Cardiff Top 5

Welcome to Cardiff, The Capital city of Wales

Cardiff, Wales’ Capital city, offers a startling range of unique attractions, top class entertainment and quality shopping with a difference – all within walking distance. Innovative architecture sits alongside historic buildings and Cardiff Bay offers entertainment for everyone.

Rich in ancient history, sporting excitement, romantic ambience, eclectic culture and ‘out of this world’ activities, Cardiff is the perfect holiday destination for families, couples and groups. Cardiff is a thriving city, just 2 hours by train from London.

Cardiff is a city of attractions, sport, culture and entertainment. With brilliant attractions which draw people from all over the UK and abroad you’ll be spoilt for choice in Cardiff. Choose from historic houses and castles or wildlife and water sports.

You’ll find a lively entertainment scene in and around Cardiff, which features opera, ballet, musicals, and live music from top acts. Across the city, there are a range of theatres, galleries and arts and live music venues. You can explore French Impressionist paintings at the national museum, find out about Cardiff’s local history at the Cardiff Story Museum and Cardiff Bay’s maritime heritage at Y Pierhead. From the traditional to the ground-breaking modern, from seating thousands to cosy intimate spaces, Cardiff can satisfy every taste.

Things to do in Cardiff

Cardiff Castle

The Castle you see today, in the heart of the capital city, is at once a Roman fort, an impressive castle and an extraordinary Victorian Gothic fantasy palace, created for one of the world’s richest men.

Piece together 2,000 years of history on your visit and discover the remains of a Roman wall, climb to the top of the medieval keep, explore the atmospheric Wartime Shelters and be overwhelmed by the extraordinary decoration in the Castle Apartments.

Castle Street, Cardiff, CF10 3RB

Tel: 020 2087 8100

Cardiff Castle

Castle Street, Cardiff, CF10 3RB

Tel: 020 2087 8100

Brecon Mountain Railway

Take a steam train along the heritage narrow gauge railway, running through the Brecon Beacons. The dramatic South Wales landscape and impressively restored steam locomotives makes for a great day out in South Wales for families and especially children.

Visit the licensed tearooms, the shop for gifts and souvenirs and the steam loco repair workshop at Pant.

Visit the Lakeside Cafe, Steam Museum, admire the view or go for walks alongside the reservoir in Pontsticill. There is also a children’s play area.

Brecon Mountain Railway, Pant Station, Merthyr Tydfil, Mid Glamorgan, CF48 2DD

Tel: 01685 722988

Brecon Mountain Railway

Visit the licensed tearooms, the shop for gifts and souvenirs and the steam loco repair workshop at Pant.

Visit the Lakeside Cafe, Steam Museum, admire the view or go for walks alongside the reservoir in Pontsticill. There is also a children’s play area.

Brecon Mountain Railway, Pant Station, Merthyr Tydfil, Mid Glamorgan, CF48 2DD

Tel: 01685 722988

Caerphilly Castle

Caerphilly Castle is one of the great medieval castles of Western Europe. Several factors give it this pre-eminence – its immense size (1.2h), making it the largest in Britain after Windsor, its large-scale use of water for defence and the fact that it is the first truly concentric castle in Britain. Of the time of its building in the late 13th century, it was a revolutionary masterpiece of military planning

Caerphilly Castle, Castle St, Caerphilly CF83 1JD

Tel: 029 2088 3143

Caerphilly Castle

Caerphilly Castle, Castle St, Caerphilly CF83 1JD

Tel: 029 2088 3143

Tintern Abbey

One of the best-preserved medieval abbey in Wales, located in an area of outstanding beauty. Tintern, on the banks of the River Wye, was only the second Cistercian foundation to be built in Britain.

Although the abbey church was rebuilt in the late 13th century, the monastery retains its original design.

Tintern, Gwent, NP16 6SE

Tel: 01291 689251

Tintern Abbey

One of the best-preserved medieval abbey in Wales, located in an area of outstanding beauty. Tintern, on the banks of the River Wye, was only the second Cistercian foundation to be built in Britain.

Although the abbey church was rebuilt in the late 13th century, the monastery retains its original design.

Tintern, Gwent, NP16 6SE

Tel: 01291 689251

Big Pit National Coal Museum

Discover Wales’s rich mining heritage in this amazing, award winning interactive museum complete with an underground tour.

In its heyday, Big Pit employed 1,300 workers, now you can follow in their footsteps through interactive exhibits and the world-famous underground tour. Led by a real miner, it will give you a living, breathing taste of what life was like for those who made their living at the coal face.

Big Pit National Coal Museum, Blaenafon, Torfaen, NP4 9XP

Tel: 0300 111 2 333