What a difference a couple of decades has made to Cardiff. The millennium ushered in a period of radical transformation: the smelly mudflats and industrial wasteland of the coal-shipping docks were born again as Cardiff Bay, winging the city into the 21st century with eco-friendly architecture, public art, concert halls, cafés and waterfront trails, all with broad views across the Bristol Channel.
And the city’s star keeps rising. Go today and you’ll find the dinky capital of Wales is cultured, food-loving, outdoorsy, worldly, and as warm as a Welsh cwtch (hug). You can gawp at fine art and dinosaurs, shop in graceful Victorian arcades, brush up on 2,000 years of history in an insanely eccentric castle, wander for miles in parks unfurling to wild meadows, go white-water rafting, dine on Keralan curry for lunch and pintxos for dinner, then wind out the day over brilliantly mixed cocktails in a 1920s-style speakeasy. This is a city that’s gone from coal to cool, historic to trendsetting.
Best things to do
Historic heart
A Welsh flag atop the 11th-century Norman keep at Cardiff Castle
(Getty/iStock)
Start where Cardiff did, with a whopping great castle, which rewinds 2,000 years to when Romans built the first fort here. The Normans gave it a 12-sided keep, medieval lords added the Black Tower and the wealthy Bute family, coal-shipping masterminds, put their own eccentric Gothic revival touch on its interior. To see its staggeringly ornate library, frescoed banquet hall and gold-kissed Arab room, join a tour.
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From the castle, Bute Park unspools north along the banks of the River Taff for miles, through gardens bristling with ancient trees, fields perfect for summer-day picnics and rewilded meadows. If you’re up for a proper walk, stroll all the way to Llandaff, where Roald Dahl was born, schooled and got up to mischief at Mrs Pratchett’s sweetshop.
Afterwards, you might be ready for a romp of the National Museum Cardiff, where you’ll be wowed by a repository of natural history in the Evolution of Wales exhibits – from the Big Bang to dinosaurs and woolly mammoths – and 500 years of art (including a sensational impressionist collection) under a gorgeous Edwardian dome. Best of all, it’s free.
Bay watch
The Wales Millennium Centre is a mesmerising wave of bronze
(Getty/iStock)
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