cardiff, wales - worth a visit?
 

I'm planning my upcoming trip and I was thinking of going to Cardiff...I've read some of the threads here and other sources, and trying to decide if Cardiff is a good choice.

I would probably make a day trip from Bath where I would be staying for a couple of days before going on to London.

What are your thoughts? Is it worth it? and what should I not miss in Cardiff, if I do go?

thanks

topping... hoping for some answers -- it's a totally new area for me...and I'd love to get others' point of view, besides the guide books.

bristol/clifton is closer and better.

Cardiff is well worth a day trip, if you do not want to drive then it is an easy train ride from Bath.There is
Cardiff castle, the rugby staduim, the Museum it has quite an art collection, cardiff Bay and all the lovely waterfront resturants and things. If I had just a day I would go and buy some picinc food to take with me for lunch. Start off by a visit to Cardiff Castle in the morning, then get on the open top hop on hop off bus tour. It starts outside the castle.
I would get off at the National Museum of Wales and go and have a look inside, see the art collections. Then have a short walk around the other civic buildings ( this is the civic center). Then stop for your picnic lunch on the lawn outside of the City Hall, or in the park area around there. Then get back on the bus at the stop you got off, finish taken the rest of the tour, it is not a long tour. then stay on to go back down the bay and get off get off at Cardiff Bay. There is the wonderful Wales Millennium Arts centre. They do tours or you cab just inside and have a look around, next door is the very modern national assemly for wales worth looking at. Take walk down to the Norwegian Church, and back along the waterfront you also see the beautiful red brick builing called the Pierhead. The waterfront has many resturants and bars. You may wnat to stop at the little Welsh Ice cream shop and Depending how your going for time take a boat ride across to the barrage. You could then finish the day off with a lovley meal in one of the many resturants down there, before you head off home. If you did not bring a car then there are many cabs on Mermaid Quay it would cost about £5 to get to the train station or you could jump on a bus, get on I think it is by Mimosa Kitchen and Bar,that would cost about 90p each to the central bus and train station. Here is a website on Cardiff and another one with all the info on Cardiff Bay.
http://www.visitcardiff.com/
http://www.cardiffharbour.com/

Oh I really must take more care when typing I get so carried away and make lots of terrible mistakes, sorry.

I only spent a few hours in Cardiff. Not very interesting but such a short visit, it's not a fair statement BUT I loved Snowdonia where friends from London took me for a weekend.

Thank you everyone, having your personal point of view does help me a lot as I'm reading the travel books.

crazychick,

a special thank you for the websites

My 21 year old daughter and I had a mother/daughter trip to London and Cardiff for her university spring break last month. I am working on a trip report, but no telling exactly when THAT will get posted.

Here are the basics: we spent 3 nights in Cardiff, stayed in the city center, near the castle. We took the train from London (2 hours), arriving at dinner the first evening, and departing early after the third night. So, 2 full days. All of our evenings were spent with my daughter's friends who are studying at Cardiff University this term.

Day One: we got a bit of a late start, but took the city bus to Caerphilly Castle and had a good look around, then back to town and saw Cardiff Castle. Loved them both. If we hadn't gotten such a late start, we could have seen Castle Coch (Victorian) which is on the same bus line as Caerphilly. Dinner fairly early at a restaurant in the city center.

Day Two:
We poked around the downtown arcades and the central market, then went to the National Museum of Wales. We finished by walking up to residences of Cardiff University with my daughter's friends and going to trivia night at a pub.

Crazychick has some great suggestions. As you can see, we didn't do nearly as much with our days!

There were lots more things that I would have liked to do. We did not see the waterfront! There were day trips I would have taken in a heartbeat - but it just didn't fit for us. We had fun and really enjoyed Cardiff.

As for whether it's worth it for you, it's hard to say, as I don't know what else you have seen or are seeing.