search) and two lakes (Llyn Padarn, Llyn Peris). Other nice places to stop in the area are Beddgelert and Betws Y Coed. Pistyll Rhaeadr is a picturesque big waterfall in mid Wales that's also worth a visit. Also Anglesey and the Llyn Peninsula - both areas with great coastal scenery. Bodnant Gardens, as already mentioned, and the nearby castles (at Conwy - 5 mins from Bodnant - and Beaumaris and Caernarfon), all of which are much bigger than Dolbadarn castle. Aber Falls... Swallow Falls... I could go on...
Yeah I'm sure, the blue flags they use are almost identical there is some nice beaches though. To the OP I live near the red kite centre well worth a visit and there's the drovers trail not far from there it's a really old road they would drive sheep/ cattle etc to market through it, you can drive it, it goes right through some beautiful country side.
What's the difference? Surely it must be the same scheme if the results are on the same blueflag.org website as every other country's beaches.
Unless they've rejoined the scheme they shouldn't be mentioned, tbh I know Wales very well and its the sea around the beaches I would worry about. The only thing the welsh invented is their history lol Most of caves / slate caverns guides etc a expensive so I would avoid then Portmeirion is a good place to go also expensive worth seeing though their pottery is tacky and extremely expensive you'll be disappointed when you see number 6's house lol which is the Prisoners shop last time I was there he was a real miserable sob got a great sticker for the camper it said " I'm not a number I'm a free van" lol
