What a difference a couple of decades has made to Cardiff. The millennium ushered in a period of radical transformation: the smelly mudflats and industrial wasteland of the coal-shipping docks were born again as Cardiff Bay, winging the city into the 21st century with eco-friendly architecture, public art, concert halls, cafés and waterfront trails, all with broad views across the Bristol Channel.
And the city’s star keeps rising. Go today and you’ll find the dinky capital of Wales is cultured, food-loving, outdoorsy, worldly, and as warm as a Welsh cwtch (hug). You can gawp at fine art and dinosaurs, shop in graceful Victorian arcades, brush up on 2,000 years of history in an insanely eccentric castle, wander for miles in parks unfurling to wild meadows, go white-water rafting, dine on Keralan curry for lunch and pintxos for dinner, then wind out the day over brilliantly mixed cocktails in a 1920s-style speakeasy. This is a city that’s gone from coal to cool, historic to trendsetting.
