Wales without a car

Debbie That's quite a broad question. Its like me asking you to suggest a hotel somewhere in Florida before you know what I want to do (Mickey or the Keys). Why do you want to go to Wales? Castles? Gardens? Slate Mines? Coal Mines? Narrowboats? Walking? Coastline? Modern cities or old villages? Do you want to always speak English, or are you OK with Welsh? Have you been before? If you can say what you'd like to do in your 2 days we can direct you much more accurately.

Debbie, Wales is apprx. the size of New Jersey. You can for instance get to Cardiff by train from London or I think via Chester or Shrewsbury in the north, but as Nigel said, you need to let us know what your interests are. You won't be able to see much in such a short time. My mother whose grandmother came from Wales, took a train and bus to several small places then rented a car and driver and saw quite a bit of what she wanted to see. However, getting around Wales without a car can be a challenge because much of Wales is small villages and rural areas not connected by train like in England.

We are interested in castles and villages. Please let me know the small places your Mother went to visit just using public transportation.

With only a couple of nights, you're not going to see much. That's pretty much show up, sleep, have a day, sleep, leave. Two castles reachable in short order by rail (don't ask me how, I've just seen the tracks and stations and know the distances) are Caerphilly (big castle, moderate-sized town) and Chepstow (small, great castle and small village).

I don't know what you've already seen in GB but I'll assume you have a clean slate for sightseeing. First, London can keep you very busy for 6 days. You can do very easy day trips to Windsor, Bath, Cambridge, Oxford, Cantebury, Salisbury and others. York can be done but it would be a stretch as a day trip especially if you go to evensong. An overnight or two there would be a good addition to London. Ed suggested castles in south Wales. You can get there by train with probably only one transfer. The trip would probably take 4 hours or so. Chepstow is not too far from the train station so you could walk. I personally don't think it's worth overnighting. You could add Tintern Abbey but that would require a taxi. I'm not sure if buses may connect Chepstow with Tintern Abbey. The "great" castles are in north Wales. You could take a nominal 6 hour train to Conwy and see the castle there. Buses connect to Caernarfon and around the whole Mt Snowdown region. Schedules make some areas more accessible than others. Honestly, I think the area is worth at lest two full days or more with a car.

If you go to Caernarfon and are a fan of the classic television series "The Prisoner", take the 2 foot narrow gauge steam railway to Port Madog and stay at the Hotel Portmerian. You'll be very happy in "The Village" (grin).

Great start to my planning. Thank you all. We've done London and its surroundings before, so definitely planning to go elsewhere; going to Liverpool also. Thanks again.

If you are also going to Liverpool, I would definitely suggest you train to Chester and take the smaller regional train into Wales. I did that only as far as Betws y Coed for a day trip once and the little town was lovely. I think you can continue from there to somewhere like Caernarfon. But for such a short time you might consider just staying there.

Debbie, I was in Wales a couple of years ago and I wanted to avoid car rental, too. I stayed in Cardiff and took the train to a couple of places. I also went to the tourist office and signed up for a tour-there are several. There are quite a few ancient sites, Roman, Norman etc very close to Cardiff.

I stayed in Bangor, and travelled by bus to Caernarfon, Beaumaris, and Conwy, and without and problems. Lovely castles in each. I arrived via Dublin and train, and left via train to Carlisle (via Chester).