A Bespoke Tour for an American Family Visiting Wales for the First Time

Sunday

  • Arrive at the landmark St. David’s Hotel and Spa in Cardiff Bay

Monday

Morning

  • Free to independently enjoy Cardiff – We recommend a visit to Cardiff Castle or a boat
    trip around Cardiff Bay.

Afternoon

  • Meet your tour guide at the hotel and to be escorted on a tour around Cardiff Bay with behind the scenes visits to the new Welsh Assembly Senedd building and the spectacular Millennium Arts Centre.
  • You will also have the opportunity to visit some of Cardiff’s renowned art galleries as
    requested.

Evening

  • At leisure – We will recommend places to eat around Cardiff Bay

Tuesday

  • Meet your driver/guide at the hotel at 9.00 am

Morning

  • Drive to Chepstow on the English border to view this ancient walled town and castle
    ruins.
  • Continue alongside the River Wye to Tintern to visit the ruins of this atmospheric
    Cistercian Abbey.
  • Leave Tintern to drive via Monmouth and Abergavenny to Blaenavon to visit “Big Pit”
    part of the industrial heritage of the Valleys of South Wales. You will be taken
    underground for a tour by an ex-miner.
  • Lunch at the renowned Nant-y-Ffin Cider Mill

Afternoon

  • Drive to Brecon, a garrison city in the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park, for a
    short stop to visit the Museum of the Regiment of the South Wales Borderers, made
    famous by the film Zulu.
  • Take the scenic route over the top of the Brecon Beacons, used by the British Army as a
    training ground, on remote mountain by-roads towards Twynllanan to the beautiful
    Castell Careg Cennen. This spectacular cliff top castle has a chequered history having
    been both a strong hold for English invaders and a hideout for local brigands.
  • Overnight – The Cawdor Hotel, Llandeilo. This contemporary hotel used to be a coaching
    inn on one of the main routes through Wales.

Evening

  • Visit a rehearsal of the “Llandybie Male Voice Choir” [subject to rehearsals being held
    just before the National Eisteddfod]

Wednesday

Morning

  • Short drive from Llandeilo towards Carmarthen to visit the National Botanical Gardens of
    Wales created as a millennium project some 7 years ago.
  • Head to Laugharne on the coast for a visit to Dylan Thomas’s boathouse and famous
    Writing Shed.
  • Lunch in Laugharne

Afternoon

  • Travel to Swansea for a visit to the Dylan Thomas visitor centre near the marina and the
    National Waterfront Museum.
  • Leave Swansea for a scenic drive around the Gower peninsula with a possible visit to the
    Wildfowl Trust centre
  • Overnight – Fairyhill Country House, Reynoldston, Gower. Fairyhill is a sumptuous
    country house hotel set in tranquil rolling countryside

Thursday

Morning

  • Leave the Gower, after a short visit to Worm’s Head to take in the morning sea air and
    the views of Rhosilli beach, for the drive back towards Cardiff visiting the fascinating St.
    Fagans Museum of Welsh Life on route.
  • Lunch in Le Gallois, one of the best restaurants in Wales

Afternoon

  • Visit the National Gallery of Wales to view the fine Impressionist collection bequeathed
    to the nation by the Davies Sisters.
  • Overnight – St. David’s Hotel and Spa, Cardiff

Special Memories

Our Speciality

"We saw so much, but some very special memories stand out: walking amidst Tintern Abbey with a flock of doves flying through the open roof; a journey down into the Big Pit coal mine with retired coal miners as our guides; an amazing Michelin star quality lunch and fresh Wye Valley Ale at the Nant-y-ffin Cider Mill Inn; and sitting in at a rehearsal of the Llandeilo male voice choir, whose beautiful singing left us entranced."
Andrew, Annabelle and Kira Hooks

Poetry and prose

The sometime infamous poet and writer Dylan Thomas wrote many of his best pieces in his ‘Writing Shed’ overlooking the Taf estuary in the pretty village of Laugharne. Listen to Richard Burton narrate Under Milk Wood to hear the truly atmospheric tale of a day in the Welsh seaside town of Llareggub (read it backwards to get an impression of Thomas’ irreverence).