Wales: Getting there & around

The international airport at Cardiff is used for holiday charter flights, although there are also scheduled flights to Alicante, Amsterdam, Belfast, Brussels, the Channel Islands, Cork, Geneva, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Malaga, Milan, Munich, Newcastle, Palma, Paris, Plymouth, Prague and Toulouse. Just across the border in England are the international airports at Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester, which offer easy access to Wales. Long-distance coaches are the cheapest method of travel, with several services running between English and Welsh cities. A train will take less than two hours to get you from London to Cardiff, and won't burn too big a hole in your pocket if you travel off-peak. Most of Wales' bigger cities are linked to England by rail. The Channel Tunnel means you can travel by train from Cardiff to Continental Europe, via London of course. It takes about three hours to drive from London to Cardiff, and the motorways make most drives into Wales quick and easy. Ferries link Ireland to Holyhead, Pembroke, Fishguard and Swansea.

Distances are small, and public transport is good in tourist areas such as Snowdonia and the Pembrokeshire Coast, but elsewhere bus services are less frequent. There are no internal flights. However, Wales has some fantastic train lines, particularly along the Cambrian coast and along the Conwy valley. The country's two main motorways are top-class, but elsewhere the roads are slow, though still good. In winter, snow and ice can make the higher roads treacherous, or close them altogether. Boats travel out to the islands of the Pembrokeshire coast and the Llŷn Peninsula in winter.