Holiday Cottages In Wales

Wales has around 10,000 self-catering cottages on selfcatering.co.uk, from mountain cottages under Snowdon to clifftop boltholes on the Pembrokeshire coast and farmhouses in the green Mid Wales hills. Pick a county to suit the trip, whether that is a beach week, a walking holiday or a quiet rural retreat.

Best places to stay in Wales

Most of Wales's cottages lie along the coast and in the mountains of the north and west, with quieter farmland counties in the middle and the cities to the south. The county you choose usually sets the scene, from high peaks to sandy bays.

• Gwynedd: home to Snowdonia and Snowdon itself, with the Llyn Peninsula's beaches to the west
• Pembrokeshire: a coastal national park of cliffs, islands and some of the finest beaches in Britain
• Anglesey: an island of sheltered bays, a coastal path and big views back to the mountains
• Powys: the green heart of Mid Wales, taking in much of the Brecon Beacons and the Cambrian Mountains
• Conwy: a walled castle town, the resort of Llandudno and the northern edge of Snowdonia
• Ceredigion: the Cardigan Bay coast, with dolphins offshore and harbour towns like Aberaeron
• Carmarthenshire: green river valleys, the National Botanic Garden and the Towy estuary
• Denbighshire: the Clwydian hills, the Vale of Clwyd and the Victorian resort of Rhyl
• Monmouthshire: the wooded Wye Valley and the border country around Tintern Abbey
• the Swansea area: the gateway to the Gower, Britain's first protected landscape, with its golden beaches
• Flintshire: the north-east corner, with the Dee estuary and the Clwydian Range
• the Vale of Glamorgan: a Heritage Coast of cliffs and pebble bays near Cardiff
• Wrexham: border country with the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and the Dee Valley

Further south, Neath Port Talbot reaches up into the waterfall country of the Brecon Beacons, and Cardiff offers the capital's castle, bay and stadium as a city base.

Coast, countryside and national parks in Wales

Wales is a land of mountains, coast and three national parks. Eryri, long known in English as Snowdonia, covers much of Gwynedd and Conwy and rises to Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales and England. Bannau Brycheiniog, the Brecon Beacons, spreads across Powys and the southern valleys, with high moorland, waterfalls and the limestone caves of the Black Mountain. The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park is the only one in Britain founded chiefly for its coastline, a ribbon of cliffs, coves and offshore islands famous for seabirds and seals. Beyond the parks, the Cambrian Mountains form the green spine of Mid Wales, the Llyn Peninsula and the Gower jut into the sea as protected landscapes, and the Wye Valley winds along the English border. The whole coast is linked by the Wales Coast Path, which runs for hundreds of miles from the Dee estuary in the north right around to Chepstow in the south.

Things to do in Wales

Wales is famous for its castles, with the great fortresses of Edward I at Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech and Beaumaris together forming a World Heritage Site, and Cardiff and Caerphilly among many more. The mountains and coast are the big draw for the outdoors: walkers climb Snowdon and the Brecon peaks, the Pembrokeshire and Wales coast paths follow the cliffs, and adventure centres offer surfing, coasteering, mountain biking and the zip lines and underground trampolines of the old slate and mining country. Steam railways climb through the hills, from the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland lines to the rack railway up Snowdon, and the slate landscape of north-west Wales is itself a World Heritage Site. In the south, Cardiff brings a castle, a waterfront bay, museums and major sport at the Principality Stadium, while the National Botanic Garden of Wales and the Centre for Alternative Technology make rainy-day favourites.

When to visit Wales

Summer, from July to September, brings the warmest weather, the busiest beaches and the liveliest resort towns, and cottage prices peak through the school holidays. Late spring and early autumn are ideal for walkers and for quieter trails and beaches, with long days in May and June and softer light over the hills in September and October. Winter suits cosy cottages with a wood burner, castle visits and the mountains under snow, though the high ground and the coast can be wild and wet, and some seasonal attractions close. Wales catches plenty of rain off the Atlantic in every season, especially over the mountains, so waterproofs are always worth packing.

Dog-friendly and hot-tub cottages in Wales

Wales is wonderful country for a holiday with the dog, with mountains, forest and a coast path that runs the length of the country, and more than 7,000 of the cottages here welcome dogs. Over 2,300 properties come with a hot tub, a fine way to ease tired legs after a day on the hills or the cliffs. Once you have chosen a county you can filter within it for dog-friendly cottages or for places with a hot tub, so a large choice quickly narrows to the right base. Some popular beaches carry seasonal dog restrictions in high summer, so it is worth checking before you set off.

Getting to Wales

Wales is easy to reach by road and rail. The M4 runs along the south coast from England through Newport, Cardiff and Swansea, while the A55 expressway follows the north coast towards Holyhead, and the A470 links north and south through the middle of the country. Trains reach Cardiff from London in around two hours, with the north coast served from Chester and Crewe and a scenic line through Mid Wales. Cardiff Airport handles flights to the south, with Bristol, Manchester and Liverpool airports also within reach. Ferries sail from Holyhead, Fishguard and Pembroke Dock to Ireland, linking the Welsh ports with Dublin and Rosslare.

Useful links

• Visit Wales
• VisitBritain
• National Parks UK

Wales is a nation on the western side of the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to the east and otherwise surrounded by the sea: the Irish Sea to the north and west, Cardigan Bay forming a great curve in the western coast, and the Bristol Channel to the south. It is a compact country, but a mountainous and deeply rural one, with a coastline far longer than its size suggests and a chain of islands, the largest of which is Anglesey, off the north-west.

Much of Wales is upland. The mountains of Eryri rise in the north-west to Snowdon, the highest summit in both Wales and England, while the Cambrian Mountains run like a spine down the centre and the Brecon Beacons command the south. Between the ranges lie green valleys and fast rivers, among them the Severn and the Wye, which both rise on the slopes of Plynlimon before flowing out through England. The old industrial valleys of the south, once the heart of the world's coal trade, cut down towards the coast.

Most people live along the southern and north-eastern coasts and in the valleys, with Cardiff, the capital, Swansea and Newport the largest cities, all in the south. The interior and the north and west remain thinly peopled and strongly rural, and it is here that the Welsh language is most widely spoken in daily life. Castles stand throughout the country, the legacy of centuries of conflict along the border, and the sea, the mountains and a wet Atlantic climate together shape the character of the land.