Wrexham

Tucked into the north-east corner of Wales, close enough to the English border that Chester is a half-hour drive away, Wrexham has spent centuries quietly getting on with being a solid market town — and then, in the space of a few years, found itself impossible to ignore. It became Wales's seventh city in September 2022, one of two places awarded city status as part of the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations, an honour that put it alongside Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, Bangor, St Davids and St Asaph. For a place of around 65,000 people, it was a significant moment, and it landed just as the town's football club was becoming an unlikely global phenomenon.

Wrexham sits on the edge of the Dee Valley, with the Welsh uplands rising to the west and the flatter Cheshire Plain stretching east into England. The town itself is compact and walkable, built around a historic street pattern that radiates from the parish church and the old general market, while just outside it the countryside turns quickly to farmland, wooded river gorges and the dramatic limestone edge of the Clwydian Range. It is this combination — a proper working town with a growing sense of civic pride, wrapped in genuinely spectacular Welsh borderland scenery — that makes Wrexham a more interesting short break than its reputation might suggest.

Top things to do in Wrexham

Wrexham's recent fame has brought fresh attention to attractions that were already well worth the detour, alongside a genuinely world-class engineering marvel on its doorstep.

• Wrexham AFC and the Racecourse Ground — since 2020 the club has been owned by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, whose documentary series turned a fifth-tier Welsh club into an international talking point. The Racecourse Ground is recognised as the oldest international football stadium in the world still in use, and matchday tours and tickets are in high demand.
• Pontcysyllte Aqueduct — a few miles south-west near Trevor, this 307-metre cast-iron and stone aqueduct carries the Llangollen Canal 38 metres above the River Dee. Designed by Thomas Telford and William Jessop and completed in 1805, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and can be crossed on foot, by boat, or even by canoe underneath.
• St Giles' Church — Wrexham's parish church is regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of Wales, thanks to its soaring 136-foot Tudor tower, carved with figures of saints. The churchyard holds the grave of Elihu Yale, the benefactor after whom Yale University is named.
• Erddig Hall — a National Trust country house just outside town, occupied by the Yorke family for almost 250 years. Erddig is known for its unusually rich collection of servants' rooms and outbuildings alongside the grand state rooms, plus one of the largest surviving walled gardens of its period.
• Wrexham Museum — housed in the old Georgian courthouse, telling the story of the town's coal, steel and brewing past through local collections.
• Llangollen and the Horseshoe Falls — a short drive along the Dee Valley brings you to the pretty canal town of Llangollen, with its steam railway, whitewater rafting course and the beauty spot where the Llangollen Canal draws its water from the river.

Getting to Wrexham

Wrexham is well connected for a town of its size. Wrexham General railway station has direct services to Chester, Shrewsbury, Cardiff and beyond, and the town sits just off the A483, linking easily to the M53 and M56 motorway network into Cheshire and North West England. Liverpool John Lennon and Manchester airports are both under an hour's drive away, and Chester itself is only around 12 miles to the north-east, making Wrexham an easy add-on to a wider North Wales or border-country trip.

Best time to visit Wrexham

Spring and early summer bring the Dee Valley and the canal towpaths to their best, with long daylight hours for walking or cycling out towards Llangollen. Wrexham AFC's football season runs from August to May, and matchdays at the Racecourse Ground now draw visitors from well beyond Wales, so book accommodation early if a game is part of the plan. Autumn suits the wooded gorges and National Trust grounds at Erddig, while winter is quieter and better suited to museum visits and cosy pub stops.

Where to stay in Wrexham

The town centre has a handful of well-placed hotels within walking distance of the football ground and shops, while the surrounding villages offer characterful country inns and farm-based bed and breakfasts. Self-catering cottages are plentiful in the Dee Valley towards Llangollen, ideal for those wanting to split time between the town and the wider countryside.

Food and drink in Wrexham

Wrexham has a strong brewing heritage, and Wrexham Lager — Britain's first lager, first brewed in the town in 1882 — has since been revived and is celebrated at its own visitor taproom. The town centre has a good spread of independent cafes and restaurants around Hope Street and the historic general market, which has traded since Victorian times and is a good spot for local produce. Out towards Llangollen, canalside pubs make the most of their waterway views.