Me and Mr N have decided to go to Wales for a week (ish) in May. Never been, want to do a bit of a tour staying in cheapo travel lodge type places, maybe 3 or 4 different ones. So...what areas shall we go to as I'm totally spoilt for choice.

We want some interesting scenery although Mr N isn't a massive outdoorsy types, so a scenic train trip or car trip through the mountains with a little bit of walking, would be nice. Mountain would be nice. Museums, yes, and I'd like to go down a mine. BAsically we just need some time to de-stress and don't want to be rushing round lots of towns/attractions, just enough interest each day to keep us entertained, then a good environment to relax in.

So...

suggestions?

You'll get lots of suggestions from Mucky et al about places.

But two suggestions on logistics:

1 Be VERY leery of Travelodge (and Holiday Inn Express, and Campanile and all of them) Fine if you're staying in Swansea or Cardiff, but that's not your brief. Outside the major towns, they're often in really naff locations - like dismal service areas on main roads, such as St Clears on the A40 in West Wales, and absolutely NOT what I suspect you're looking for. Sadly, if you eliminate modern chains, you're reduced to - err - quirky places in towns like Pembroke or Brecon. But personally I'd prefer that to sleeping in a glorified petrol station.

2. Unless scenic trains are essential, I'd limit myself to the South and mid-Wales if I were starting in Kent, going out on the M4 and on to the end of Wales, then coming back on the A, then M, 40. If scenic trains are essential, you have to go to the NW. But to get there, you've got the serious downer of coping with the M6 both ways, which will neutralise all the benefits of a few days in Snowdonia, and take up half the rest of your life.

The Brecon Beacons, the Mumbles and the area round Pembroke aren't as tall as Snowdonia. But the walking's just as good - if less strenuous.

Pembrokeshire is very beautiful.
If you want to go where Welsh is spoken, then you might like Aberystwyth.
Then, you could perhaps stay in Chester and travel into North Wales.

Ok thanks - we don't care about the grotty locations of the travellodges - we can get them for £29 a night at the moment and we don't mind a less than salubrious spot. We do a lot of weekends in them and just head off - for us it's just a place to sleep.

I was leaning towards the Snowdonia area so that we could do a little mountain visit/railway, but perhaps not then, if the access is such a pain.

It's not a coal mine, but you might be interested in the slate mines at
Blaenau Ffestiniog


http://www.walesdirectory.co.uk/Town...iniog_Town.htm

If you like trains you might enjoy the
Vale of Rheidol Railway
http://www.rheidolrailway.co.uk/
It is a narrow gauge steam train and goes from Aberystwyth to Devil's Bridge. It goes through some spectacular scenery
Devil's Bridge itself is well worth aa visit.

Hi nona; We stayed in the lovely town od Betws-y-coed in the Snowdonia area. Many very nice B&B'S. www.glyntwrogsnowdonia.co.uk/betws-y-coed.html ENJOY Iris

There's Trave Inn/Lodge (can't remember which) near Conwy - as long as you have a car, in an ideal position for visiting Conwy, Llandudno, Bodnant gardens, Betwys-y-Coed, etc. There's another one near Bangor which could be used for Penrhyn Castle, Anglesey (Beaumaris Castle, Plas Newydd, etc and lovely coastline). There's also one near Caernarfon for the castle and either this or the Bangor one would be good for visiting Snowdonia.

Between these there would be more than enough within easy reach by car to fill a week or more.

Update -

Travel Lodges at Caernarfon, Bangor, Porthmadog and Holyhead.

Travel Inns at Caernarfon, Bangor Conwy, Llandudno and Rhuddlan

If you find yourselves in or around Cardiff, go to St Fagans.
http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/stfagans/
It's an open-air museum with various buildings transported from all over Wales. There is a restored 15th century chapel and miners' cottages from the 19th century and tons of other things. And it's free.

My idea of stress would be moving among 3-4 Travelodges in a week!

Would you consider a cottage to rent--a small one in Wales would average around 50 pounds a day. We rented a great cottage outside Llandiloes in mid-Wales in September. It was a fantastic 3 BR, 3 bath and if I remember about 450 pounds for the week.

The local area was very pretty and the people some of the nicest I've met--our cottage was on a working sheep farm high above the valley.

The owner left us alone but stopped by to check on us twice. We asked her in for a cup of tea and received great local advice in return. We did easy drives to the coast (fantastic seafood), to Hay-on-Wye, the Brecon Beacons, Ludlow, Powys Castle and Shrewsbury (for the hospital, so I don't know much about the town).

We drove down from the Lake District, stopping in Llandudno on the north coast for two days to go to Carnarvon, Beaumaris, Snowdonia, etc. We had massive amounts of rain on those days so did not do the Snowdonia railway--it's still on our list.

We booked on line through Hoseasons which has done well by us in north Yorkshire as well as Wales.

nona1 - Also around the Cardiff area is the wonderful Roman ruins of Caerleon - loved wandering through the amphitheatre. Good info on the net also.

A cottage would be lovely as well but we quite fancy moving around a bit. We like driving, Wales is fairly compact, and it's a good way for us to see a bit more. Definitely more of a mooch than a route-march in mind. Perhaps just 2 or 3 places would be better, I admit.

"Big Pit" is a coal mine you go down near Blaenafon in South Wales. It's authentic and well worth doing, although you don't get to crawl along dirty wet pathways underground. Details at www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/bigpit/.

There are some good castles in South Wales - Cardiff, Caerphilly, Castel Coch (a nineteenth century pastiche of a gothic castle on the Rhine) as well as the border castles - Chepstow, Raglan, and small ruins like Grosmont, Skenfrith and White Castle, which are really out of the way and delightful.

I agree about the attractions of St Fagan's - don't forget to try some Welsh Cakes when you are there. You may also like Caerleon, just outside Newport, where there are Roman baths, a Roman barracks, and an ampitheatre.

That's just the south-east corner, but they are all places worth visiting at the start of your trip.

Have a grand holiday--hope you have time to drive up through mid-Wales, it was wonderful surprise to me on our trip.