London to Cardiff Wales - Day Trip?

We have done this trip many times. Cardiff is one of my FAVORITE places! You can catch a train at Paddington Station. It is about an hour and 30-45 min. trip. We usually arrive between 10:00 and 11:00am. There is a great pedestrian shopping area, lots of Victorian shopping arcades and the St. David's church that has been converted into a market- we have met locals and made life-long friends here. The harbor area has recently been "redone" and while I haven't seen it, I hear it is really nice. Cardiff is a good day trip for Christmas markets between late Nov. and Christmas. It also is a good city for a day or two stay. Trains run between Cardiff and London every hour or two so you can stay until 5:00 or later. We usually get back into London around 7:00ish. Then catch the Tube to China Town for dinner. Feel free to PM me for more details.

It's just over a two hour train journey from Paddington.

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/?

Check train times and fares here.

Train is fast easy and convenient.

I've taken the National Express Coach too on a cheap fare.

We did it by train many years ago and loved it. I doubt anything would be as stress-free as the train.

The distance is 137 miles and over two hours by train. That means 4 hours out of your day for travel. It doesn't leave much time for sights.

Read about Cardiff before you go to be sure there is something of interest to see. I have taken two tours and both passed through without stopping in Cardiff.

Thanks Carl,
My husband's family is from Cardiff so we want to go and see what's up...I hear it's beautiful anyway and look forward to visiting...This will only be our second trip to Europe so we want to make the most of it as it will be a few years before we can go back.

Wales is lovely and worth stopping.

Cardiff is nice as a city stop but if you have a chance go out to see St Fagan's open air museum or head up to The Big Pit mine where you can do a tour of an old mine. Both are excellent for giving flavor of what life was and is like in Wales.

Try to find a night to spend there if you can. It is worth it especially if you have roots there.

Welsh people are very friendly too... 100x more than Londoners! :-)

We took a train that left around 7 am. We spent a few hours in the town, toured the castle, then took the bus out to St. Fagan's, which we enjoyed very much. The country side was very beautiful. We took an early evening train and were back in time to have dinner in London. It's a long day, but defintely doable. We also found the people to be very friendly.