Itinerary Help Requested
 

My wife & I (mid-60's) will be driving from the Yorkshire region (Halifax) to Wales on March 5. We have never been to Wales and are going on the recommendation of our daughter who visited South Wales this past October. She and her husband loved their experience!

I imagine we will arrive in Wales sometime late in the day - March 5. We need to be in London by March 14 or 15. So, the slate is clean from March 6 to about the 14th. That gives us 8 days to plan for Wales. We are not into mountain climbing or long, strenuous walks due to back surgery this past June.

We would appreciate any comments, suggestions, and advice as we need to get this trip planned rather quickly. This forum was very helpful when planning a trip to Scotland in Oct 2010. Thank you very much!

Two Wandering Texans

A few years back we did a drive through northern and central Wales, it was great. Granted, we did it in mid-April and it did rain a fair amount, but we really enjoyed it. The people were super friendly.

dave

Loved North Wales. Plenty of castles from King Edward's time. Slate mines. Scenery in Snowdonia.

Photos and more info on my blog:

http://ukfrey.blogspot.com/2011/05/north-wales.html

hi, bu67,

your daughter will probably have told you about places in the south that she liked, and you'll doubtless get a number of recommendations here for the north, so I'm going to make a punt for the middle, which I have seen quite a lot of in the last 18 months or so as DS now goes in uni there.

the bit we particularly like is the Brecon Beacons - there is a lovely drive along the A40 from Llandovery to Abergaveney and you could then drive over to Monmouth and down the valley to Chepstow to pick up the M4 over the Severn towards London. Aberaeron on the mid-welsh coast is also a very pretty spot where we keep meaning to spend some more time.

You COULD let castles-be-your-guide--plenty of those, both in relatively good shape and in general ruins.

http://www.castlewales.com/ is helpful website.
http://www.castlexplorer.co.uk/wales...olwyddelan.php is, too.

We loved Conwy (town, walls and castle), driving through a bit of Snowdonia Park on our way from Shrewsbury, and having the ruins of Dolwyddelan Castle almost to ourselves in the drizzle and the quiet. On a different trip hubby enjoyed driving a bit in the Brecon Beacons area for a whole other experience.

You might check out http://cadw.wales.gov.uk/membership/...922670?lang=en to see if this would be worth pursuing for a pass/membership thing if you plan to go to many of sites covered. When we went we had a Great Britain Heritage Pass, which covered stuff in Wales, but that pass is no longer available. I think Cadw/Wales may offer something similar.

Enjoy whatever you decide to do! It is a place that calls my deepest self to return--someday.

What do you love?

Shoreline & waves? Then either the Gower Peninsula in the south or Aberaeron in the west would appeal.

Castles? Lots of good info above (actually, you can't roll over without hitting a castle in Wales).

Literature? Visiting Dylan Thomas' home in Laugharne (south coast, west of Swansea) is fascinating.

History &/or industry? Wales has some amazing museums, in old functioning woollen mills (in the west), in an old coal mine (nearish the Brecon Beacons, north of Cardiff), in an old slate mine (northwest), and at St. Fagan's north of Cardiff where there are lots of reconstructed buildings from all over the country.
http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/home/

Are you more thrilled by craggy mountains (Snowdonia, in the north) or rolling sheep-covered green hills (middle & west)?

Getting a Wales-only guidebook will help you plan. The two available are Lonely Planet and Rough Guide; I believe the Rough Guide is due for a new edition in the second half of February, so you might hold off on it.