Sponsored by

Mike's Mini Guide to Cardiff

Accommodation - The City centre is expectedly expensive.  We like Holiday Inns, so I booked at the Cardiff North, which is only 3 miles from the centre, and very near the motorway, so access couldn't be easier.  Internet rates for the Holiday Inn can fluctuate loads, and the direct approach (telephone call) often gets you by far the best deal.  We paid £60 per night for all 3 of us on a B&B basis with full use of leisure facilities.  The same deal in the city

Before you go: Ring 029 2022 7281 and leave your name and address and ask for a guide book and they will send you a handy size booklet.  Information from the web is a little sparse, but I gathered the best snippets together and you are welcome to view this.  There literally loads of links available from this additional guide, which is why I’ve not put any links on this page.

Getting About: Unless you are planning a shopping trip, Sunday is the best day to go sight seeing in Cardiff.  On street parking is free on Sundays and shouldn’t have too much trouble finding somewhere central.  Follow the signs for the Castle, and this will bring you into a very central location.  Even if you do fancy the shops, most are open on a Sunday anyway. 

Cardiff has a Guide Friday (bus tour, which will cost you about £7.  It departs every half hour (every 15 mins in the summer) from outside the Castle.  Take my advice and buy a bus ticket before you go into the Castle as the ticket gets you a 10% entrance fee discount.  The circular guided tour lasts about 1½ hours.

What to see:

Cardiff castle is an absolute must.  The Norman Keep (left) satisfies the historian in you, whilst Lord Bute’s more recent creations (centre) are well worth seeing.  Around £3 will get you into the grounds, but you will regret not paying the extra £1.50 for the guided tour.  The top of the Norman Keep gives some great views, not least of the Millennium stadium (right).

The bus tour takes you past the Civic centre (left), with City Hall and the National Museum and Galleries and then through the industrial sector onto Cardiff Bay.  Cardiff Bay is a great place just to hang out and grab a coffee or something to eat.  There are loads of different restaurants, or you can take a boat trip.  Check out the 1868 Norwegian mariners’ church (right) famed for being the location of Roald Dahl’s baptism.

Rather unusually, Cardiff does not have a Cathedral in it’s centre, but seems to have adopted Llandaff Cathedral to affirm it’s city status.  The cathedral is some 3 miles outside the city centre, but is well worth the effort.  Hard to believe that it spent many of it’s years as a drinking house before it was restored.  Don’t miss the castle (disguised, but go through the archway near where you park) and St. Teilo’s well, which curiously sits on the road side.

OUTSIDE THE CITY To be honest, there isn’t ‘loads’ to see and do in Cardiff and a day or two is all you need.  To extend your visit, there are some things to see just outside the city. The Museum of Welsh Life (link) is in St Fagans, and contains many recreated buildings spanning 500 years.  It is an open air museum so you’ll need to visit according to the weather.  Entry is free, which is always a good reason to visit somewhere.  If you head north from Cardiff along the A470, your eyes will be drawn to a spectacular castle peeping out above the trees.  This is Castell Coch (the Red Castle) and is a mock medieval castle built on the site of previous castles/forts.  Some elements of the existing castle remain, but the exhibition within shows photos of the previous site.  It costs around £4, but is a great site and the views are excellent as well.  If you enjoyed Cardiff Castle’s interior, you will also enjoy the over the top decor of Castell Coch.

Links to other sites

Check out my additional guide for links