Cardiff is a capital that fits in a pocket. The castle sits in the middle of the shopping streets, the stadium is a five-minute walk from the station, and the whole centre can be crossed on foot in twenty minutes. On a match day it feels as though the entire city has been invited to the same party.
34 places to stay · showing 1–10
Cardiff, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan
A modern 5-star self-catering apartment directly opposite the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, sleeping 6 — perfect for concerts and rugby.
Cardiff, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan
A ten-room guest house on Coldstream Terrace, 300 metres from Cardiff Castle. Some rooms are en suite, some share a bathroom.
Cardiff, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan
A grand Victorian landmark hotel opposite Cardiff Castle, welcoming guests for over 100 years — full of history and character.
Cardiff, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan
A country manor of 1850 in its own grounds on Thornhill Road, four miles north of central Cardiff, with 25 rooms and a glass-domed restaurant.
Cardiff, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan
An 11-room guest house on Cathedral Road, Cardiff, with an Italian restaurant on the ground floor and Bute Park two minutes away.
Cardiff, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan
A welcoming, family-run 3-star hotel in Cardiff with free parking and warm, personal service — a comfortable home from home.
Cardiff, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan
An elegant Victorian townhouse hotel on the tree-lined Cathedral Road in Cardiff — a peaceful, sophisticated base.
Cardiff, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan
A welcoming, family-run B&B in a Victorian house in Penarth, near Cardiff, with free parking, a garden and rooms with free WiFi — minutes from Dingle…
Cardiff, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan
A welcoming, family-run B&B in a village cottage in St Fagans, near Cardiff, with en-suite double rooms, a cooked breakfast and free parking — yards from…
Cardiff, Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan
A luxurious 4-star hotel with an award-winning spa and spectacular panoramic views across Cardiff.
Start at the castle, which has a Norman keep on a motte, a Roman wall underneath and a wildly over-decorated Victorian wing bolted on the side. Then the arcades: seven surviving Victorian and Edwardian ones, the densest run in Britain, full of record shops and coffee.
Take the boat down to Cardiff Bay for the Millennium Centre and the old Norwegian church, and give a day to St Fagans out west, which costs nothing to get into. The city then runs out fast in every direction. Castell Coch is ten minutes north, Caerphilly fifteen, the Heritage Coast about thirty-five, and trains run everywhere from Cardiff Central.
Cardiff was a small town beside a Norman castle until the coal came down the valleys. The Bute family cut the docks, the trade exploded, and for most of the late nineteenth century more coal left here than from any port on earth.
That money paid for the Victorian arcades and for the white civic buildings of Cathays Park. It is one of the finest set pieces of its kind anywhere in Britain, and it costs nothing to walk through.
Then the coal went and the docks emptied. Tiger Bay, one of the oldest multi-ethnic communities in Britain, was largely cleared in the slum clearances of the 1960s. The city turned its back on the shore it had been built on.
Cardiff became a capital only in 1955, later than almost any in Europe, and it has spent the last thirty years rebuilding that waterfront. The barrage turned the tidal mud into a freshwater lake, and the Senedd and the Millennium Centre stand where the coal trimmers worked.
You can still see both cities in a morning. Walk from the castle down through the arcades to the station and take the train two stops to the Bay. That is the Norman keep to the Senedd in about half an hour.
A castle in the middle of the city, a stadium you can walk to from the station, and a bay that used to ship the world's coal. Rooms start at £32 a night. Anyone coming for a match or a concert should move early, because the Principality Stadium empties the city's rooms in a morning. See also hotels in the city and the wider Vale of Glamorgan.
See all: Cardiff & the Vale of Glamorgan accommodation
Browse Cardiff & the Vale of Glamorgan by type: B&Bs & Guest Houses · Hotels & Inns · Cottages & Self-Catering
Nearby towns: Barry · Llantwit Major · Bridgend · Cowbridge · Porthcawl
Nearby areas: Swansea & Gower · South Wales
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