Wales Family Holidays and Breaks

See our guide to Snowdonia and North Wales with kids.

Best Beaches in Wales

• Experience the faraway, even Caribbean feel of Barafundle Bay, surrounded by cliffs, and the enormous expanse of Newgale Sands, just south of St David’s – a paradise for surfers and splashing children. See more about Pembrokeshire family holidays.

• Head for gorgeous (if often crowded) Mwnt near Cardigan.

• Seek out the magical dunes and shelly white sands of Ynyslas, across the river from Aberdovey on the west coast. You can ride with the whales off the west coast – several companies offer boat tours out to sea, where you might see whales, skirt around bird-covered islands and dart in close to cliffs. The Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre, in New Quay in Ceredigion, monitors bottlenose dolphins, grey seals and porpoises and offers excursions on its Dolphin Survey boat.

• Discover peaceful Abersoch, in the north-east on the Llyn Peninsula

Cardiff with Kids

• Visit the pretty, largely car-free city centre, a beguiling mix of old and new with its fairytale 18th-century castle, Millennium Stadium (with tours), museums, indoor market and shops, some in Victorian arcades. The National Museum and Gallery is packed with dinosaurs and Impressionist paintings, and there's also the delightful Capability Brown-designed Bute Park.

• Explore Cardiff Bay a mile away, with its regenerated docks with waterfront cafés and ice-cream parlours, bronze-domed Millennium Centre arts complex and other attractions. Stand on the quayside to see the past and the future – there's the history of the docks that sent coal and slate around the world alongside locations some will recognise from Dr Who and Torchwood. The white-wood Norwegian church built for visiting sailors, and where Road Dahl was christened, is now an arts centre/café, and there's also the Techniquest science discover centre and the Red Dragon Centre indoor entertainment complex.

• Walk the Barrage, a fantastic wind-blown walkway to the Victorian seaside resort of Penarth. When it comes to  beaches near Cardiff, Penarth and Barry are only a few minutes’ drive away

• Venture out of town to Castle Coch, a turreted, woodland sister to Cardiff Castle, and St Fagans National History Museum, with more than 30 old buildings in a run-wild setting.

• Drive into the hills to visit historic coal mines. The fabulous Big Pit National Coal Museum, at the Blaenavon World Heritage Site 45 minutes north of Cardiff, lets you don a hard hat complete with lamp and follow a real miner down a warren of tunnels 90m underground.

Brecon Beacons with Kids

• Ride the Try Brecon Mountain Railway, meandering through the Brecon Beacons National Park along the Taf Fechan Reservoir. Wales has more than 20 historic rail lines, which take you from bleak mountaintops to pretty valleys, from still lakes to the crashing seashore. At some, kids can climb aboard gleaming steam engines, while most have fascinating museums and offer delightful picnic spots. Great Little Trains of Wales coordinates 12 historic lines.

• Explore The National Showcaves Centre for Wales – three huge show caves with underground rivers, a large dinosaur park with more than 200 life-sized models, a shire horse centre, and indoor playgrounds.