Start from 52 curated places around Cardiff, GB, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Gorse
Cardiff's first Michelin-starred kitchen, a low-key Pontcanna room serving a tightly changing tasting menu built around Welsh produce. The cooking is precise without being fussy, and the lunch menu is the affordable way in for a special meal.
Heaneys
Tommy Heaney's relaxed Pontcanna dining room, doing technically sharp seasonal plates without the white-tablecloth stiffness. The set lunch and Sunday roast are how locals actually use it, while the a la carte handles a proper date night.
Trails & outdoors
Bute Park
A flat, easy network of riverside and arboretum paths running from behind the castle along the Taff. Under a mile of strolling gets you among champion trees and the river; link it to the Taff Trail to go much further.
Cardiff Bay Barrage
A flat, mile-long waterfront walk across the barrier dividing the freshwater bay from the tidal estuary. Wide views, lock gates, and the scour gardens make it the city's best accessible coastal-feeling stroll.
Things to do
National Museum Cardiff
The free national art and natural history museum on Cathays Park, holding one of Europe's best Impressionist collections alongside a journey through the geology of Wales. Big enough for a half day, central, and a reliable rainy-afternoon anchor.
St Fagans National Museum of History
A vast open-air museum on the city's western edge where historic Welsh buildings have been rebuilt across rolling parkland. Free to enter, it is a full day among farmhouses, a chapel, a working bakehouse, and live craft demonstrations.
Landmarks & sights
Cardiff Castle
A 2,000-year layer cake of Roman wall, Norman keep, and Victorian Gothic fantasy rooms right in the city centre. The over-the-top apartments designed by William Burges for the Marquess of Bute are the reason to go inside rather than just admire the walls from the street.
Castell Coch
A fairytale red-turreted castle perched in the woods above Tongwynlais, a short drive north of the city. It is a Victorian reimagining rather than a true medieval ruin, and the painted ceilings and Lady Bute's circular bedroom are the payoff.