A Few Reasons You Should Absolutely Visit Wales

When most conjure images of the UK, it’s the English cottages, Scottish Highlands and Irish hospitality that come to mind.  Itineraries are planned, and often end up something like this: London, Cambridge or Oxford, Stone Henge, Edinburgh and the Highlands followed by a jaunt to Dublin and maybe Cork.  Many, especially travellers on an initial UK-bound journey, fail to include Wales.  I lived it England for many years, in a region very close to the Welsh border, and didn’t acquaint myself with the southwestern beauty until my time was nearly up.  It often gets overlooked but here are a few reasons to visit Wales, things to convince you to include it on your next UK trip.

A Beautiful Old Language

A member of the Celtic family, the sixth century language is spoken by approximately 20 per cent of Welsh, and is considered de jure official, constituting English de facto.  With voiceless nasals and trills as distinctive features not found in English or European languages, it’s certainly unique, and worthy of said official status.  

A sing-song prosody when spoken thanks to pure vowel sounds, listening to the beautiful language in everyday conversation is free entertainment.  More entertaining, at least for the Welsh, is listening to foreigners pronounce ‘Bwlchgwyn’ and ‘Ysbyty Ystwyth’, village names devoid of vowels, or Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, the vowel-littered name of a town in north-western Wales.

Castles, Castles and More Castles

Potentially the castle capital of the world, with over 600 of the antique beauties, there’s no village centre or hilltop void of ancient walls and portentous towers.   For a small country, it may seem excessive, but with a 2000-year history, there’s no wonder so many were constructed.  

If you’re passionate about uncovering the ancient past, using your imagination to bring it to life and walking along its passageways, then a visit to at least one of the following Welsh masterpieces is necessary: Cardiff, Caerphilly, Penrhyn or Manorbier Castles. 

The Scenery

There are rolling hills of emerald green, majestic mountains surrounding lakes, verdant forests teeming with animals and drastic coastlines touched by Celtic waters.  In fact, for a pint-sized nation tucked into a corner of the UK, there’s a lot more diversity than you’d expect.  

The narrow, twisty mountains roads are littered with sheep: stop, relax, and smell the fresh air, because getting past en route to your next destination may take a while.  I’m a sucker for the sea, so it was the towns dotted along the southern Pembrokeshire coastline that held me captive.  There’s really a little of something for every variant of traveller inclination.      

Charming Towns and Villages

I don’t know if it was the stone buildings, quaint shops or villagers themselves, but I was hard pressed to get past the feeling of infatuation that arose every time I stepped foot within a new Welsh town. 

Unpretentious 

Erroneously tarred – at times - with the same personality brush as their neighbours, it doesn’t take long to understand the Welsh are in fact diverse (in some ways) from the English, Scottish and Irish.  There’s an overarching sense of openness, a candour of sorts, that wraps itself around you when you talk to a person from Wales.  It’s not mixed with airs and graces, but feels real, a result perhaps of a working class urban lineage and strong familial ties.  

The encounters I had were candid, amicable and generally refreshing.  Given the country’s fine features described above, there exists every reason to be a little egotistical, but all I saw were humble folk with an open disposition, who were generally agreeable in nature. 

A Lack of Tourists

Walk into a village pub and be prepared for stares: surrounded by locals speaking Welsh, you may very well be the odd one out.  Compared to the likes of London, Edinburgh and Dublin, Wales is a sleepy hollow in terms of tourists.  It may not be everyone’s cup of British tea, but I daresay it is a key drawcard to a visit, especially for travellers like me who cherish authenticity and get a kick out of unique experiential encounters, particularly with locals.

Other Reasons to Visit Wales?

You could easily devote an entire trip to Wales alone.  There are many more reasons I could suggest, but I think these are enough to convince you that Wales should be included as part of your next UK itinerary.  If there are others you think are missing, please leave a comment below.   

NOTE: Some of the photographs used throughout this page are, sadly, not my own but rather artworks collected from friends and other sources.  I experienced a 'mishap' and lost many of those I'd taken in Wales.