The minimum expenditure, if you’re camping and preparing most of your own food, would be £20–25 per day, rising to £35–40 per day if you’re using the hostelling network, some public transport and grabbing the odd takeaway or meal out. Couples staying at budget B&Bs, eating at unpretentious restaurants and visiting a fair number of tourist attractions are looking at £60 each per day – if you’re renting a car, staying in comfortable B&Bs or hotels and eating well, you should reckon on at least £80 a day. Single travellers should budget on spending around sixty percent of what a couple would spend, mainly because single rooms cost more than half the price of a double. For more detail on the cost of accommodation, transport and eating, see the relevant sections.
VAT
Most goods in Britain, with the chief exceptions of books and groceries, are subject to a 20 percent Value Added Tax (VAT), which is almost always included in the quoted price. Visitors from non-EU countries can get a VAT refund when leaving the country on goods bought through the Retail Export Scheme: participating shops have a sign in their window. See wcustoms.hmrc.gov.uk for details.
Student and youth cards
The various official and quasi-official youth/student ID cards are of relatively minor use in Wales, saving only a few pence for entry to some sites. If you already have one, then bring it, but if you don’t, it’s barely worth making a special effort to get one.
Full-time students are eligible for the International Student Identity Card (ISIC, wisiccard.com), while anyone under 26 can apply for an International Youth Travel Card, which carries the same benefits. Both cost £9.
Several other travel organizations and accommodation groups also sell their own cards, good for various discounts. A university photo ID might open some doors, but is not as easily recognizable as the ISIC cards.
Tipping and service charges
In restaurants a service charge is sometimes included in the bill; if it isn’t, leave a tip of 10–15 percent unless the service is unforgivably bad. Taxi drivers expect a tip in the region of ten percent. You do not generally tip bar staff – if you want to show your appreciation, offer to buy them a drink.
Tourist attractions
Many of Wales’ most treasured sites – from castles, abbeys and great houses to tracts of protected landscape – come under the control of the privately run UK-wide National Trust or the state-run CADW, whose properties are denoted in the Guide by “NT” and “CADW”.
Both organizations charge an entry fee for most places, and these can be quite high, especially for the more grandiose NT estates. We’ve quoted the standard adult entry price, but UK taxpayers are encouraged to pay the gift aid price, which adds around ten percent to the normal adult price, but through tax offsets gives the NT considerable benefit.
If you think you’ll be visiting more than half a dozen NT places or a similar number of major CADW sites, it’s worth buying an annual pass. Membership of the National Trust (t0844 800 1895, wnationaltrust.org.uk; £50.50, under-26s £23.50, family £88.50) allows free entry and parking at its properties throughout Britain. Sites operated by CADW (t01443 336000, wcadw.wales.gov.uk; £35, seniors £22, ages 16–20 £20, under-16s £16) are restricted to Wales, but membership also grants you half-price entry to sites owned by English Heritage and Historic Scotland.
CADW offers the Explorer Pass, which allows free entry into all CADW sites on three days in seven (adult £13.20, family £28), or seven days In fourteen (£19.85/£38.75). Entry to CADW sites is free for Welsh residents over 60: check their website to obtain a pass.
Many other old buildings, albeit rarely the most momentous, are owned by the local authorities, and admission is often cheaper. Municipal art galleries and museums are usually free, as are sites run by the National Museums and Galleries of Wales (wmuseumwales.ac.uk), including the National Museum and St Fagans National History Museum, both in Cardiff. Although a donation is usually requested, cathedrals tend to be free, except for perhaps the tower, crypt or other such highlight, for which a small charge is made. Increasingly, churches are kept locked except during services; when they are open, entry is free. (You’ll normally be able to find a notice in the porch or on a board telling you where to get a key if the church is locked.) Wales also has a number of superb showcases of its industrial heritage, mostly concerned with mining and mineral extraction.
Keen birders might consider joining the RSPB, where membership (wrspb.org.uk; £36 a year) gives you free entry to its reserves throughout Britain.
Entry charges given in the Guide are the full adult rates, but the majority of the fee-charging attractions located in Wales have 10–25 percent reductions for senior citizens and full-time students, and 20–50 percent reductions for under-16s – under-5s are admitted free almost everywhere. Proof of eligibility is required in most cases. Family tickets are also common, usually priced just under the rate for two adults and a child and valid for up to three kids.
Finally, foreign visitors planning on seeing more than a dozen stately homes, monuments, castles or gardens might find it worthwhile to buy a Great British Heritage Pass (£39 for 3 days, £69 for 7 days, £89 for 15 days, £119 for 30 days; wbritishheritagepass.com), which gives free admission to over four hundred sites throughout the UK, over forty of them in Wales.
Climate
The climate is fairly consistent across Wales, though it is considerably wetter, and a little cooler along the mountainous spine, particularly in Snowdonia.
Electricity
In Britain, the current is 240V AC at 50Hz. North American appliances will need a transformer, though most laptops, phone and MP3 player chargers are designed to automatically detect and adapt to the electricity supply and don’t need any modification. Almost all foreign appliances will require an adapter for the chunky British three-pin electrical sockets.
For details of how to plug your laptop in when abroad, phone country codes around the world, and information about electrical systems in different countries look at wkropla.com.