Crickhowell

Crickhowell's accommodation runs from centuries-old coaching inns on the high street to country house hotels a short drive into the surrounding valley, giving visitors a genuine choice of pace. Stay in the town centre and you can walk to the castle ruin, the bridge over the Usk and every pub and shop on the high street within minutes, which suits anyone without a car or keen to make the most of an evening without driving anywhere. A short distance out, in villages such as Llanhamlach towards Brecon or across the river in Llangattock, the pace slows further, with gardens, grounds and valley views that put you closer to the hills than to the shops.

The choice also splits naturally by type of stay. The coaching inns on the high street, several of them trading for hundreds of years, combine bar and restaurant with a handful of characterful rooms above, ideal for a couple of nights built around walking and eating well without much fuss. A short drive into the surrounding countryside brings country house hotels with more space, gardens and a slower dinner, better suited to a longer break or a special occasion. Bed and breakfasts scattered around the town and villages such as Llangattock offer a more personal, often better-value alternative, usually run by owners who know the local walking routes and can point you towards the quieter paths away from the main Beacons crowds.

Whichever you choose, book ahead for summer weekends and the autumn food festival, when the town's limited stock of rooms fills quickly. Most properties are within a mile or two of the high street, so a car is useful for reaching the country house options but not essential if you are happy to stay central and walk everywhere.

Crickhowell rewards both a lazy afternoon on the high street and a full day out on the hills. These are the highlights worth building a visit around.

• Crickhowell Castle a Norman motte-and-bailey ruin just off the high street, free to explore and a good introduction to the town's medieval origins.
• Table Mountain and Crug Hywel hillfort a steep but short climb from town to a flat summit with an Iron Age fort and sweeping views over the Usk Valley.
• Crickhowell Bridge the eighteenth-century stone bridge over the Usk, notable for its mismatched arches and a good spot to watch canoeists and anglers.
• The Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal a level towpath a short walk from town, with narrowboat and self-drive electric boat hire from Beacon Park Day Boats at nearby Llangynidr.
• St Edmund's Church a thirteenth-century parish church with later additions, worth a look for its medieval effigies and quiet churchyard.
• The Georgian high street itself independent bookshops, delis, outdoor shops and galleries, plus the Crickhowell Resource and Information Centre for local advice and maps.
• Llangattock Escarpment across the river from town, a limestone scarp riddled with cave systems including Agen Allwedd, one of the longest cave networks in Britain.
• Table Mountain to Pen Cerrig-calch circular walk a longer route for confident walkers that links Crickhowell's hill with higher Black Mountains summits and drops back via Llangattock.

Crickhowell has built a reputation well beyond its size for food, helped by the surrounding farmland and a run of long-established, independently run pubs and inns along the high street. The Bear Hotel, a coaching inn that has been trading for five centuries, is the best-known name in town, serving a menu built on Welsh lamb, beef and local game alongside a well-stocked bar. The Dragon Inn on the high street offers a similar coaching-inn atmosphere with a large garden and traditional Welsh dishes, while the Nantyffin Cider Mill Inn, just outside town on the Brecon road, occupies a converted sixteenth-century drovers' inn and cider mill and has long been recognised as one of the more serious food destinations in this part of Wales. Local specialities worth seeking out include Welsh lamb and beef from farms in the Usk Valley, seasonal game from the surrounding hills in autumn and winter, and cheeses and charcuterie from small Monmouthshire producers that regularly appear on menus around the town. The high street itself has independent bakers, delicatessens and a well-regarded bookshop with a cafe, useful for provisions if you are self-catering or planning a picnic on Table Mountain, and Crickhowell's food festival, held over a weekend each autumn, brings together local producers, cookery demonstrations and pop-up stalls that showcase the valley's produce at its best.

Camping around Crickhowell means river meadows and valley-floor touring parks rather than wild upland pitches, with the Usk Valley providing sheltered, well-served sites within easy reach of the town and the Black Mountains beyond. Most sites here are small, family-run touring and camping parks rather than large holiday parks, reflecting the character of the area, and several sit directly on or near the River Usk, popular with anglers and canoeists as well as campers who simply want a quiet riverside pitch.

For those wanting to get properly into the hills, sites further up the Usk and Grwyne valleys, including basic camping fields attached to farms and, in one well-known case, a ruined priory in the Vale of Ewyas, put you within walking distance of the Black Mountains ridges rather than requiring a drive each morning. These tend to be simpler affairs, with fewer facilities than the touring parks nearer town, which suits campers looking for a straightforward, low-key base rather than a fully serviced holiday park experience.

Facilities across the area vary considerably, from touring parks with electric hook-ups, showers and small shops to the most basic camping fields with little more than a water tap and a compost toilet, so it is worth checking what each site actually offers before booking, particularly outside the main summer season when some facilities are reduced. Dogs are welcome at most sites given the area's popularity with walkers, though it is always worth confirming in advance, and pitches book up well ahead for the peak summer weeks and any weekend coinciding with a local festival.