Adventures around Swanseawith PlusBus
What could be better than a city by the sea? Swansea’s underrated charms include five miles of gentle sandy beach, a host of great pubs and cafés, and some world-class museums. Best of all, with a PlusBus ticket, you can reach the beautiful Gower peninsula and spot seals in the bays below as you walk the coast path through wild flowers and butterflies. You can explore the Victorian pier at Mumbles, the characterful village full of galleries, ruined Oystermouth castle and much more. These are just a few of the hundreds of adventures you can have with a PlusBus ticket around Swansea.
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1. Castles, cafes, beaches and museums
To explore Swansea and the beautiful coast and countryside nearby, a PlusBus ticket is just £3 (or £2 with a railcard) on top of your train ticket and gives you unlimited bus travel in and around the city all day.
- Getting to Swansea castle, market and museums: Swansea’s ruined medieval castle is less than ten minutes’ walk from the railway station and buses to all kinds of interesting places leave from the bus station near the castle. Dozens of regular buses also run from the High Street outside the railway station, direct to the bus station. These include bus 4, bus 34 and lots of others.
- Swansea market is the largest indoor market in Wales and is right next door to the bus station. Don’t miss the central stalls selling cockles and laverbread (boiled, pureed seaweed). Or try a raisin-filled welsh cake, fresh off the hotplate. It’s a five-minute stroll from here, along Princess Street, to the National Waterfront Museum with its pioneering engines and aircraft and maritime gallery. Close by, the neoclassical Museum of Swansea is the oldest museum in Wales. It is full of quirky treasures, from a mammoth’s tooth to the gold cockerel from a church weather vane.
- Getting to the beach: just a couple minutes’ walk from the museums and you can be on the sand. But for quieter and less urban stretches of Swansea’s fantastically long beach, hop on bus 2, bus 3A and lots of others to ride along the seafront. There are great views across the water to Mumbles with its pier and lighthouse.
- Refreshments: There are cafés in the market and the Waterfront Museum has a café overlooking the harbour and Spanish-style seafood restaurant El Pescador also has a view of the boats and the pine-covered hills beyond.
- Don’t miss: The Secret Beach Bar and Café, a bit further along the bay on one of the seafront buses, right on the sands by the Cricket Ground bus stop. Nearby are Swansea Botanical Gardens and, beyond them, the suburb of Uplands where poet Dylan Thomas grew up.
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2. Mumbles, Bracelet Bay and Langland
Mumbles is a vibrant village just a short bus ride along the coast from Swansea. It has a Victorian pier, an eighteenth-century lighthouse and a lot of great cafés and galleries. You can also walk a lovely mile along the coast path from here to Langland and then walk back or catch a different bus back to Swansea. It’s all included on your PlusBus ticket!
- Getting to Mumbles and refreshments: From Swansea bus station bus 2B and bus 3A run all the way along the coast, with great views, and through Mumbles to stop near the lighthouse at the end of the peninsula. From here it’s a ten-minute walk down to the pier or a fabulous half hour stroll along the clifftop path (look out for seals!) to the beach at Langland. There are plenty of great places to eat nearby, including the fabulous Gower Seafood Hut on the promenade.
- And more: One of the best places for a sit-down meal is Langland’s Brasserie serving up views of the beach and green-topped rocky cliffs along with gourmet takes on seaside favourites (like herb-crusted cod with crispy cockles or vanilla ice with Amarena cherries). If you don’t want to walk back along the cliffs to Mumbles, head for the far end of the beach from the brasserie and turn inland along Rotherslade Road to find regular buses back to Swansea from Langland Corner. On the way, the buses pass the ruins of twelfth-century Oystermouth Castle, the Lovespoon Gallery, and lots more that is worth exploring.
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3. More of the Gower peninsula
Your PlusBus ticket is valid as far as the village of Southgate on the Gower peninsula, meaning you can explore some more of the beautiful coastal countryside close to Swansea. These rural services runs less frequently than the city buses so you might have to be a bit more careful about planning. A map or navigational phone app might be useful and this website about exploring the area without a car is a great help too. The views are really worth it!
- Getting to the Gower: Bus 14 runs a few times per day to the village of Southgate, a gateway to the Wales Coast Path. Get off at Pennard Cliffs Terminus bus stop to walk a mile or so along the coast path and back for spectacular scenery. A similar walk is outlined in more detail here by the National Trust. The way-marked clifftop coast path runs through gorse bushes and bracken above a series of idyllic coves like Pobbles Beach and Three Cliffs Bay, which takes its name from the three distinctive jagged limestone rocks at one side of the beach. At low tide, you can explore the sea cave under them with its rock pools and sea creatures as well as areas of salt marsh, carpeted in samphire and sea lavender. There are various ways down or, after about a mile from the bus stop, stepping stones lead the coast path over the Pennard Pill river onto the beach. There are also lovely walks beside this river, with views of ruined Pennard Castle on the clifftop.
- Refreshments: There are two cafés very near the Pennard Cliffs bus stop in Southgate – particularly handy if you need to wait for the bus. The Lookout Three Cliffs has breakfast until noon, pizzas until 6pm and lots more, while at the Three Cliffs Coffee Shop, almost next door, you can have homemade cake, Welsh rarebit or fishcakes with lemon dip.
- And more: Another great trip out of town with PlusBus is to Loughor Castle, overlooking the wide River Loughor and the viaduct across it. Bus 111 from Swansea bus station stops just next to the castle ruins, which are open and free to visit without booking. A short stroll from here beside the estuary (with water on your left) brings you to the Riverview cafe at the boating club.
