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  • Wales
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  • Things not to miss
One of north Wales’ finest walled medieval towns, Conwy contains over two hundred listed buildings within its tight grid. The dominant mountain of southern Snowdonia, Cadair Idris is a magnificent beast chock-full of classic glacial features. Three wonderful days of new folk, American and indie music plus a range of workshops, performance art and comedy in green fields near Crickhowell. The capital of sparsely populated mid-Wales, Aberystwyth is a breezy and bright university and seaside town surrounded by luscious countryside. Some of Wales’ finest singletrack and adrenalin-pumping descents through the forest combine with family trails, high-ropes adventures and even geocaching. Of Wales’ many “great little trains”, the Ffestiniog Railway, winding down through the Snowdonia mountains, is one of the best. The heart of Welsh spirituality, St Davids Cathedral is at Wales’ westerly extremity and has drawn pilgrims for a millennium and a half. Ride or walk this easy trail beside Wales’ finest estuary, the Mawddach, crossed by the 2253ft rail and foot bridge into Barmouth. The most romantic ruin in Wales, Carreg Cennen Castle sits in glorious isolation amid pastures grazed by Welsh longhorns. Break up this path around some of Wales’ wildest coastal scenery into a series of day walks, or tackle the full 187 miles in one big push. An unmissable chronicle of Welsh life, featuring period buildings from all over the country. Hike one of half a dozen demanding tracks to the top of Wales’ highest mountain – or take the train and sup a beer at the summit café. The wonderful Wales Millennium Centre and National Assembly Building are just two of many striking modern structures around the rejuvenated Cardiff Bay. The grandest folly of them all, Portmeirion is a gorgeous visual poem that will melt the hardest heart. Soak up the pastoral beauty of this wonderful valley and sense why Wordsworth was so moved as you wander past Tintern Abbey. Colourful terraces of housing, hunkered down under the hills, are the hallmark of Wales’ world-famous Valleys, the old mining area in the south. Sample some of the best morsels Wales has to offer in this gastronomic hotspot or, better still, time your visit to coincide with September’s food festival, among the best in Britain. Plunge into the depths of coal-bearing earth in this superb evocation of what life was like for vast numbers of Valleys miners. Rescued from near-terminal decay, these formal gardens in the Tywi Valley are a perfect counterpoint to the nearby National Botanic Garden of Wales. Bog snorkelling, a Man versus Horse Marathon and a Real Ale Wobble bring a wonderful sense of lunacy to this quiet corner of mid-Wales. Although Wales’ standing in international rugby fluctuates wildly, the game remains nearly a religion here, never more so than when the national team are playing at Cardiff’s awesome Millennium Stadium. North Wales’ most genteel seaside resort, Llandudno spreads languidly around the bay beneath the ancient rock plug of the Great Orme. The rambling moors of the Brecon Beacons are perfect for wild, lonely walks with thundering waterfalls and limestone caverns as destinations. Rub shoulders with the literati or just come along for music, a few book readings and a great time.