Adventures around Cardiffwith PlusBus
Castles and cathedrals, waterside walks, wooded strolls and world class museums, great food and elegant gardens, markets and plenty more... Cardiff has a huge amount to see and do for any visitor. Ask for PlusBus when you buy a train ticket and you can take the bus all over Cardiff and beyond to visit the spectacular cathedral at Llandaff or the outdoor museum at St Fagans, walk round the bay or wander through the park. These are just a small handful of the numerous outings you can have with a PlusBus ticket in Cardiff.
-
-
1. Cardiff Castle and Llandaff Cathedral
Cardiff Central station has regular GWR and Transport for Wales trains from London Paddington, Taunton, Crewe and from lots of stations in South Wales and beyond. Some of the city’s major sights are just a short walk away, but a PlusBus ticket lets you go further to discover even more of Cardiff.
- Cardiff Castle compresses 2000 years of history into one attraction: you can still see remnants of the fortress the Romans built here, the Norman keep, and the spectacularly ornate rooms of the Victorian palace. Don’t miss the carved stone animals along the wall nearby and the miles of leafy avenues and flowerbeds in Bute Park beyond.
- How do I get to Cardiff Castle by bus? It’s not too far to walk to the castle from Cardiff Central station, but with a PlusBus ticket and lots to see, you can speed things up by catching a bus. This map shows you where the buses stop in the city centre. Then it’s time to hop on the bus again to visit the pretty Llandaff area. See Good Journey’s directions.
- Llandaff Cathedral has been a centre of Celtic Christianity for centuries and there are fine Norman arches. But the cathedral also has newer treasures like a painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, stained glass by William Morris, and the aluminium figure of Christ by the sculptor Jacob Epstein that dominates the nave.
- How do I get to Llandaff cathedral by bus? Several buses run from close to Cardiff Central railway station or from the castle to the Black Lion bus stop near Llandaff cathedral. Bus 25 leaves every half hour (hourly on Sundays) from Wood Street (Stop JB), just behind the BBC Wales building outside the station. It also leaves from stop KC on Castle Street.
- From the Black Lion bus stop, walk back towards the half-timbered pub and turn left just before it into Llandaff’s pretty High Street. At the end, you’ll see the ruins of the old Bishop’s Palace and the cathedral is just beyond this.
- Where do I have lunch? Llandaff is full of great places to eat and drink. The Heathcock pub does particularly good food and is four minutes’ walk away, up the Deans Steps near the cathedral door and along Bridge Street. Bus 24 and bus 25 run regularly from the nearby Rowing Club stop back into the city centre.
-
-
2. Bus to the Bay
Beautiful Cardiff Bay is Europe’s biggest waterfront development. It is packed with impressive buildings, things to see and do and places to eat, all by a huge lake on the edge of the city.
- See the Senedd, the Welsh parliament building, the striking Millennium Centre creative hub; visit Techniquest’s interactive science displays or art and craft exhibitions at the Norwegian church or Craft in the Bay
- Go for a walk around the six-mile Bay Trail or a boat trip on the Princess Katherine. Stroll through the reed beds of Cardiff Bay wetland reserve and round to the kilometre-long Barrage. These are just a few of the things you can do and there are lots of great restaurants too.
- For a special meal, book ahead at recently-revamped tir a môr in the voco St David’s hotel with a view across the water. The name means “land and sea” and there is plenty of local produce on the menu, from Welsh cockles with seaweed and Pant-Ys-Gawn goat’s cheese to Bara Brith bread and butter pudding.
- How do I get to Cardiff Bay by bus? Several buses run from near Cardiff’s central station to the bay. These include bus 6 baycar, which leaves regularly from stop NA outside Wyndham Arcade on St Mary Street. Bus X2 and others also run every half an hour from Cardiff Central station. It takes about 7 minutes to get to the bay and the buses stop outside the Millennium Centre.
-
3. St Fagans National Museum of History
Open every day and free to visit, St Fagans National Museum of History is the most popular visitor attraction in Wales and it’s easy to see why. At the heart of the site is the castle and beautiful gardens. The Earl of Plymouth donated this Elizabethan manor house, one of the finest in the country, to the people of Wales in 1948. Since then, more than forty different original buildings from different eras in Welsh history – from iron age roundhouses to a twentieth-century workmen’s institute – have been built or carefully reconstructed in the hundred acres of parkland around the castle.
- Don’t miss the different kinds of gardens, from a rose garden and fountains to a mulberry grove and vinery. The borders are colourful with all kinds of different flowers in summer and there are statues and fish ponds dotted around the grounds too.
- Among the original historic buildings, there are fully-stocked shops, a twelfth-century church, a farmhouse and a school. You can sometimes see traditional crafts in action at the clog makers, the smithy, the shawl-producing woollen mill, the corn mill and the bakery. There are animals in the fields too.
- There are also galleries that let visitors interact with the history of Wales, from Neanderthal times to the 1997 devolution vote and beyond.
- How do I get to St Fagan’s by bus? Bus 32 runs hourly every day from Cardiff to St Fagans and stops in the museum’s main car park. The bus leaves from Stop JB on Wood Street, a minute’s walk away from Cardiff Central station, just beyond the gleaming new BBC Cymru Wales building. The journey takes about half an hour and passes through some rolling green spaces just outside the city. See Good Journey’s directions.
These are just a few of the adventures you can have with a PlusBus ticket in Cardiff. Enjoy exploring!
-
Discover more offers and days out in Cardiff and Glamorgan with Good Journey. For more money-saving tips see our handy guides to trains and buses.
