Wales
A Guide to Its History and Best Places to Visit
Planning Your Visit to Wales
Wales rewards a car more than most of England does — outside Cardiff and the coastal rail line to the north, much of the country isn’t well served by train, and Snowdonia and the Pembrokeshire coast are best reached with your own transport. Spring and early autumn offer the best balance of weather and smaller crowds, particularly in Snowdonia, which gets genuinely congested at the height of summer. The four regions below give a quick sense of what each part of the country offers.
A Short History of Wales
Wales’s recorded history begins with the Celtic Britons who held out here after the Roman withdrawal, giving Wales its name — Cymru, “fellow countrymen” — and its language, one of the oldest living languages in Europe. Independent Welsh kingdoms endured for centuries after England unified, until Edward I’s conquest in the late 13th century, sealed by an iron ring of castles at Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech, and Beaumaris — still the most complete medieval fortification system in Europe. Owain Glyndŵr’s rebellion in the early 15th century briefly restored Welsh independence and remains a defining national memory. Wales was formally incorporated into England under the Tudors — themselves a Welsh dynasty — before re-emerging in the 19th and 20th centuries as an industrial powerhouse, its coal and slate shaping the modern world, and later as a nation with its own devolved government and a language enjoying genuine revival today.
Best Places to Visit in Wales
Castles of Wales
Wales has more castles per square mile than any other country in Europe. Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech, and Beaumaris form Edward I’s UNESCO-listed “iron ring,” while Caerphilly, the largest, adds a different chapter.
Mountains & National Parks
Snowdonia (Eryri), home to Wales’s highest peak, and the Brecon Beacons (Bannau Brycheiniog) anchor the country’s outdoor identity — dramatic walking country carrying genuine historical depth beneath every quiet ridge and valley.
Historic Towns & Coastal Wales
Cardiff, the capital and a working port turned cultural capital; St Davids, Britain’s smallest city, built entirely around its ancient cathedral; and Tenby, a walled medieval harbour town on the Pembrokeshire coast.
Wales at a Glance, by Region
North Wales
Snowdonia’s peaks and Edward I’s castle ring, reaching down through the quiet chapel towns of the Cambrian interior — the region where Welsh independence made its last and longest stand.
Caernarfon, Conwy, Snowdonia, Llandudno, Aberystwyth
South Wales
Cardiff’s capital energy, the valleys that powered the industrial world, and Pembrokeshire’s coastline running out to Britain’s smallest city — modern Wales built firmly on a much older landscape still.
Cardiff, Caerphilly, Blaenavon, St Davids, Tenby
Latest Posts
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National Waterfront Museum
A Grade II-listed tinplate warehouse fused with a glass-and-slate extension, built to hold 300 years of Welsh industry on the exact dock where much of it once left the country.
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Kenfig National Nature Reserve
Wander one of Europe’s great sand dune systems, where rare fen orchids bloom above a Norman castle buried by the tide of sand — Kenfig National Nature Reserve is South Wales’ wildest corner.
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Oriel y Parc
A gallery built from wool, wood and stone dust, holding part of a major British painter’s collection — and free to walk into on your way from the car park to St Davids Cathedral.