Hotels in Cardiff, United Kingdom

A little about Cardiff...

Cardiff is the capital and largest city of Wales. Located on the south coast of the country it is administered as a unitary authority. It is in the historic county of Glamorgan and is recognised as one of the more appealing cities in the UK. It was a small town until the early nineteenth century and came to prominence as a major port for the transport of coal following the arrival of industry in the region. It eventually grew to become the largest city in Wales and serves as a major centre of culture, sport and history in the United Kingdom.

Attractions: Cardiff is home to Cardiff Castle, the National Assembly for Wales, St. David's Hall, the National Museum and Gallery, and Cathays Park (including municipal buildings modelled on those in New Delhi), and the Cardiff Metropolitan Cathedral. The Welsh National Opera moved into the Wales Millennium Centre in November 2004.

Cardiff Castle is a major tourist attraction in the city and is situated in the heart of the city centre, near to the main shopping streets of Queen St and St Mary's St. Other major tourist attractions are the Cardiff Bay regeneration sites which include the recently opened Wales Millennium Centre and the National Assembly for Wales and many other cultural and sites of interest including the Cardiff Bay Barrage and the famous Coal Exchange. The New Theatre was founded in 1906 and completely refurbished in the 1980s. Until the opening of the Wales Millennium Centre in 2004, it was the premier venue in Wales for touring theatre and dance companies, and is located in the city centre.

Other venues which are popular for gigs and sporting events include Cardiff International Arena and the Millennium Stadium.

The Big Weekend Festival, is held annually in late July/August in the city centre and is the place for many theme park events, rides and regularly attracts annually over 200,000 visitors. The annual Cardiff Festival claims to be the UK's largest free outdoor festival and plays host to a range of different festivals including the Children's Festival that takes place in the grounds of Cardiff Castle.

Cardiff has a strong nightlife, well established in the UK, let alone Wales, and is home to many bars, pubs and clubs. Most clubs and bars are situated in the city centre, especially St Mary's St, and more recently Cardiff Bay has built up a strong night scene, where there are many modern bars & restaurants The Brewery Quarter on St. Mary's Street is a recently developed venue for bars and restaurant with a central courtyard. Charles' St. is also a popular part of town.

Cardiff city centre has three main shopping arcades; St. David's Centre, Queen's Arcade and the Capitol Centre. There are two main shopping streets in the city centre, Queen St which is home to the main chain stores such as Topshop, Topman, Boots, Gap, Dorothy Perkins, Primark, and H&M to name a few. The second main street, St Mary St is home to Wales oldest and largest department store, Howells. It is also home to smaller independant stores, however in the main is a bar and cafe street.

Cardiff has a comprehensive bus network, with council-owned Cardiff Bus providing the vast majority of routes in the city and as well as Newport, Penarth, Barry, Cardiff International Airport and Llantwit Major. Cardiff Bus has introduced "bendy buses" on the popular 17 and 18 routes to Canton, Ely and Caerau and on the Cardiff Bay route. Its hub is Cardiff central bus station. National Express provides direct services to most cities in the UK, including high frequency services to nearby Swansea and Merthyr Tydfil, as well as major English and Scottish cities. Megabus also operates frequent discounted services to London.

Cardiff is home to three major institutions of higher education: Cardiff University, founded by Royal Charter in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, is a "red brick" university and member of the Russell Group of leading research led universities; University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC) gained university status in 1992; The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama is a conservatoire established in 1949 and is based in the grounds of Cardiff Castle. The University of Glamorgan will also have a Cardiff campus (serving 2,200 students from 2007.) The total number of higher education students in the city will thus be around 45,000. The City also has two dedicated further education (FE) only colleges: Coleg Glan Hafren and St David's College, although FE is offered at most High Schools in the city.