United Kingdom · City break

Cardiff City Guide

Cardiff has only been a capital since 1955, yet its castle stands on Roman walls. Add a fairy-tale palace built on coal money, a stadium with a sliding roof right in the centre and arcades under glass. A ready-made day route leads from the station via the castle and the museum to the parliament on the bay.

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Our walking tours of Cardiff

Ready-made routes from the station guide you through Cardiff, to the right spots from the very first step, with no planning needed.

Castle, Arcades & Bay

From the station to the national stadium with its sliding roof, then under glass through the Morgan and Royal arcades to the market, at whose entrance Dic Penderyn was hanged in 1831. After St John's Church comes the castle, with its Roman wall, Norman motte and Burges's Victorian state rooms. Past the Animal Wall the way leads into Bute Park and across to Cathays Park with City Hall and the National Museum. The train from Queen Street takes you down to the bay, to the Millennium Centre and the parliament.

Principality Stadium. Right behind the station, four masts rise above the rooftops, each a little over 90 m tall. They carry the roof of the Welsh national stadium, and that roof can open and close completely. The stadium was built for the 1999 Rugby World Cup on the old Cardiff Arms Park site and holds almost 74,000 people. At its first big match, on 26 June 1999, Wales beat South Africa 29 to 19, the first time they had ever done so. Take a look at the north side. The bowl has a gap there, because the money for a new stand ran out and the old one stayed. Fans call it Glanmor's Gap, after the union chairman of the day. The river beside you is not in its original bed. In the 1840s Isambard Kingdom Brunel had the Taff diverted westwards to make room for the railway station.
Morgan Arcade & Royal Arcade. Cardiff likes to call itself the City of Arcades. Its covered Victorian and Edwardian shopping lanes add up to about 800 m in the city centre. The Royal Arcade of 1858 is the oldest of them and still has some of its original shopfronts. Right next to it lies the Morgan Arcade of 1896, designed by Edwin Seward and built to link two entrances of the David Morgan department store. It is described as the best preserved arcade in the city, with wooden shopfronts and Venetian windows on the first floor. This is also home to Spillers Records, founded in 1894 and recognised as the oldest record shop in the world. It moved into the arcade from The Hayes in 2010 after a rent rise had put its future in doubt.
Cardiff Market. The market hall of 1891 has two levels. The stalls fill the aisles below, and a gallery runs around the inside of the outer walls above. Over sixty independent traders sell fruit and veg, clothes, records and hardware. Ashton's at the Trinity Street entrance says it has sold fish here since 1866, and the Market Deli has kept the same stall since 1928. The site has a darker past. Cardiff's gaol stood here, and where the St Mary Street entrance is today stood the gallows. On 13 August 1831 Dic Penderyn was hanged there, a 23-year-old miner from Merthyr Tydfil. He was accused of wounding a soldier with a bayonet during the Merthyr Rising. More than 11,000 people had signed a petition for his release, and in 1874 another man is said to have confessed to the stabbing on his deathbed. A plaque at the market commemorates him.
St John the Baptist Church. Apart from the castle, St John's is the only medieval building in the city centre. It was founded in 1180 as a chapel of ease to the larger St Mary's Church and was sacked in 1404 during Owain Glyndŵr's rebellion. The west tower was rebuilt afterwards, more than 40 m tall, with openwork battlements and four open pinnacles. It is dated to around 1490. St Mary's no longer exists. The great Bristol Channel flood of 1607 wrecked its foundations, and from 1620 all main services moved to St John's. Inside, look for the north aisle windows of 1869 from William Morris's workshop. The top row of apostles was designed by Morris himself. On the path through the old churchyard towards the market, watch for the brass numbers set in the paving. They mark graves and family vaults beneath your feet. Once a year, on Good Friday, the church closes the path, because it still owns it. A few steps from the church lies the High Street Arcade of 1885. The Duke Street Arcade of 1902 branches off it to the north.
Cardiff Castle. Three ages are packed into this site. The walls around the lawn stand on a 3rd-century Roman fort. When its remains came to light again in 1889, the owner had them rebuilt in Roman style. In the north-west corner rises the Norman motte with its 12th-century stone shell keep. In 1158 the Welsh lord Ifor Bach raided the castle and took its lord, William, hostage. The third face is Victorian. The 3rd Marquess of Bute, grown rich on coal and docks, had William Burges build him a Gothic Revival fairy-tale castle from 1868, starting with the clock tower, more than 40 m tall. Some of the lavish rooms are included in the standard ticket, the rest are shown on the house tour, which you add at the ticket office. In the Second World War, tunnels inside the walls sheltered up to 1,800 people from air raids, and you can walk through them too. In 1947 the 5th Marquess gave the castle and its park to the city.
Bute Park. On the way from the castle gate to the park, stone animals perch on a wall. Lions, a bear, a hyena, a lynx, and further along a pelican, a beaver and a vulture. The Animal Wall was designed by William Burges. The first nine figures were carved in the late 1880s, and six more were added around 1930. The anteater lost its nose in the late 1990s and was given a new one during the 2010 restoration. Behind the wall begins Bute Park, some 55 hectares of former castle grounds. Andrew Pettigrew, the Marquess's head gardener, laid it out from 1873, and it has belonged to the city since 1947. Follow the path along the castle moat northwards to the remains of Blackfriars. Low Victorian brick walls trace the plan of the medieval friary there. The Taff flows just to the west, and the trees around you belong to an arboretum regarded as a collection of national importance.
Cathays Park & City Hall. White Portland stone, wide avenues, lawns. Cathays Park is the civic quarter Cardiff built itself at the height of the coal boom. In 1800 the town had fewer than 1,900 people, and by 1901 about 164,000. The council bought the land from the Marquess of Bute in 1898, on condition that it be used only for civic, cultural and educational purposes. City Hall came first. While it was still being built, Cardiff was granted city status in 1905, which is why it is not called the Town Hall. It opened in 1906, its clock tower is 59 m tall, and a Welsh dragon crowns the dome. On the first floor, the Marble Hall holds statues of figures from Welsh history, among them Saint David and Owain Glyndŵr. Cardiff only became the capital of Wales in 1955. The Pevsner architectural guide calls Cathays Park the finest civic centre in the British Isles.
National Museum Cardiff. Behind the columned portico hangs a collection of French art of international standing, and the money for it came from coal. Gwendoline and Margaret Davies were granddaughters of the industrialist David Davies, whose docks at Barry competed with the port of Cardiff. The sisters were among the first in Britain to buy the Impressionists, and they left their paintings to the museum in the 1950s and 1960s. Among them are Renoir's "La Parisienne" of 1874, shown at the very first Impressionist exhibition, Rodin's "The Kiss" in bronze, water lilies and a Rouen Cathedral by Monet, and Van Gogh's "Rain at Auvers". The ground floor covers natural history and the making of Wales. Building began in 1912, but because of the First World War the museum was only officially opened in 1927.
Wales Millennium Centre. Above the entrance, a poem in two languages runs in giant letters. "Creu Gwir fel gwydr o ffwrnais awen" means roughly "Creating truth like glass from the furnace of inspiration", and below it reads "In these stones horizons sing". The poet Gwyneth Lewis deliberately avoided a translation, so each line has its own message. The letters are windows of the bars behind and light up at night. The facade below is layered slate in five colours from five Welsh quarries, purple from Penrhyn plus blue, green, grey and black. The architect Jonathan Adams had the sea cliffs at Southerndown in mind. Opera, ballet and musicals have played here since November 2004, and the main auditorium seats around 1,900. The oval square in front is Roald Dahl Plass, named after the writer born in Cardiff in 1916. Plass is Norwegian for square. Until the 1960s this was a dock basin where coal was shipped out.
Senedd & Pierhead. The Welsh Parliament sits behind glass. Richard Rogers, co-designer of the Pompidou Centre, conceived the Senedd as an open envelope, so people outside can see the members at work. It opened on 1 March 2006, St David's Day. Some 1,000 tonnes of Welsh slate went into it, and the desks are Welsh oak, though the undulating ceiling is Canadian western red cedar. A huge timber funnel hangs above the round debating chamber, and the glass floor around it lets you look down into the chamber. Since the May 2026 election, 96 members have sat here instead of 60, and the chamber was rebuilt for them. Next door stands the red Pierhead of 1897, built for the Bute Dock Company. It was designed by William Frame, who had earlier worked with Burges on the castle. The coat of arms on the facade bears the motto "Wrth ddŵr a thân", by water and fire, the two ingredients of steam power. Because of its clock tower, some call it Baby Big Ben.

Planning your visit

One day is enough for Cardiff. The route from Cardiff Central covers 4.9 km on foot with ten stops, plus a short train ride from Queen Street down to the bay. If you are short of time, skip Bute Park and the museum, but not the castle or the bay. You will hear more Welsh here than you once would, as the number of speakers in the city more than doubled between 1991 and 2021. With half a day to spare, take the train to Caerphilly and the largest castle in Wales. There are four tips for the evening, from the theatre to the Welsh-language club.

Going out & nightlife

Nightlife quarters

Mermaid Quay. Where the route ends, the evening begins by the water. Mermaid Quay opened in 1999 and lines the bay with restaurants, bars and cafés. That there is water here at all, rather than mud, is a recent thing. Until 1999 the bay was tidal, with wide mudflats at low tide. It took the Cardiff Bay Barrage to turn it into a freshwater lake of 2 km² with 13 km of waterfront.

Food & restaurants

The Potted Pig. You eat in the cellar. The Potted Pig on High Street occupies a bank vault of 1855, with old doors and bars still in place. It has been a restaurant since 2011, and since 2025 has a new owner who previously ran Porro in Llandaff for nine years. On Sundays there is a separate Sunday lunch menu, and booking is a good idea.

Bars & clubs

Clwb Ifor Bach. The "Welsh Club" on Womanby Street has been the meeting place of the Welsh-speaking scene since 1983, and a live venue too. Gigs and club nights fill three floors, and the staff speak both languages. Past performers include The Strokes, The Killers and Coldplay. The club is named after Ifor Bach, who raided the castle in 1158. The street itself is one of the oldest in the city, with a name of Norse origin.

Stage & concerts

New Theatre. Shows have played on Park Place since 10 December 1906, opening with Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night". Sarah Bernhardt, Anna Pavlova, Laurel and Hardy and Shirley Bassey all appeared on this stage, and in 1965 Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming" had its world premiere here. Today it hosts touring productions, musicals and comedy, with the pantomime in winter.

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Practical information for Cardiff

Public transport

Operator. Cardiff Bus runs the city bus network in Cardiff, Penarth and Barry. Stagecoach and Adventure Travel also operate in the city and the surrounding area, Newport Bus links Cardiff with Newport, and First Cymru runs line 304 via the airport. Transport for Wales (in Welsh Trafnidiaeth Cymru) runs the regional trains, with over 20 stations in and around Cardiff, including Cardiff Central, Cardiff Queen Street and Cardiff Bay. Transport for Wales also runs the Cardiff Bus Interchange bus station (Cyfnewidfa Fysiau Caerdydd) on Central Square, which opened on 30 June 2024. Buses from Cardiff Bus, Stagecoach, Newport Bus and First Cymru stop there at 14 stands, but coaches do not.

Network. Buses from Cardiff Bus and other operators, plus Transport for Wales regional trains with over 20 stations in and around Cardiff, for example between Cardiff Queen Street and Cardiff Bay. The private water bus Aquabus runs between Bute Park and Mermaid Quay in Cardiff Bay. Most sights in the centre are no more than 15 minutes' walk apart.

Modes of transport. Bus · Regional train · Water bus

Operating hours. Cardiff Bus Interchange opens shortly before the first scheduled departure and closes shortly after the last, and staff are on site while it is open. During major events with road closures in the centre the bus station closes, and buses then stop at replacement stops in the surrounding streets. The Baycar (line 6) runs from Cardiff Bus Interchange (stand 6) via Lloyd George Avenue to the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay in around 12 minutes. From Monday to Friday it runs from 7.40am to 10.10pm every 30 minutes. It also runs on Saturdays and Sundays, and the timetable in the Cardiff Bus app shows the weekend times and frequency. In the summer holidays it often runs more frequently. First Cymru line 304 runs from Monday to Friday from Cardiff Bus Interchange from 5am to 11.05pm, roughly hourly towards Cardiff Bay, Barry and the airport.

Night service. Licensed black cabs pick up passengers at designated taxi ranks, including on St Mary Street and on Saunders Road north of Cardiff Central (north exit, then right). Private hire vehicles must be booked in advance, and Veezu and Uber operate in Cardiff, among others. Visit Cardiff advises agreeing the expected fare with the driver before getting in. The timetables for individual bus lines in the Cardiff Bus app show when the last journey leaves. On weekdays, line 304 reaches Cardiff Bus Interchange for the last time at 12.38am.

Buying tickets. Single fares and day tickets are available from the driver, in cash or with a contactless card. If you pay in cash, you need the exact amount, as drivers give no change. In the Cardiff Bus app there are day, week and month tickets as well as ticket bundles. With Tap on, Tap off you check in and out at the reader with the same contactless bank card or phone when boarding and when getting off. Anyone travelling without a valid ticket pays a penalty fare of £10. The former iff smartcard has not been accepted since 29 November 2025. Train tickets are available at the ticket office and at the machines in Cardiff Central, and at small stations such as Cardiff Bay only from the machine.

App and payment. Cardiff Bus accepts contactless payment on all lines. With Tap on, Tap off, you hold the same contactless card or device against the reader when boarding and when getting off. Several journeys in a day are capped at the price of an adult day ticket for the fare zone travelled, and since November 2025 there has also been a weekly cap from Monday to Sunday. On boarding, a pre-authorisation of 10p is taken, and the correct fare is settled one to two days later. If you forget to check out, you pay the fare to the terminus. A card is valid for one person only. Tap on, Tap off is available only for adult fares. The free Cardiff Bus app (iOS and Android) shows live departures, plans journeys and, after registration, sells mobile tickets with a QR code, which you hold against the reader on the ticket machine. An account can be used on one device only.

Which ticket. Since 3 May 2026 a single fare in the Cardiff, Penarth and Llandough fare zone has cost £2.60 from the driver. With ticket bundles in the app the price per journey falls to the equivalent of £2.35. The Day To Go day ticket costs £5.20, the price of two single fares, and from the third journey of the day it is cheaper. The week ticket for seven consecutive days costs £19, the price of 3.7 day tickets, and a month ticket £65. Children aged 5 to 15 pay £1 per single fare or £3 for a day on the whole network. Up to three children under 5 travel free when accompanied by a paying adult. The Family Day To Go, for one adult with up to four young people aged 5 to 21 or two adults with up to three, costs £12 in the Cardiff and Penarth zone, the price of 2.3 adult day tickets. The family ticket is available from the driver and in the app, and at least one young traveller must be present when buying it and on every journey.

Fare zones. Cardiff Bus divides its network into the Cardiff, Penarth and Llandough fare zone and the Barry fare zone with Dinas Powys and Sully. In the Barry zone the single fare costs £2.90 and the day ticket £5. If you travel between the two zones, you need the network fare. A single then costs £3.70, a day ticket for the whole network £6.70 and a week ticket £26. With Tap on, Tap off the daily cap depends on the zones travelled. Children aged 5 to 15 pay £1 per journey and £3 a day across the whole network.

Tip. Tap on and tap off with the same contactless card on every journey. Cardiff Bus then charges no more than the price of a day ticket in a day, and no more than that of a week ticket from Monday to Sunday.

Getting there

Main station

Location. Cardiff Central is in the city centre on Central Square, close to Principality Stadium and Cardiff Castle. It is 50 m from the station to Cardiff Bus Interchange bus station, also on Central Square. The taxi rank is on Saunders Road north of the station, reached by leaving through the north entrance and turning right. On Central Square next to Marks and Spencer there is a Brompton bike hire. Replacement buses during construction work leave from the stop in front of 3 Callaghan Square. The city's tourist information is in Cardiff Castle.

Long-distance trains. Cardiff Central is the busiest station in Wales and lies on the South Wales Main Line. On weekdays Great Western Railway (GWR) usually runs twice an hour without a change to London Paddington, with the journey taking around 1 hour 50 minutes, and the fastest trains take 1 hour 48 minutes and stop at Newport, Bristol Parkway, Swindon and Reading. It can take longer at weekends and on public holidays. GWR also links Cardiff directly with Bristol, Bath, Southampton, Portsmouth and Exeter. Transport for Wales runs hourly without a change via Newport, Hereford, Shrewsbury and Crewe to Manchester Piccadilly, taking around 3 hours 20 minutes, and offers connections to Swansea, Chester, Bangor and Liverpool. CrossCountry runs hourly to Birmingham and Nottingham. The station has step-free access to all platforms and a First Class lounge on platform 1, but no left luggage.

Opening hours. The station is run by Transport for Wales. Staff are on duty from 4am to 1am Monday to Friday, from 4am to 12.30am on Saturdays and from 7am to 12.30am on Sundays. The ticket office is open from 5.40am to 9.30pm Monday to Saturday and from 7.30am to 9.30pm on Sundays, and there are also ticket machines. The waiting room is open daily from 6am to 10pm, and the First Class lounge on platform 1 from 6am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday. There are toilets with a baby changing room and a Changing Places toilet, shops such as Marks and Spencer and WHSmith, a cash machine in front of the main entrance and Wi-Fi.

Airports

CWL

Into the city. The quickest way is by Transport for Wales train to Rhoose Cardiff International Airport. Trains between Cardiff Central and Bridgend call at Rhoose hourly, and every two hours on Sundays. At Rhoose station, Adventure Travel's shuttle bus 905 meets every train and takes passengers to the door of the departures hall. From Cardiff Central the whole journey takes around 48 minutes. A through ticket for the train and shuttle bus is available at any National Rail station. At the ticket office, ask for Cardiff Air Bus. In the Transport for Wales journey planner the destination is called Cardiff Air Ria. Rhoose station is unstaffed and has only a ticket machine. First Cymru line 304 runs direct to Cardiff Bus Interchange via Barry and Cardiff Bay. On weekdays it runs roughly hourly, from 7.10am to 11.27pm from the airport and from 5am to 11.05pm from Cardiff Bus Interchange. The journey takes 70 to 90 minutes depending on the time of day.

BRS

Into the city. From the airport's Transport Interchange, a walk of three to five minutes from the terminal over a covered bridge, National Express runs line 216 ten times a day via Newport directly to Cardiff Coach Station at Sophia Gardens. Depending on the departure, the journey takes from 1 hour 20 minutes to 2 hours 10 minutes, with the evening coaches at 8.05pm and 10.20pm the fastest. FlixBus runs up to twelve times a day via Newport to Cardiff and on to Bridgend and Swansea. Through tickets from National Express must be collected before the day of travel, as there is no collection point at the airport. The Airport Flyer A1 runs around the clock, up to every 8 minutes, to Bristol Temple Meads station and Bristol bus station. A single costs £9.50 and a return £16, and for children aged 5 to 15 a single costs £6.50 and a return £9.50, with children aged 4 and under travelling free. From Temple Meads GWR runs directly to Cardiff Central.

Local quirks

20 mph is usually the limit in built-up areas in Wales. Since 17 September 2023 a limit of 20 mph (32 km/h) has applied on roads with street lighting throughout Wales, instead of the former 30 mph. Because 20 mph is the norm, there are no repeater signs for it. The Welsh Government's DataMapWales map shows which roads have stayed at 30 mph.
Match and concert days at Principality Stadium. The stadium is in the middle of the city. At matches and concerts the city closes the surrounding streets several hours before the start, Cardiff Bus Interchange bus station closes for that time, and buses take detours. The taxi ranks on St Mary Street and Saunders Road can also be closed then. After the event Transport for Wales runs queuing systems at Cardiff Central and Queen Street. So buy your return ticket beforehand.
Bilingual signs, Welsh on top. Road signs in Wales are bilingual, with the Welsh above the English. Transport for Wales also gives everything in both languages, and in Welsh Cardiff Central is Caerdydd Canolog and the bus station is Cyfnewidfa Fysiau Caerdydd.

Good to know

Currency: GBP £
Emergency number: 112
Plug type: G
Time zone: Europe/London
Driving: left

Speed limits. built-up areas 30 mph (48 km/h), outside towns 60 mph (96 km/h), motorway 70 mph (112 km/h)

Limits are given in mph, not km/h, and rethinking the speedometer takes some concentration at first. In Wales, the default within built-up areas has been 20 mph instead of 30 mph since September 2023, a separate value just for that part of the country. On single-carriageway rural roads without an additional sign, the speed drops from 70 to 60 mph, indicated only by a small circular sign with a diagonal line through it, easy to miss.

Tipping. Ten percent in restaurants, and a service charge is often already on the bill. In pubs you order at the bar and do not tip.

Tolls. Motorways are free. Charges apply at individual bridges and tunnels such as the Dartford Crossing and Mersey Gateway, usually paid online afterwards.

Access restrictions. London charges a congestion fee plus the ULEZ for older vehicles, both camera-enforced. Other cities have Clean Air Zones. Not paying gets expensive.