Wales
Cardiff
A capital whose castle holds a Roman wall, with arcades where a cheesemonger stocks 150 cheeses.
Inside the walls of Cardiff Castle is an older wall: the Romans built a fort on this river crossing late in the 50s AD, and the stone of their last fort still shows in the castle that grew over it. Wales's capital is a small city with a long memory, walkable from that castle through covered arcades to a market hall where Welshcakes come off the griddle warm.
The castle is the layered heart of the city, Roman fort under Norman motte under Victorian rebuilding, and Bute Park opens straight off its walls along the river. The arcades are the second pleasure, covered passages between the streets where the independents live: Welsh House in Castle Arcade serves nothing that is not Welsh, and Madame Fromage in Cardiff Arcade keeps more than 150 Welsh and artisan cheeses beside a menu of rarebit and cawl. Cardiff Market sells laverbread, the seaweed the Welsh fry with cockles and bacon for breakfast, and Welshcakes made in front of you. National Museum Cardiff holds its Impressionists close by the Principality Stadium; the Bay holds the Wales Millennium Centre, the Senedd, the Norwegian Church and boat trips on the water, and a wetland reserve on its edge. Cardiff earns its place as the easy Welsh city break, the one where a first-timer can see a Roman wall, hear Welsh spoken on stage and eat a Glamorgan sausage in a single afternoon.
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Solo
Castle first, the arcades for coffee and cheese, the National Museum after lunch, and a train to the Bay for an evening show.
Couple
A city hotel, a Welsh afternoon tea, a walk through Bute Park along the river and a performance at the Millennium Centre.
Family
Roman walls to find in the castle, a market for Welshcakes, Roath Park's lake and the Bay's boats and wetlands.
Friends
A match-day or concert weekend built around the arcades, the market and the Bay's restaurants.
- The Romans built a fort here late in the 50s AD at a river crossing with access to the sea, and the remains of the last stone fort's walls can still be seen inside Cardiff Castle.
- The city centre's arcades hold independent restaurants, Welsh House in Castle Arcade being given over entirely to Welsh food and drink.
- Bute Park runs from the castle walls along the river, the city's green centre, with Roath Park and the Bay's wetland reserve beyond.
- Down at the Bay the Wales Millennium Centre, the country's answer to the Sydney Opera House, stages everything from West End runs to Welsh-language productions.
Welshcakes hot off the griddle in Cardiff Market, the market hall in the middle of the city, and a Welsh breakfast of laverbread, cockles and bacon.
Welsh rarebit and cawl at Madame Fromage in Cardiff Arcade, a cheesemonger and café with more than 150 Welsh and artisan cheeses on the counter.
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