Wales' 'City Of Arcades' Is A Coastal Escape With Victorian Streets And Unique Local Shops

Lush green mountains, haunting castles, highland lakes steeped in myth and legend, and beaches with big waves and even bigger sand dunes — these are the sorts of wanderlust-stoking things that most people associate with the Celtic nation of Wales. But there are cities in the mix here too, including one particularly large city, the capital, 380,000-person-strong Cardiff. It's a buzzy spot that thrums with life, has one foot on the South Wales coast, the other in the famous Welsh valleys, and comes with more shopping than you can shake a rugby shirt at.

Yep, for lovers of all things retail, there's almost no better spot in the country than Cardiff. And you don't have to just take our word on that. Both Visit Wales, the official Welsh tourism portal, and the long-running consumer guides website Which? rank Cardiff among the finest shopping hubs in Britain. Both of those specifically mention the city's charming Victorian-era arcades, which combine to offer countless independent shops, art purveyors, vintage clothes emporiums, barista-led coffee joints, and a whole load more.

If all that's got you eyeing up Cardiff for your next U.K. shopping outing, then here's some more good news: Cardiff is home to the biggest — and only major — international airport in Wales, Cardiff Airport (CWL), which has links to oodles of major European destinations, and sits less than an hour from the shop-filled center by train and bus. You can also catch direct trains here from London, which take around 2 hours in total.

They don't call Cardiff the "City of Arcades" for nothing, you know. The core of this capital is made up of a series of big thoroughfares and squares that are knitted together by a web of narrow, covered alleys known as arcades, all of which are riddled with local shops and interesting little retail spots. In total, there are seven named historical arcades crisscrossing the downtown, each offering something a little different.

The Castle Quarter Arcades, just as the name implies, are right beneath the historic walls of Cardiff Castle on the north side of the city center. There are three in total: Castle Arcade, Duke Street Arcade, and High Street Arcade, each done out in grand Edwardian-era or Victorian styles. Each has a smorgasbord of shops, with a varied offering that includes the artisanal cheesemongers of Tŷ Caws and the used bookstore of Troutmark Books. Each is also a veritable must for food-loving travelers — you can dine on escargot and onion soup to a backing track of jazz at Maison de Boeuf, or munch on buttery local bakes at Fabulous Welshcakes.

Just across the road from Castle Arcade, the High Street Arcade, first opened in the 1880s, beckons with its own array of unique outlets. That's got Hobo's, where retro clothes and '70s nostalgia reign supreme, and Sleep When You're Dead, an independent tattoo parlor and barbershop with proper counterculture vibes. And there's yet another ace up the sleeve only a few minutes' walk away: Cardiff Market. A colossal covered shopping space that's hosted trading for centuries, it's packed with all sorts — think fortune tellers alongside bao bun shacks, Welsh butchers beside Italian delis.

While the gorgeous beaches and scenic cliffs of the Pembrokeshire National Park draw people to the far west of Wales and the rugged Gower lures people to Swansea, Cardiff's little corner of the Welsh coastline offers something a little different. For starters, there's a whole nightlife and shopping area of Cardiff that faces out towards the Bristol Channel. Cue Cardiff Bay. A quick, 15-minute bus ride from the core of the city, it's shed its former industrial roots to become a hub of galleries and dining, offering everything from local brewhouses to artisan Welsh ice cream makers around its Mermaid Quay.

Go a bit further from that and you'll soon break out into the coastal gem that is the greater Vale of Glamorgan. It's the county that ranges westwards from the edge of Cardiff, and it hosts some seriously enticing stretches of shore. Among them, Barry Island, which technically isn't an island, though does come with five individual beaches, from family-friendly Whitmore Bay and its seaside promenade to the hidden and romantic inlet of Jackson's Bay. When the summer swings around, little Barry becomes an R&R haven, touting beach huts and chip shops and a wide range of cultural events.

Heading a touch more to the west will bring you the wave-lashed bay of Llantwit Major, known as Cwm Colhuw in the local lingo. Surfers flock there for the spots that break below the sheer-cut cliffs. Hikers, meanwhile, can join a section of the Wales Coast Path, a walking path that actually surrounds the whole of the Welsh coastline. From Llantwit, it clambers up said cliffs, passing coves said to have been frequented by pirates, and skirts big walls of rock that are filled with fossils dating back hundreds of millions of years.