Just Wales, or Wales and England?

Allan, you’re going to love Wales! Hope it stays at the top of your list. : )

When my husband & I did our 45th anniversary trip to Wales & England, we stayed in Conwy, Chester & York in the vicinity of where you’re currently looking, along with more cities in England. My husband wanted to limit our trip to two weeks, so I dropped southern Wales (although interesting!) from the initial draft itinerary. We had Liverpool on our list, briefly, but I took it off for personal reasons as I researched each one in more detail. That was a massive hub for slave trade, and we have mixed race grandchildren.

Here’s our trip report:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/june-2023-england-wales-trip-report

Happy planning!

I used to work in Wales (as a neutral) and can assure you that the north and south are split not just for touring convenience! And those in the middle smuggly sit and watch the squabbles, especilly those over who speaks the real welsh.. But there is a genuine issue of the topography dividing the country and reducing long distance travel options. The Cardiff-Holyhead trains which the welsh government promote as unifiers actually spend nearly 2 hours in England to get around the hilly parts! And as far as I know there is still no fast bus to compete with those trains - but there is a road which could be Wales' answer to Route 66 (but narrower and with more bends and only 190miles long). It's called the A470 and goes from the parliament building in Cardiff to Llandudno, search Google and Youtube

The north has the mountains and the best castles and easy day trips to Chester and LIverpool. And easy access to Manchester airport.

The south has the more recent (UK standards!) history, and some decent beaches, and more chance of dry weather. And the scenic areas that sweep around to the north of the Newport-Cardiff-Swansea industrail belt. It has Cardiff airport, but that isn't saying much but there was the occasional flight from Canada. It is fairly easy to reach from Heathrow. Go to the far west end for St Davids - but work out carefully how to do that.

The middle has some fantastic beaches, and often has weather suitable for them. Real welsh culture and language, small villages and some vey nice semi mountainous scenery. Also most of the Great Little Trains of Wales (narrow gauge and usually steam). Also a NATO air force training area (Youtube Machy Loop) which can be interesting to see in use. With Birmingham airport as the most convenient.

North and South actually have connections to Ireland by ferry and plane.

Conwy town is very small but Conwy county includes Llandudno, which is a decent base and not far away. Be very careful with accomodation addresses because the county contains some remote areas, check the postcode in Google Maps.

Caernarfon, yes. Possible as a day trip from Llandudno or as a stopover on a road trip.

Cardiff, definately worth it for the museums and other buildings but don't get stuck there and miss the rest of the country.

You could spend 2 weeks in Wales, you just need to get an itinery in order to fit the topography - and know how you will travel.

I’m sure you’ll drive, but this Rabbie’s Wales Tour itinerary might give you some ideas:

https://www.rabbies.com/en-us/tour/discover-wales-5-day-tour-from-london

I’ve signed up for this tour for May with time in Bath before and time in London after.

WOW me.crewe! This is excellent!

Allan, Our trips to Wales have been divided by North and South, not exactly by design but as part of an organic planning process that made sense. We went to Southern Wales as part of a trip that included Bath, and Cornwall. Our time in Northern Wales was part of a trip that included Chester and Liverpool.

Wales is beautiful and you should definitely go! The area you mention around Conwy/Caernarfon is very nice, and if you're planning to be around there I also recommend Snowdonia and Anglesey. For me, the most beautiful part of Wales is Pembrokeshire- from St David's up to Cardigan along the coast. Tenby is also a lovely beach town and you have nearby Barafundle Bay which is beautiful. In May this year we visited the Brecon Beacons for the first time and I would highly recommend looking at that area as well. Abergavenny and Brecon are both very cute towns and the scenery with the mountains is spectacular. And you can visit a real (former) working coal mine at Blaenavon. I'm sure you have a lot to consider, good luck with your planning.

I’m lucky living in the UK and have made many many trips to Wales over the last 50 years. We spent about 25 years holidaying in the Llyn Peninsula for two weeks every easter and there were still places to be discovered. You have the splendour of Snowdonia and the mountains as well as the beaches and the more gentle scenery of the Llyn. And then there is the slate heritage too with the remains of the slate mining still very apparent in the landscape. (The area now has world heritage status.) There are castles galore as well the ‘bling’ of Penryn Castle. The heritage steam railways are another bonus too. It is also a walkers paradise. Don't miss Portmeirion - but I'll leave you to find out about that!

We also love Pembrokeshire which has a very different feel . The coastal path is superb as are the golden sandy beaches. You also have ruined castle and of course there is St Davids with its cathedral and sea side resorts like Tenby.

Cardiff is very much the capital with an excellent museum as well as the wonderfully restored Cardiff Castle. There is also St Fagan’s Folk Museum which is one of the best in the country with over 50 old buildings from across Wales that have been reconstructed on the site. If you re interested in folk history then this is the place to come.

Not many people get to mid Wales and I must admit it has never featured widely on our itineraries. Don’t dismiss it as it has some interesting market towns (especially as you get towards the borders) and there are the Spa towns of Llandrindod, and Builth Wells. It has mountain ranges, beaches and the Vale of Rhiedol Railway too. If you are into birds, there are the red kite feeding areas. One great advantage is that it will probably be quieter than other parts of Wales.

You could easily spend the full two weeks in Wales.

I think the decision totally depends on your travel process mentally and also on how you plan to get around.

I had a little over 2 weeks both north and south (and not much middle) planned by car for 2020. Since then I haven’t worked in the same plan. However I have hit northern Wales twice - not all of what I originally planned but maybe 2/3 of it. Some day I will get to the rest of Wales.

I think if you are feeling that staying in Wales for the totality of your time is too much, then it really IS easy to divide. But if you want to immerse yourself in Wales, grab a car and spend 2+ weeks seeing it! There is plenty.

I have stayed in Caernarfon and Llandudno - very different. One trip I stayed just over the border at Gladstone’s Library, if you enjoy something different. I had intended to get to Betws-y-Coed and Beddgelert. I loved Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Bodnant Gardens (and castles, of course), but have a lot of spots remaining on my list.

On my future list is St. David’s, Tenby, Cardiff, maybe Hay-on-Wye, and a dream stay at Llanthony Priory Hotel. I could still spend 2 weeks……

We’ve visited Wales a couple of times. The most recent trip was in 2019. On that trip we spent 3 nights (N) in Tintern, 1N Tenby, 2N St. David’s, 1N Aberystwyth and 3N in Caernarfon before heading back into England with stays in Ludlow, Stratford Upon Avon and Duxford. We visited Cardiff and Chester on the first trip.

On the 2019 trip we arrived at Heathrow and drove directly to Tintern. In addition to day trips we also made stops between the lodging locations.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. My gut was right and it may make sense to divide it into 2 trips since we also have so much of England left to see. Llandudno looks like a good base that ticks some boxes for sites I'd like to see plus it's a coastal town which will keep my wife happy as I can convince her to go anywhere if I throw in a hotel with an ocean view.

Westjet have direct flights 4 days a week from Toronto to Cardiff Airport (summer to early October) - so that could be a possibility with a linking flight from Calgary? For north Wales, Manchester is the most convenient airport and Birmingham for mid Wales.

You don’t say how you would move about but that can a bearing on places suggested.

https://www.visitwales.com

Chester is on the border between Wales and England. I can recommend the zoo (https://www.chesterzoo.org/). I also quite liked the town itself, but the zoo is amazing.

Splitting the country north and south does make sense.
It is a country of quite distinct geographies and (to an extent) histories.
You could even divide it further separating out the south west coastal region and the areas that run down the full length of the England/Wales border.

My family comes from welsh speaking Snowdonia and I’m sure they have only very rarely been to Cardiff if at all! Maybe for the Rugby or Football? I can’t think of any other reason they would go. Liverpool is very much the informal capital of North Wales with Chester on the border being an important local hub.

If you can time your visit for when an Eistedfodd is happening it would be a real opportunity to experience welsh culture, particularly Welsh language culture. The national Eisteddfod is massive but smaller local ones are also held.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisteddfod

There is still real pride in my family that my great great grandfather won awards for his poetry at a National Eisteddfod 150 years ago :-) Some of his writing and documents are in the National Library of Wales.

Despite the ‘divides’ Wales is still a small country with close community links.
This fun article from the NY Times a few weeks ago demonstrates this.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/22/world/europe/elis-james-wales-radio.html?unlocked_article_code=1.yVA.sxel.FDACBsZOV3v4&smid=nytcore-ios-share

Emma, I think Cardiff is a very worthwhile visit for the purpose of going to St. Fagan's, which is one of my favorite places I've been in UK/Europe. Cardiff is also an easy train ride from London or Bath. Of course, Snowdonia is beautiful.

Cala, Sorry I wasn’t very clear. I wasn’t saying don’t go to Cardiff or South Wales. Lots of lovely places down there. Just that people in North Wales don’t have much of a need ( or inclination) to go there.