Passionate about South Wales - the best pubs, restaurants, hotels and places to visit

The iconic Eisteddfod pavilion

Last week we went to the National Eisteddfod of Wales in Llandow, in the Vale of Glamorgan. We were invited as guests of the Principality Building Society which was very nice.   The Principality is Wales’ largest mutual building society and is the main sponsor of the National Eisteddfod choral competitions.

The Eisteddfod is a cultural festival and is held annually in Wales. Its location alternates each year between north and south Wales and is normally held at a new site each time. This year Llandow between Cowbridge and Llantwit Major was chosen. [Read more →]

St Illtud’s Church, Llantrithyd

We stopped off today at Llantrithyd Church. It’s situated in the centre of the rural Vale of Glamorgan half way between Cardiff and Cowbridge. It’s off the beaten track along a small lane that runs from Bonvilston through the countryside eventually ending up in Llantwit Major.

The church appears to date from the 1500s and is a beautiful place. The inside of the church is well worth a visit when it’s open – “Here is a massive 16th century family altar tomb dominating the tiny interior. It retains its colourful paint and gilded detailing and shows a man in armour laying next to his wife, both with their hands together in prayer.” – Wales Online
[Read more →]

I get a few people visiting this site looking for snow and traffic advice in the winter.

You may find this previous post on Wales snow helpful.

I also find the UK Snow Map (http://uksnowmap.com/) site useful and fun. This is a mashup that monitors tweets in realtime mentioning UK snow and overlays the location and snow intensity over a Google map. You can see exactly where the snow is over the UK and how heavy it is. It also gives you instructions on how you can format your own tweet so that snow in your area is picked up.

You can see all the tweets that mention #uksnow here.

Well worth a look.

Illtud's 216 interior

It’s a few years since we last visited Illtud’s 216 restaurant in Llantwit Major but we popped along on the spur of the moment for my birthday last week.

Even though it’s been 3 years the restaurant hasn’t appeared to change much. Although fairly non-descript on the outside the inside has a medieval feel to it (click on the photo for a better view). Even though it has a high roof in the main part of the restaurant the use of drapes and banners gives a warm cosy feel. The front of the restaurant has a wood burning stove which enhances the ambience – especially when the owner Georg Fuchs managed to fill the room with smoke! [Read more →]

Ogmore Beach

One of the most popular pages on this site is my Things to do and where to go in South Wales
page.

South Wales has loads of great places to visit and this page lists just a few places that you may find interesting and entertaining. It’s constantly being updated and checked so it’s worth coming back to again in the future if you’re looking for fresh ideas.

If you want to suggest somewhere else for the page please contact me.  My contact details can be found on the About page.

Amy Davies has been running a personally funded project to document the amazing Cardiff Arcades.

She has some great photographs on the site and the project provides a great insight into the shops that can be found in the arcades.

Well worth a visit to the site and the arcades as well.

Cardiff Arcades Project

This looks like a great event in Pontypridd over the weekend of Friday August 5 to Sunday August 7:

Click here for more information:

EVENT – Big Welsh Bite.