WILD WALES From the rush of downbill mountain biking to bikes along the roky coast, this small, often-overlooked corner of the U.K. holds outsize adventures.
Travel+Leisure US|July 2024
LAST YEAR, the Welsh Affairs Committee noted in a House of Commons report that of the 41 million "international holidaymakers" who visited the U.K. in 2019, just 1 million went to Wales.
Tom Vanderbilt
WILD WALES From the rush of downbill mountain biking to bikes along the roky coast, this small, often-overlooked corner of the U.K. holds outsize adventures.

"Marketing of Wales must be stronger," the report noted, "with a clear theme devised to attract international tourists based on Wales's unique strengths and attractions."

Poor branding has long troubled the country. In her excellent 2023 memoir, The Long Field, Pamela Petro, an American who fell hard for Wales, notes that this small country, which "clung to the periphery of Europe and the margins of history," was often defined by what it was not. Starting with its very name: "Wales is actually an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'place of the others' or 'place of the Romanized foreigners."" Britain's flag tells a similarly othering story: Wales is the sole U.K. country not represented on the Union Jack.

Even its most famous travel narrative George Borrow's 1862 tome Wild Wales-speaks to this exclusion. "Wales is a country interesting in many respects," the book opens, "and deserving of more attention than it has hitherto met with." Borrow, a polyglot Englishman and occasional travel writer, also just happened to lay out a strong brand identity: "Though not very extensive, it is one of the most picturesque countries in the world, a country in which Nature displays herself in her wildest, boldest, and occasionally loveliest forms."

I decided I would take my wife and daughter on a tour of Wales-a place I, like so many others, had never been to experience this lovely and bold nature. And so I began reading, with increasing excitement, of what was to come. I learned that almost a fifth of the country is covered by national parks (compared with roughly 3 percent of the U.S.), and there is chatter about "rewilding." Heights are a common theme: clambering up peaks, careening down ziplines, bombing down flowing mountain-bike tracks. But there is the ocean, too. Wales is the only country in the world with walking paths along its entire coastline. There are stunningly scenic, hardly crowded beaches, and any number of surf breaks.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 2024 من Travel+Leisure US.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 2024 من Travel+Leisure US.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من TRAVEL+LEISURE US مشاهدة الكل
Oodles of Noodles
Travel+Leisure US

Oodles of Noodles

Slurping through a lantern-lit alley in Sapporo, Japan, where miso ramen was born

time-read
3 mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
The Sweet Spot
Travel+Leisure US

The Sweet Spot

Just an hour south of Miami, Nora Walsh finds a candyland of tropical fruits ripe for picking.

time-read
3 mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
Freshly Brewed
Travel+Leisure US

Freshly Brewed

In the Cederberg Mountains of South Africa, Kendall Hunter discovers the powerful effects of the humble rooibos plant.

time-read
4 mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
SHORE LEAVE
Travel+Leisure US

SHORE LEAVE

Raw, wild, and mind-bendingly remote, yet peppered with world-class wineries and restaurants-Australia's South West Edge is a study in contrasts.

time-read
10+ mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
Of Land and Sea
Travel+Leisure US

Of Land and Sea

Savoring French flavors on a gastronomic trail between Marseille and Dijon.

time-read
4 mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
FAMILY-STYLE
Travel+Leisure US

FAMILY-STYLE

Food writer MATT GOULDING couldn't wait to get back to the hushed omakase restaurants of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. But would his young kids love the country-and its cuisine as much as he does?

time-read
10+ mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
HAPPY MEAL
Travel+Leisure US

HAPPY MEAL

Many tascas, the no-frills dining spots in Lisbon, have vanished. But others, Austin Bush discovers, are being lovingly reinvented.

time-read
7 mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
A City Abuzz
Travel+Leisure US

A City Abuzz

In underappreciated Trieste, Taras Grescoe finds some of Italy's most storied-and spectacular-coffee shops.

time-read
4 mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
FJORD FOCUS
Travel+Leisure US

FJORD FOCUS

Norway in December? Crazy-and crazy beautiful. Indulging a family wish, Akash Kapur discovers a world of icy enchantment.

time-read
9 mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)
DESTINATION OF THE YEAR Thailand
Travel+Leisure US

DESTINATION OF THE YEAR Thailand

Full disclosure: I didn't like Bangkok at first. I didn't get it—the chaos, the traffic, the fact that everything was hard to find. But like all good love affairs, my relationship with Thailand—which deepened when I moved from Vietnam 12 years ago to work at Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, where I'm now editor in chief—took time to blossom.

time-read
9 mins  |
December 2024/January 2025 (Double issue)