Wales may score top marks when it comes to world-class visitor attractions (be they beautiful beaches or meandering coastal paths), but we’re also an A1 destination when it comes to catching some Zs.
The country is home to a swathe of top-notch accommodation options, from cosy B&Bs and rustic campsites to revitalising spa stays and luxurious vineyard lodges, that’ll have even the fussiest of slumberers drifting soundly off to sleep.
To illustrate the sheer breadth of accommodation on offer in Wales, we’ve picked out a few prime examples of venues that are perfectly suited to a range of different types of holidaymakers, from child-friendly havens for roaming families to sustainability-focused sanctums for eco-conscious explorers.
For food-lovers
Wales’ gastronomic offering improves every year, with an increasing number of pubs, restaurants and hotels making use of our famed local produce, be it salt marsh lamb or fresh river mussels.
But for a real treat, gastronomic-inclined globetrotters should consider a stay at Ynyshir in Machynlleth, Wales’ first restaurant to receive two stars from the illustrious Michelin guide. Here, chef Gareth Ward plates up a thirty-course(!) dinner each night, with Asian-inspired flavours that are as eclectic as the restaurant’s ambiance (the revolving disco ball may come as a surprise to some diners!).
More active foodies, however, might opt instead for a stay at Twr Y Felin Hotel in St Davids, which runs coastal foraging tours for guests. After carefully combing the beach for fresh ingredients like crab or seaweed, guests can sit back and watch as their seafood bounty is whipped up into a delicious meal by a pro chef right there on the golden sands of West Wales.
Visitors partial to a drop of vino, meanwhile, should make a beeline for Llanerch in Pontyclun, a hotel set amidst the lush grounds of an award-winning vineyard, with tastings and tours readily available.
For campers and glampers
There’s no better way to celebrate our great outdoors than by sleeping in it.
Chillderness in the Cambrian Mountains has super-cool, off-grid glamping options, including The Earth Conker and Moon Conker, which are cylindrical, year-round glamping pods. Alternatively, those who prefer the thought of waking to a coastal breeze (rather than amidst the fresh mountain air) can bed down in a yurt or bell tent near the beloved beaches of the Gower Peninsula at Three Cliffs Bay Holiday Park.
For an accessible option with the added bonus of farm animals to feed, Canvas & Campfires offers luxury safari tents, two of which are equipped with roll-in wet-rooms, adapted kitchens, and a host of other accessibility features. And the site’s resident pigs love a good belly scratch!
No Welsh glamping A-list would be complete without mentioning Fforest Farm. The accommodation varies from bell tents to wooden huts to cosy stone lofts, across a rambling and romantic 500-acre site. Think traditional Welsh farm with Japanese influences, and you’ll be halfway to the glamping experience of a lifetime.
For city breakers
Wales’ seven cities range in personality from the small and sedate St Davids to the large and lively Newport, but all boast a fine selection of establishments to serve as launchpads for a memorable city break.
In Cardiff, visitors looking to get to grips with the past and present of the nation’s capital can do little better than the centrally-located Hotel Indigo. Rooms at the hotel are themed around Welsh history, covering topics like "music" and "industry", while the sixth-floor fine dining restaurant offers standout views out across the city’s modern skyline.
A hurdle city breakers often face when booking accommodation is costs, with hotels in urban centres typically commanding a higher nightly rate than in rural regions. However, quality doesn’t have to cost the earth, as Cwtsh Hostel in Swansea proves. Here, visitors can expect spotlessly clean rooms (whether privates or dorms), a hard-to-top central location and a band of welcoming staff who will greet you with a warm Bore Da (Good Morning) – all for a price that certainly won’t cause nightmares.
In truth, great city break hotels don’t even have to be located in the city limits at all, as proven by Tyddyn Sydney Bach, a cosy cottage, set within tranquil, lake-dotted gardens, that's just a 10-minute bus ride from the buzzing restaurants, bars and cultural attractions of central Bangor.
For those looking to go off-grid
Tourists looking to get away from the stresses of 21st-century life are spoilt for choice when visiting Wales, with over a quarter of all Welsh territory holding some form of protected status, either as a national park or designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Arguably nothing gets you quite as up close and personal with this cherished countryside as a stay at the Squirrels Nest in Llandrindod Wells, which offers up three treehouses in a small woodland on the edge of a working farm. The wonky, weathered treehouses of your childhood, however, these are not; all are impressively spacious, plushily furnished, and come with a private outdoor hot tub for good measure.
Visitors craving empty open spaces and jaw-dropping vistas, however, should look no further than Llechwedd Mawr in the Cambrian Mountains, a beautiful stone cottage seemingly plonked in the centre of a wide green valley with no neighbours for miles.
Still not secluded enough? Travellers looking to really go off-grid can book in for a few nights on the small uninhabited Skomer Island off Wales’ west coast, bedding down in the island’s bunkhouse (and sole building) with only puffins and guillemots for company after the day-trippers have headed home.
For those in need of a pampering
There’s a certain tranquillity in the Welsh landscape that lends itself perfectly to wellness breaks; a trait that – along with causing a dramatic rise in venues offering outdoor hot tubs – has benefited the country’s spa sector, which now boasts a number of esteemed facilities.
One of the mainstays of the scene is St Brides Spa Hotel in Pembrokeshire, an award-winning venue offering full-body treatments, a selection of steam rooms and saunas and a gasp-inducing outdoor infinity pool with views over Saundersfoot Beach – certain to leave guests feeling elated, and their social media followers envious.
Another of Wales’ star spas is the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport. The grand, five-star venue houses everything you’d want from a rejuvenating trip all under one roof, from Jacuzzis and scented saunas to a nail salon and hairdressers. There’s also three 18 hole golf courses to try out for those who gain inner peace from a successful put, including The Twenty Ten Course, created to stage the 2010 Ryder Cup.
Speaking of less conventional ways to unwind, The Forge, a luxury glamping site near Corwen, is known for its diverse array of relaxing retreats, covering everything from yoga and meditation classes to wild swimming trips and hay making courses.
For families with kids
Holidaying with little ones can be… challenging, but a good accommodation option can take the tension out of travelling with the little tyrants (ahem, cherubs) in tow.
Set into a forested hillside in wild and rugged Snowdonia, Plas Weunydd was named Sunday Times 'Hotel of the Year 2021' for Wales. Its beautiful interiors and tasty daily breakfast, plus its location a stone’s throw from Zip World Llechwedd (home to lightning-fast zip lines and giant underground trampolines), make it a sure-fire hit with adults and little ones alike.
Alternatively, for some good old vintage family holiday fun, visitors should head a little way west, to the bucolic Llyn Peninsula. Here, the time-honoured Porth Tocyn hotel offers a child-friendly atmosphere and prime access to the beaches of Aberscotch, a classic Welsh seaside village where bucket and spade sets dangle from shop windows and ice cream is curled into flaky wafer cones.
Unsure if rolling mountain views and sections of powder-fine white sand will be enough to tear younger eyes from their screens? Families with tough-to-impress tykes should opt for a few nights at Apple Camping in Pembrokeshire, a one-of-a-kind facility where guests can choose to bed down in all manner of zany structures that’ll delight kids, from a private jet with a games console in the pilot’s seat to a submarine with torpedoes mounted on the exterior. And yes, before you ask, wifi is available throughout the site.
For a sustainable stay
Wales is working hard to become an increasingly sustainable nation, with the government focused on key areas like reducing plastic waste and amplifying green energy use. This mantra has rubbed off on the tourism sector, and as such, eco-conscious visitors will find a number of gold-standard Welsh hotels boasting impressive green credentials.
Leading the way is The Grove of Narberth in Pembrokeshire, a historic manor house surrounded by meadows and woodland that is fully powered by renewable energy and heated via a biomass boiler. The hotel has planted over 4000 trees to restore forests in the surrounding area, and also sources ingredients for its on-site restaurant as locally as possible – often from its very own kitchen garden.
A little way north, in Ceredigion, Treberfedd Farm offers up a range of eco-cabins, powered by green electricity and built from local Welsh timber, where visitors can stay up late gazing at the stars from their personal wood-fired hot tubs.
But it’s not just rural retreats looking to cut their carbon footprints. Located slap-bang in the centre of Cardiff, the towering, four-star Clayton Hotel was bestowed a Gold Green Tourism Award in 2021 for its sustainability efforts, which include adopting a zero-landfill policy, ditching single-use plastics in the bathrooms, and organising litter picks in the city.
For those wanting to be king of the castle
Wales is known for its horde of mighty castles, which come in all shapes and sizes. But, rather than just nosing around these medieval monuments during the day, there are a number of Welsh strongholds in which you can actually sleep.
Chief among them is the fortress-turned-stately-manor Castell Deudraeth, located in the Italian-inspired seaside village of Portmeirion. The venue's two stone turrets may hark back to a time when outsiders were far from welcome, but today guests are granted a very warm reception, with the 11 luxurious rooms all coming with cosy fireplaces and a complimentary flask of sherry.
Alternatively there's Llangoed Hall in the beautiful Wye Valley, where the pillowcases are filled with the feathers of ducks from the Sandringham Estate (one of the British King's official royal residences), or Château Rhianfa on the southern shores of the isle of Ynys Môn (Anglesey), a French châteaux built by the wealthy Welsh baron Sir John Hay-Williams for his wife in the 1850s.
Fans of the macabre, however, may prefer to brave a stay at Craig Y Nos Castle within the boundaries of the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park. In 1878, celebrity opera singer Adelina Patti splashed out on this Victorian-Gothic castle and added an opera house, which is said to be still be visited occasionally by her ghost…
See more of the amazing accommodation options available throughout Wales.
