Most families visiting the United Kingdom start with England or Ireland; on their next trip they might stray as far as Scotland. A surprising few make it to Wales, and that’s a mistake. This green, hilly country is perfect for a family driving vacation.
Extending 160 miles along the west side of England, and averaging 60 miles across, Wales may be compact, but you can’t speed through it. Winding two-lane roads with high hedgerows force you to slow down and savor; don’t count on covering more than 30 miles in an hour. You’ll pass sheep-covered slopes, craggy mountains, spooky ruined castles (Wales has more than 400 castles), thick forests, stone bridges over misty valleys, and medieval towns with Tudor storefronts and whimsical clock towers. Along the way you’ll meet the Welsh people, proud of their land and eager to show it off. While the castles and ancient folkloric traditions suggest a fairy-tale atmosphere, the country’s rough-and-tumble mining past gives it a gritty soul.
DELVING INTO THE PAST
The phrase “rich in history” is enough to make most kids roll their eyes, but Wales has plenty to grab their attention. Start in Cardiff, the cosmopolitan capital on the southern coast that’s a mix of Edwardian arcades and sleek contemporary buildings. A visit to Cardiff Castle will get your kids off on the right foot (daily tours; $14). Castle guides tell gory tales of seven-year-old boys whose job on the battlefield was to finish off injured knights by hammering a three-pronged spike into their jugular veins. Less bloodthirsty kids might prefer the fairy-tale murals in the nursery (look for the comatose Sleeping Beauty in a carriage).
Meanwhile, parents will marvel at the castle’s Gothic Revival finery: Every square inch is decorated with gilded ornamental detail, intricately carved wood and stained glass. A Roman fortress was built on this site in the first century A.D., but what you see today owes its existence to the coal-rich Bute family, who helped turn Cardiff into a major port. It was the wealthy 3rd Marquess of Bute (1847-1900) who commissioned the lavish redo.
Just seven miles north of Cardiff is another castle your kids will thrill to: the massive stone bulk of 740-year-old Caerphilly, the largest castle in Wales. Its looming gray walls, parapets and arrow slits conjure up images of medieval battles. Nearby is Castell Coch (Red Castle), more of a draw for would-be princesses. To decorate it, the 3rd Marquess of Bute hired the same Gothic Revival architect who redid Cardiff Castle, and the results are equally sumptuous. The Marquess planned Castell Coch as his retreat from the bustle of Cardiff (daily tours; $5).
And by the late 18th century, Cardiff was bustling indeed. Rich deposits of iron and high-quality coal in South Wales helped make this the first fully industrialized area in the world, and Cardiff grew rapidly into a busy shipping port. For more than a century, whole families worked the mines. But by the 1980s, almost all the mines had closed as natural gas replaced coal.
One of the oldest mines in Wales has been put to good use as the Big Pit National Coal Museum in Blaenafon (museumwales.ac.uk; tours free). For the hour-long Big Pit tour, you’re fitted with a belt, helmet and lamp, enter a rattly cage elevator and descend 300 feet into the mine. Down below, your guide, a grizzled ex-miner with a thick Welsh burr, shows you the white-washed stalls where pit ponies lived, and spins tales of five-year-olds who worked as “trappers,” opening and closing ventilation doors. If their candles blew out they had to keep going—in pitch darkness. (School might not seem so bad after all.)
STEAM POWERED
Welsh coal wasn’t just used for smelting iron and heating homes; it also powered steam trains all around this mountainous country. Many of those trains have been restored and are still running. The narrow-gauge Vale of Rheidol Railway (rheidolrailway.co.uk; $20, $5/kids) offers a family-friendly ride from the seaside town of Aberystwyth up to Devil’s Bridge. During the hour-long trip through the green Rheidol Valley, the scenery changes minute by minute, much like a Japanese garden’s design affords different views as you stroll its paths. Hop off and take an hour to follow a lush trail for views of Mynach Falls, which cascades 300 feet to meet the River Rheidol. Then get back on the train for your return to Aberystwyth.
If your kids can’t get enough of the steam trains, go north to Caernarfon to ride the heritage Welsh Highland Railway (welshhighlandrailway.net) through Snowdonia National Park, with spectacular mountain views while crossing the steep Aberglaslyn Pass. By the end of the year, rail segments will connect to offer a 40-mile ride between Caernarfon and Porthmadog.
IN THE MOMENT
When the sun shines, the Welsh flock to their seaside villages to swim, stroll the beaches and hang out on old-fashioned piers. (While the climate here can be harsh, summer is your best bet for clear skies.) Don’t miss a visit to Aberystwyth, whose lovely curve of beach is backed by a handsome promenade and a row of guesthouses. Take a dip in Cardigan Bay before riding the cliff railway up Constitution Hill for ocean views that go on forever.
From Aberystwyth, drive down the coast to New Quay, another seaside town. After walking out on the huge stone jetty to scan the sailboat-studded bay, visit the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre, in a stone cottage on the beach, to check out the displays on dolphins. Then head out on a boat ride with Captain Steve Hartley to look for minke whales and bottlenose dolphins, Atlantic gray seals and harbor porpoises. You’re sure to spot dozens of cormorants, guillemots, gannets and perhaps a puffin or two, easily identified by their big orange beaks. As paying passengers you’re helping fund the projects, since a researcher goes out in every boat to chart dolphin activity (cbmwc.org; two-hour boat ride $26, $15/kids).
In the early 1900s, red kites were all but extinct in Great Britain. Today, thanks to the dedicated work of Welsh conservationists, these magnificent hawks are making a comeback—several hundred breeding pairs now exist. For in-flight action your kids will enjoy, head to the Red Kite Feeding Station, where every summer afternoon at 3 p.m. you can watch as the owner of Gigrin Farm tosses hunks of meat to the huge birds, drawing as many as 400 at a time. (Note: Squeamish or vegetarian kids might prefer to pass.) The kites swoop down for their meal and engage in aerial dogfights with opportunistic crows and buzzards (Rhayader, Powys; gigrin.co.uk; $6, $2.25/kids).
Another sure hit with animal-lovers is Ewe-phoria Sheepdog Center in North Wales. Watch as fleet-footed border collies hustle sheep down a hillside; see a “ram parade” that shows off a range of sheep varieties (even one that resembles a hairy boar); and witness a sheep losing its woolly coat to an expert shearer (adventure-mountain.co.uk; $7, $5/kids, book in advance).
GREEN VALLEYS
Seeing border collies dash across the fields might inspire your kids to cover some ground themselves. Two spacious national parks are the best place for that. In South Wales, Brecon Beacons provides 519 square miles of rolling meadows, much of it still farmland. You can explore the park on foot, by bike, on horseback or by boat. The traffic-free biking trails are perfect for families: Tackle a portion of the 55-mile Taff Trail (tafftrail.org.uk), which runs from the ancient market town of Brecon (where you can rent bikes) and takes you into forests and villages, along canal towpaths and through (not-so-steep) mountains to end at the Cardiff waterfront. The Beacons Bike Bus offers support on summer Sundays.
As you travel north in Wales, the landscape becomes more rugged. The heart of North Wales is the precipitous Snowdonia National Park, 823 square miles of coastline and mountains. At its center you’ll find the highest peak in Wales: 3,560-foot Mount Snowdon.
You can spend days exploring the park’s 1,700 miles of footpaths, but at the very least you should see the new Snowdon Summit Visitor Centre, a striking granite-and-glass structure called Hafod Eryri. Set to open in June, it offers a panoramic view of the dramatic Snowdonia range. To get there, take the hour-long ride aboard the Snowdon Mountain Railway (snowdonrailway.co.uk), a rack-and-pinion railway whose gradient is so steep the locomotive has to push, rather than pull, the train uphill.
SEEING THE FUTURE
Back in the mid-1970s, a small band of visionaries—just call them hippies—established the Centre for Alternative Technology (cat.org.uk; $12; $6/kids) in a derelict slate quarry in Mid Wales, near the town of Machynlleth. Their goal: to devise a lifestyle less dependent on fossil fuels. Today the rest of the world is finally catching up, what with our renewed interest in sustainability, recycling, organic farming and the like.
Home gardeners will envy CAT’s huge vegetables (cabbage, peppers, Swiss chard) sprouting from rich compost, and the lush flowers growing everywhere. Plumbers, electricians and contractors come to this seven-acre eco-center to learn new skills, like installing solar panels. Kids expecting a lecture on sustainability will instead find educational exhibits that are actually fun, like giant replicas of underground creatures in the Mole Hole. There’s a playground (wood and recycled materials, of course) and a cafeteria serving vegetarian food grown on site. The center also generates its own electricity. But is it any wonder Wales was way ahead of the green movement? In fact, Wales has been green—really green—forever.
For more information, go to visitbritain.com.
Prefer not to drive? See Wales, run by Paul Harris (a font of local info), offers full-day tours from Cardiff. seewales.com; $150/family of five
STAY
RCI-AFFILIATED RESORTS IN WALES INCLUDE:
GRAIG PARK VILLAGE & COUNTRY CLUB, Dyserth
HAVEN COURT, Haverfordwest
MACDONALD PLAS TALGARTH RESORT, Machynlleth
THE PANTGLAS OWNERS CLUB, Llanfyndd near Carmarthen
For more information, visit RCI.com or call:
Weeks: 800-338-7777
Points: 877-968-7476
NON-RCI-AFFILIATED HOTELS:
SLEEPERZ HOTEL
Sleek new hotel with 74 compact
rooms. Saunders Rd., Cardiff;
011-44-29-2047-8747; sleeperz.com;
doubles from $80
HIGHGATE FARMHOUSE B&B
Four rooms and six cottages.
Highgate, Nr. Newtown;
011-44-16-8662-3763;
highgate-accommodation.co.uk;
doubles from $102
UNDER THE THATCH
Historic accommodations, including
restored trailers used by traveling
circus folk. underthethatch.co.uk;
doubles from $180 for two nights
NANT DDU LODGE
Relaxing country inn. Cwm Taf,
near Merthyr Tydfil, Powys;
011-44-16-8537-9111;
nant-ddu-lodge.co.uk; doubles
from $127
RUTHIN CASTLE
Haunted castle with 62 guest
rooms. Ruthin, Denbighshire;
011-44-18-2470-2664;
ruthincastle.co.uk; doubles
from $174
THE GROVE
Manor-house B&B and four
stone cottages. Molleston,
Narberth; 011-44-18-3486-
0915; thegrove-narberth.co.uk;
doubles from $189; cottages
from $503/week.
NOTE: Information may have changed since publication. Please confirm key details before planning your trip.