Cardiff

A Norman keep sits on Roman fort walls, and inside are Gothic rooms the Marquess of Bute had William Burges fit out in the 19th century. Tunnels in the walls were air raid shelters during World War Two. The gilded Arab Room ceiling is on the guided tour only.

Opened in 1999, the retractable-roof stadium sits on the river in the city centre, minutes from Cardiff Central on foot. On match days the whole city fills with fans in red. When no game is on, tours visit the changing rooms and the players' tunnel.

An arts centre opened on Cardiff Bay in 2004, its copper-coloured front cut with lines of Welsh and English in giant letters. Those letters double as windows for the bars inside. Even without a show you can simply walk in and look round the foyer.

The Welsh Parliament is built of Welsh slate and oak, and a funnel in the roof drops light into the chamber below. After a security check you can sit in the public gallery for free and watch plenary sessions. The chamber floor shows through glass.

A free museum in a white stone building beside City Hall. Its highlight is the Impressionist art collected and given by the Welsh Davies sisters, so Monet's water lilies and Renoir's La Parisienne hang here. The dinosaur gallery is crowded with children.

A free open-air museum where old buildings from all over Wales were taken down piece by piece and rebuilt among woods and fields. A row of ironworkers' cottages steps through the eras in order. The bakery's wood-oven bread is gone before the afternoon.

A red sandstone castle with three cone-roofed towers on a beech-wooded hill north of the city. Burges rebuilt it in the 19th century on a ruined medieval castle like a fairy tale, and every room is thick with paint and gilding. Forest trails go on behind.

A glass-roofed indoor market built in 1891, with an upper gallery looking down on the stalls. A griddle stall near the entrance sells Welsh cakes straight off the iron, and there is always a queue. It shuts on Sundays.

Several Victorian and Edwardian covered shopping lanes branch off the main streets, earning Cardiff the name city of arcades. Morgan Arcade holds Spillers Records, opened in 1894 and counted as the world's oldest record shop. They make a good wet-day walk.

Built in the 13th century behind layers of lakes and moats, it is the largest castle in Wales and second in Britain only to Windsor. Its southeast tower leans further than Pisa's, and people tilt beside it for photos. Cardiff is 20 minutes away by train.

Cardiff Castle's old grounds run along the River Taff, now a public park that is free to walk. Among the arboretum and beds, the wall lines of the medieval Blackfriars friary show in the grass. The river path continues to Sophia Gardens and the cricket ground.

A cathedral sunk in a hollow of Llandaff village, northwest of the centre, badly hit by a German bomb in 1941. The rebuild set a concrete arch mid-nave carrying Epstein's aluminium Christ, Majestas. On the slope above lie the ruins of the old bishop's palace.

A white timber church built in 1868 for Norwegian sailors using Cardiff docks, now a cafe and gallery. Roald Dahl, son of Norwegian parents, was baptised here. Bayside window seats take in the Senedd and the waterfront together.

A suburban park north of the centre whose long artificial lake hires out pedal boats. Its lighthouse-shaped clock tower honours Scott's expedition, which left this port for Antarctica in 1910. A rose garden and glasshouse sit by the south end.

An 1898 pier in Penarth, the seaside town south of Cardiff, fronted by an Art Deco pavilion. Walkers reach it on foot over the Cardiff Bay Barrage, a favourite stroll. In summer a paddle steamer sometimes calls.

At 886m the highest peak in southern Britain, in Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park. The shortest route from the Pont ar Daf car park is a round trip of three or four hours. The flat-topped summit stands out from miles away.

A Cistercian abbey founded in 1131 in the Wye valley, standing roofless with only walls and window tracery. A Wordsworth poem written nearby made it a Romantic pilgrimage. Hard by the English border, it lies a bit more than sixty minutes from Cardiff by road.