The Rough Guide to Wales 5 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) - Softcover

Parker, Mike; Whitfield, Paul; Rough Guides

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843536072 ISBN 13: 9781843536079

Publisher: Rough Guides, 2006

Synopsis

From the seaside resort of Llandudno to Cardiff''s awesome Millennium Stadium, the Rough Guide to Wales tells you all there is to know about this beautiful and varied country. The 24-page, full-colour section introduces all of Wales'' highlights, from the world-famous Valleys and Welsh male voice choirs to the trendy bars of Cardiff Bay and the suprisingly tasteful delight of Welsh Laverbread. In addition, there are two, brand-new, 4-page, full-colour inserts: ''Literary Wales'' and ''The Battle for Wales''. The guide includes hundreds of listings of the all the top places to eat, drink and stay, whatever your budget, plus brand-new ''author picks'' to highlight the very best. There is plenty of practical advice on outdoor pursuits, including some of the best mountain and coastal walks, and activities from surfing on the Gower to rock-climbing in Snowdonia. The guide takes a detailed look at Wales'' history and culture, from the Celts and druids to modern post-devolution politics. The guide comes complete with maps and plans for every region.

About this title

About the Author

Mike Parker has had close ties with Wales since buying himself a "Teach Yourself Welsh" book at the age of twelve and is a contributer to the Rough Guide to Britain. Paul Whitfield has had a similarly long-term relationship with Wales and is author of the Rough Guide to Alaska and co-author of Rough Guides to New Zealand and California.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Where to go

Like all capital cities, Cardiff is atypical of the rest of the country, but as the first major stop on both rail and road routes from England into south Wales, it's a good place to start. Most national institutions are based here, not least the new National Assembly, currently in a temporary home but soon to be housed in purpose-built splendour amidst the massive regeneration projects of Cardiff Bay. The city is also home to the National Museum and St Fagans Folk Museum – both are excellent introductions to the character of the rest of Wales – and the brand-new Millennium Stadium, which hosted the 1999 Rugby World Cup. The only other centres of appreciable size are dowdy Newport and breezy, resurgent Swansea, lying respectively to the east and west of the capital. All three cities grew as ports, mainly exporting millions of tons of coal and iron from the Valleys, where fiercely proud industrial communities were built up in the thin strips of land between the mountains.

Much of Wales' appeal lies outside the towns, where there is ample evidence of the warmongering which has shaped the country's development. Castles are everywhere, from the hard little stone keeps of the early Welsh princes to Edward I's incomparable series of thirteenth-century fortresses at Flint, Conwy, Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Harlech and Rhuddlan, and grandiose Victorian piles where grouse were the only enemy. Fortified residences served as the foundation for a number of the stately homes that dot the country, but many castles were deserted and remain dramatically isolated on rocky knolls, most likely on spots previously occupied by prehistoric communities. Passage graves and stone circles offer a more tangible link to the pre-Roman era when the priestly order of Druids ruled over early Celtic peoples, and later religious monuments such as the great ruined abbeys of Valle Crucis, Tintern and Strata Florida lend a gaunt grandeur to their surroundings.

Whether you're admiring castles, megaliths or Dylan Thomas's home at Laugharne, almost everything in Wales is enhanced by the beauty of the countryside, from the lowland greenery of meadows and river valleys to the inhospitable heights of the moors and mountains. The rigid backbone of the Cambrian Mountains terminates in the soaring peaks of Snowdonia and the angular ridges of the Brecon Beacons, both superb walking country and both national parks. A third national park follows the Pembrokeshire Coast, where golden strands come separated by rocky bluffs overlooking offshore bird colonies. Much of the rest of the coast remains unspoilt, though seldom undiscovered, with long sweeps of sand often backed by traditional British seaside resorts: the north Wales coast, the Cambrian coast and the Gower peninsula display a notable abundance.

When to go

The English preoccupation with the weather holds equally for the Welsh. The climate here is temperate, with Welsh summers rarely getting hot and nowhere but the tops of mountain ranges ever getting very cold, even in midwinter. Temperatures vary little from Cardiff in the south to Llandudno in the north, but proximity to the mountains is a different matter: Llanberis, at the foot of Snowdon, gets doused with more than twice as much rainfall as Caernarfon, seven miles away, and is always a few degrees cooler. With rain never too far from the mind of any resident or visitor, it is easy to forget that throughout much of the summer, Wales – particularly the coast – can be bathed in sun. Between June and September, the Pembrokeshire coast, washed by the Gulf Stream, can be as warm as anywhere in Britain. The bottom line is that it's impossible to say with any degree of certainty that the weather will be pleasant in any given month. May might be wet and grey one year and gloriously sunny the next, and the same goes for the autumnal months – November stands an equal chance of being crisp and clear or foggy and grim. Obviously, if you're planning to lie on a beach, or camp in the dry, you'll want to go between June and September – a period when you should book your accommodation as far in advance as possible. Otherwise, if you're balancing the likely fairness of the weather against the density of the crowds, the best time to get into the countryside or the towns is between April and May or in October. If outdoor pursuits are your objective, these are the best months for walking, June to October are warmest and driest for climbing, and December to March the only times you'll find enough water for kayaking.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1843536072
• ISBN 13: 9781843536079
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 5
• Number of pages: 576