Cardiff, Wales

Cardiff: One of the nicest cities I’ve been to and lived in is Cardiff with its many arcades and shopping places, and Cardiff castle at its centre to take your bearings from.
Ten minutes walk from the castle will get you to most places worth seeing in the centre, and a further twenty minutes walk will get you to Cardiff bay, or take a bus or a train there. Once the docks where the banana boats came in to unload their cargo, it has now been converted for people to play where you can be entertained by pretty much anything in the summer, such as bands, events, to festivals, and ice cream for the kids, or just sit and watch the water and the boats, or birds.

It’s not a huge city like London or New York so you can get around it easily on a bike or walking.
Over the years Cardiff has hosted many great performers like Arthur Brown, Bob Dylan to The Moody Blues, to name just three.
It’s a friendly City and safe mostly, with something for everyone.
If you follow the river north along the Taff Trail you can hike or bike all day through the countryside, woods and fields.
To the north, just outside Cardiff, set high in the woods is castle Coch which is well worth a visit.
There are plenty of hostels that are open all week long and during the week there is usually a bed to be had, but on Friday and Saturday they are full with either the rugby fans and or the pub and club crowd, so it’s worth booking well ahead if you plan to stay a while and over the week end.

The tap water is safe to drink, and they don’t put sodium fluoride in it.
The buses are excellent and of course are always on time as are the trains that are pretty good as well, taking you all the way up the valleys or around Cardiff.

The night life is pretty good with plenty of restaurants, pubs and clubs and other music venues to get to and listen to the music, and there is a theatre and cinemas. Walking through Saint Mary Street, out on a Friday or Saturday night can be quite an adventure, and at 3 am can seem otherworldly with people still milling about in small pockets, unwilling to go home yet.

Friday and Saturday nights on the main street are packed for those who want to get out and party. And there’s Womanby Street to get a take-away that is open until the early hours.
Strolling down from the castle to Hays Island you can get a coffee and a great sausage sandwich. Or stroll into Cardiff indoor market for stalls for fruit and bread downstairs and many other stalls upstairs.
Getting lost in the arcades is easy with so much to see, from delis, camera shops, to shoes and many cafes. Cafes and restaurants are everywhere in the centre, alongside great shopping.

What’s so special about Cardiff is not that it has anything more than most other cities, other than the bay, but that everything is all within a mile of the center, so from the train or bus terminals you can walk to everything, and although it’s the capital city of Wales, it is a place for everyone.

Photographs taken in Cardiff by me