Loved Wales. We traveled from the north to Ceredigion and then to Carmarthen.
From USA arrival Manchester airport super easy Immigration and Customs. Train to Liverpool Piccadilly easy inexpensive.
Train to Conwy...Bryn Derwen Guest House easy walk from Conwy Station with our bags...yes we travelled light. Bryn Derwen is a gem....so are the owners. Great breakfast, nice people, who could want more. Lots of Neolithic sites in the area, good walks, castles ... we rented a car in Llandudno Junction, easy drive back to Conwy. Each morning we talked about our itinerary with owners and got more ideas and map suggestions. So nice. Isle of Anglesey is beautiful, not much traffic. South Stack light is great.
From Conwy to Cardigan by car. Breathtaking scenery. (By the way, we rented the smallest care Enterprise had on the lot...plenty of space for the two of us and great for the narrow roads and spaces.)
Nant y Brenny in Rhydlewis fantastic place to stay. Lovely clean room, nice tea, great breakfast. John and Hazel are wonderful people who shared their lives. Almost like visiting family. Lots of coastal walks each one better than the last, even with rain. More castles, abbeys, and Neolithic sites. Great food at La Calabria.
For those thinking about money. We took our "travel" cash cards, and used our VISA for big purchase/dinner. Did not have to carry large amounts of US $$$ that way and it was simple to use ATM cash points INSIDE banks. No issues.
If I had to rate the castles number one would be Dolwyddlan, followed by Llansteffan, Kidwelly and Conwy. Neolithic sites number one Pentre Ifan near Newport followed by Bryn Celli Ddu on Anglesey. Churches Llangelynin Church and Llangar Church.....Walks enjoyed every one. Just be sure of your capability and take a rain jacket.
Bought train tickets in advance, open tickets. Cheaper and easy to use. All the train stations were easy to navigate, the personnel all very helpful.
Flew home out of London because we wanted to visit friends and we are not sorry we did.
Got Oyster cards....very simple to do at the tube station, used them for three days, returned them for the refund at Heathrow when we got off the Piccadilly line.
Wales is a beautiful country full of very nice people. We will go back to see all the bits we missed, and there are lots.
We travelled with one backpack convertible to suitcase each. Because we take lots of pictures we each had a small pack that was water resistant to carry camera equipment in. Mine doubled as a snack basket.....very handy on the coast walks. Sure made it easy to get around, especially riding the tube in London at rush hour when we left. Thanks for teaching us to travel light.