By
Jennifer Burns
Every time Jennifer publishes a story, you’ll get an alert straight to your inbox!
By clicking “Sign up”, you agree to receive emails from Business Insider. In addition, you accept Insider’s
Terms of Service and
Privacy Policy.
Follow Jennifer Burns
- I'm an American who moved to Wales and has made Cardiff my home for the last two decades.
- In the city center, you can explore a castle, watch a rugby game, or walk around a park.
- Cardiff is compact, easy to navigate, and full of friendly people.
Growing up, I never even really wanted to visit the United Kingdom. Naturally, I've ended up living here for years.
I'm an American who has made the capital of Wales my home for the past two decades, and I'm not sorry I did.
Cardiff is a vibrant, eclectic, and welcoming place. And it's relatively affordable compared to some other major cities in the UK.
With all its charm, the city doesn't pretend to be something it's not. Cardiff lures you in with its cheery, unassuming character and leaves you asking how anyone could've ever overlooked it.
Here are a few more reasons it deserves a spot on your travel list.
There's a castle in the middle of the city.
Wales has more than 400 castles still standing or in ruins — more per square mile than any other country in Europe. One of them is in the center of Cardiff.
Cardiff Castle, once the site of a Roman fort, has a history that spans about 2,000 years (the remnants of its Roman origins are still visible within its walls).
Every summer, you can go to gigs headlined by some of music's biggest artists or watch movies on an open-air screen in the impressive castle gardens.
Just bring a waterproof jacket, because the weather in Wales is nothing if not changeable.
And there's a stadium across the street from it.
If you're into sports, Cardiff also has a 70,000-seater stadium in its center, unusual for a European city. The energy in the area on a match day is astonishing.
So, you can cheer on the Wales rugby team and then pick any number of the neighboring bars and clubs to fuel the rest of your evening out.
Don't call it a night without a visit to Caroline Street, a pedestrian area also nicknamed "Chippy Lane," for an early-hours feast. It has tons of great spots for grabbing late-night takeout (including fish and chips).
The city is fairly compact and easy to get around.
With a population of about just under 400,000, Cardiff has enough people to give you that buzzy, energetic feel, but not so many that it makes being in town when the summer tourists arrive unbearable.
It's not too big, at under 60 square miles, so you can cover all of the city center's highlights and nearby Cardiff Bay on foot over a weekend.
If you have time, it's definitely worth exploring the outer neighborhoods of Roath, Pontcanna, and Canton, where there are loads of independent shops, cafés, pubs, restaurants, and an excellent arts center.
You also won't need to navigate a complicated subway system, because we don't have one. There is, however, a water taxi, city-center train stations, and a decent bus network.
It's got lots of green.
No matter where you are in the city, you're not far from a picnic space.
Cardiff has more than 330 parks and gardens, the largest of which is the 130-acre Bute Park, known as the "Green Heart of the City"
It backs onto Cardiff Castle, and, on a sunny day, it's where you'll find me having a stroll, lying on the grass, reading, or sharing drinks with my mates.
Like Cardiff Castle, it also hosts some of the biggest names in music at outdoor gigs during the summer months.
You can shop, eat, and drink in beautiful historic structures.
Cardiff has seven Victorian and Edwardian arcades, more than any other city in the UK. These arcades are glass-covered passageways featuring stunning architectural details that are still intact.
They house dozens of different bars, cafés, restaurants, and shops (most of them independent), including Spillers, which is considered to be the oldest record store in the world.
There's also Cardiff Market, a two-floor Victorian indoor market with stalls selling goods like fresh seafood, flowers, wigs, records, bao buns, and Welsh cakes (flat, griddle-cooked cakes that usually contain dried fruit).
I've also found the folks here to be really friendly.
In fact, to use a term used by South Walians, locals are "lush" (short for "luscious," but it means "great" and can be used to describe pretty much anything).
As a tourist, you'll likely be on the receiving end of what I've heard called a "warm Welsh welcome." People here like a chat, especially if pints are involved.
That said, you probably won't find them saying "hi" to strangers in the street, but I'm working on it.
