Cardigan

Cardigan's accommodation options reflect its position as both a historic market town and a coastal gateway, with choices ranging from the atmospheric to the straightforwardly comfortable. The standout is Cardigan Castle itself, which offers self-catering apartments and cottages within its restored walls, putting guests inside 900 years of history a short walk from the town centre. In the town, a handful of traditional guesthouses and B&Bs occupy Georgian townhouses on the streets above the Teifi, generally offering a warmer, more personal welcome than a chain hotel.

For sea views, the coastal fringe around Gwbert, just north of town at the mouth of the Teifi estuary, has a hotel looking directly out over the water towards Cardigan Island, along with a scattering of self-catering cottages. Further along the coast towards Poppit Sands and Mwnt, holiday cottages and converted farm buildings make the most of the clifftop and estuary scenery, and tend to suit those prioritising a beach or coast-path holiday over a town-centre base. Cardigan also works well as a springboard for exploring further afield, with New Quay and its dolphin-watching boats around 40 minutes north and the Pembrokeshire coastline and Preseli Hills within easy driving distance to the south, so where to base a stay often comes down to whether the priority is the town itself, the river, or the open coast.

Cardigan's attractions are mostly a short walk or drive from the town centre, and cover history, wildlife and the coast in equal measure.

• Cardigan Castle — This Norman castle above the Teifi underwent a major restoration and today combines gardens, a restaurant, holiday accommodation and an exhibition on the castle's 900-year history, including its claim to be the birthplace of the Eisteddfod in 1176.
• Welsh Wildlife Centre and Teifi Marshes — A nature reserve just outside town where reedbeds, meadows and woodland sit alongside the river. Otters, kingfishers and wading birds are regularly spotted from the hides and boardwalks, and there's an adventure playground and cafe for families.
• Poppit Sands — A Blue Flag beach around four miles from Cardigan where the Teifi estuary opens into the sea. Backed by dunes and marking the start of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, it's a good spot for a walk, a swim or simply watching the tide.
• Cardigan Bay dolphin watching — Cardigan Bay holds the UK's largest resident population of bottlenose dolphins. Boat trips run from nearby New Quay, around half an hour's drive north, giving a strong chance of sightings between spring and autumn.
• Cardigan Heritage Centre — Housed in a former Custom House warehouse on the quay, this small museum tells the story of the town's shipbuilding and trading past, when Cardigan was one of Wales's busiest ports.
• Mwnt beach and chapel — A short drive along the coast, this National Trust cove is overlooked by a tiny 14th-century whitewashed chapel and a grassy headland that's another reliable dolphin-watching spot.
• River Teifi walks — Riverside paths run both upstream and down from the town bridge, taking in the old warehouses, the castle grounds and the wetlands towards the estuary.

Cardigan's compact centre has a good spread of independent places to eat. Pizzatipi, a converted tipi beside the river, has built a strong reputation for wood-fired pizza in an unusual riverside setting. Crwst on Pendre is known for its bakery, cakes and brunch menu, while The Black Lion on the High Street serves as a traditional town-centre pub. For a special-occasion meal, Fforest's restaurant at nearby Cilgerran draws on local, seasonal ingredients. The Saturday market and the town's delis and butchers also make Cardigan a good place to stock up on Welsh produce, from Teifi cheese to fresh fish landed along the coast.

The countryside around Cardigan — rolling farmland dropping to a dramatic, indented coastline — is well suited to camping, but Wales treats wild camping as trespass without the landowner's permission, so pitching up on the coast path, a beach or open farmland without asking first is not allowed (the exception is the small area of the Brecon Beacons/Bannau Brycheiniog where a longstanding informal tolerance exists, which does not extend to Ceredigion). Fortunately there's no need to push the rules: the area between Cardigan and the coast at Poppit Sands, Mwnt and Gwbert has a good number of licensed campsites, many of them on working farms with sea or estuary views, and pitching arrangements range from simple grass fields with basic facilities to fuller touring parks with electric hook-ups, showers and laundry.

The terrain is a mix of gentle estuary flats around the Teifi and higher, more exposed clifftop ground towards the coast path, so it's worth checking a site's shelter before booking if high winds off the Irish Sea are a concern, particularly in spring and autumn. Given the proximity to Poppit Sands and the Pembrokeshire Coast Path's northern end, campsites here are popular with walkers as well as families based for a beach holiday, and several sites are within walking distance of the sand.

Camping season runs broadly from Easter to the end of September, with July and August the busiest months and booking well ahead essential for anything close to the beaches. Outside summer, many sites close entirely or reduce to a handful of pitches, since the exposed coastal location makes off-season camping a harder sell than further inland. For anyone who wants the setting without the tent, glamping has taken hold strongly around Cardigan: shepherd's huts, safari tents and converted farm buildings are increasingly common alternatives, offering proper beds and often a wood-burner, while keeping the same sea views and quiet lanes that draw campers to this stretch of the Ceredigion and north Pembrokeshire coast in the first place.