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Travel Guides: All Countries / Europe / United Kingdom / Wales
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| | | | Where the dolphins come out to play
From the Mail on Sunday
Standing on a high grassy promontory, I gazed over a stretch of flat, empty sea. Seagulls mewed, a few lambs bleated and somewhere along the cliff a peregrine falcon screeched. Now and again a wave smashed on the rocks far below. But out to sea all was quiet. Was I in the right place?
Anticipating a search of needle in haystack proportions, I began to scour the slate-grey waters. But let's end the suspense...
This is what I actually wrote in my notebook. 'Arrived 10.05. 10.10 saw my first dolphin!!!'
A few hundred yards offshore, this most elegant and intelligent of marine life forms broke the surface in a perfectly circular motion, as if fixed to a revolving hub 20ft below the surface.
I had a tantalising glimpse of head and fin and tail before it curved back in. But for the next half hour a supreme marine athlete, on a stage the size of a small town, gave a command performance to this audience of one.
Well not quite. Some loitering juvenile gulls with nothing better to do put down on the water and scattered with much alarm when the sea erupted under them.
Can you guess where I was? Monterey in California? Australia? Maybe near the Cape in South Africa? Give up?
I was actually at Ynys Lochdyn, a few miles south of New Quay in West Wales. You've heard of sport for all. This is wildlife for all. One of the world's top water stars, and you don't need to fly or even drive to it.
When the list of top 10 hidden gems of tourism is compiled, I shall, without hesitation, nominate the dolphins of New Quay.
The Wales Tourist Board should look urgently at replacing the rugby post as unofficial national emblem with this stupendous creature. Dolphins are something England doesn't do. There are only two places on the entire UK coastline where you can see them from the land - the other is the Moray Firth in Scotland.
But it seems that, for a long time, people were all so busy trying to decide if New Quay was Dylan Thomas's town with the naughty reverse spelling, Llareggub in Under Milk Wood, that they missed the reality out at sea.
In the dark days of captive dolphins, people would queue and pay to see them in zoos. We gave that up and switched to watching the creatures in Attenborough marine series on TV.
Travel Guide: Wales
Where the dolphins come out to play
From the Mail on Sunday
Standing on a high grassy promontory, I gazed over a stretch of flat, empty sea.
Seagulls mewed, a few lambs bleated and somewhere along the cliff a peregrine falcon screeched. Now and again a wave smashed on the rocks far below. But out to sea all was quiet. Was I in the right place?
Anticipating a search of needle in haystack proportions, I began to scour the slate-grey waters. But let's end the suspense...
This is what I actually wrote in my notebook. 'Arrived 10.05. 10.10 saw my first dolphin!!!'
A few hundred yards offshore, this most elegant and intelligent of marine life forms broke the surface in a perfectly circular motion, as if fixed to a revolving hub 20ft below the surface.
I had a tantalising glimpse of head and fin and tail before it curved back in. But for the next half hour a supreme marine athlete, on a stage the size of a small town, gave a command performance to this audience of one.
Well not quite. Some loitering juvenile gulls with nothing better to do put down on the water and scattered with much alarm when the sea erupted under them.
Can you guess where I was? Monterey in California? Australia? Maybe near the Cape in South Africa? Give up?
I was actually at Ynys Lochdyn, a few miles south of New Quay in West Wales. You've heard of sport for all. This is wildlife for all. One of the world's top water stars, and you don't need to fly or even drive to it.
When the list of top 10 hidden gems of tourism is compiled, I shall, without hesitation, nominate the dolphins of New Quay.
The Wales Tourist Board should look urgently at replacing the rugby post as unofficial national emblem with this stupendous creature. Dolphins are something England doesn't do. There are only two places on the entire UK coastline where you can see them from the land - the other is the Moray Firth in Scotland.
But it seems that, for a long time, people were all so busy trying to decide if New Quay was Dylan Thomas's town with the naughty reverse spelling, Llareggub in Under Milk Wood, that they missed the reality out at sea.
Travel Guide: Wales
Welcome to Prestatyn
From the Mail on Sunday
Where would you expect to find the A-list stars of the raunchy US TV series Sex And The City taking their summer break?
Parrot Cay in the Turks and Caicos Islands, Sandy Lane in Barbados or perhaps Manele Bay in the Hawaiian islands?
Not Kim Cattrall, who plays sex-mad single girl Samantha in the show.
This September she is said to be planning a short break at Pontin's Prestatyn Sands holiday camp with her mum.
Liverpool-born Kim, 44, has apparently chosen Prestatyn ('the family fun centre of North Wales') because her mother Shane, now 76, worked there 40 years ago as a chalet maid.
Kim has described the journey as 'a trip down memory lane'.
But, as anyone who has travelled down memory lane knows, it's a route often beset with unpleasant surprises.
Like other UK seaside resorts, Prestatyn has faced a tough struggle for survival since the rise of the package holiday in the Sixties.
It now has so few attractions that the Nant Mill Farm Duck Pond squeezes in at Number 13 in the town's Top 13 attractions (at number one are the 'larger stores' and 'quality restaurants' on Prestatyn High Street).
Kim, who recently co-wrote a sex manual entitled Hot Sex, Guide To Getting It On, The Art Of The Female Orgasm, may find life at the Prestatyn camp - sorry, 'holiday centre' - a little tame.
Activities include crazy golf, table tennis and snooker.
But the nightlife is slightly more promising.
Travel Guide: Wales
The lyrical lure of the Bard's land
From the Daily Mail
Tourists do not disturb the peace of Llareggub, that wacky community which provides the setting for Dylan Thomas's most famous fictional creation - Under Milk Wood.
Yes, despite its Welsh-looking name, the town is meant to be read backwards, giving it a connotation that explains why, even today, Thomas is not always supremely popular in his native Wales.
But things are changing. The chapel-bound, curtain-twitching mentality that Thomas could not help satirising in the Fifties has given way to greater self-assurance.
Attribute it if you like to having a national assembly, or to the prominence of celebrities such as Catherine Zeta Jones.
Now all aspects of Welsh culture are fair game, as anyone who saw the ebulliently nihilistic film Twin Town can confirm.
Why, there are even stirrings of rivalry for the honour of being the original Llareggub between Laugharne, in Carmarthenshire to the west of Swansea, where Thomas lived his last years, and the west coast town of New Quay in Ceredigion (formerly Cardiganshire) where he spent time in World War Two.
Expect this competitiveness to become fiercer as the 50th anniversary of his death in New York in November 1953 draws nearer.
More reason, then, to schedule a visit to Wales now rather than later. Following the trail of Dylan Thomas offers an excellent introduction to the varied delights of the Principality, and early summer is a very good time to be there.
The weather is still variable enough to experience that special quality in the Welsh light - the way clouds chase each other across the sky, creating shafts of luminosity that briefly and dramatically bathe the countryside.
Travel Guide: Wales
The best holiday cottage in the world
This is the most beautifully located holiday cottage anywhere in the world. Ever.
'I'm worried that when people see it for the first time as they turn the corner they'll go 'Wow' and just drive off the road down a cliff.
'We should have a warning notice up there,' says Jill Farrow, local manager of The National Trust's holiday cottages.
It's only when you stand at the top of Worms Head in West Glamorgan and gaze over the massive sweep of Rhosili Beach that you realise just how spectacular is the view.
And, when you catch sight of the Old Rectory, a whitewashed building clinging to the lower slope of the hill that rears up behind the beach, there is indeed just one word: 'Wow.'
It is the only building to be seen along this stretch of coastline - and, if you had been smart, it could have been your holiday home for a week.
You will have to have been very smart because the Old Rectory is the single most popular property on The National Trust's books, reserved for almost the next two years.
The queue to book a week there has grown even longer than normal because last year the property was closed for a number of months due to the foot-and-mouth crisis and a serious fire.
The blaze, set off by an electrical fault, went undetected because it occurred while the house was quarantined and empty last March and caused extensive damage. It was only after the foot-and-mouth crisis ended that work on repairing the cottage could get under way.
Travel Guide: Wales
Hot foot into the realm of Glyndwr
From the Mail on Sunday
One fine morning I set off to chase the last Welsh ruler round his realm. Owain Glyndwr hasn't been seen in these parts for 600 years, but his mark is still on the landscape - in old castles he roughed up during his 14-year defiance of Henry IV.
As a marching man, Glyndwr would have been proud to know he now has a whole footpath - more precisely a national trail - named after him. This royal route, subtitled 'fit for a prince', opened this spring, linking places significant to his story.
A lot of other royalty has passed through Welsh history books since then, but I suspect that this famous warrior, characterised as Owen Glendower in Shakespeare's Henry IV Part One, still commands allegiance in some of the old farms along the path's course.
You need a brave heart and stout boots to attempt Glyndwr's Way, along which stiles carry the path's motif, a roaring red dragon.
This 132-mile epic begins in Knighton, a sort of Clapham Junction of walks - Offa's Dyke Path passes north to south through this border town.
The official start of Glyndwr's Way is an elegant sliver of slate near the Clock Tower. It then travels left past the Golden Lion and up alongside the Wylcwm Brook.
In mid-Wales towns quickly peter out and the countryside kicks in. True to form, the path led up a slope, past Scots pine and a glowing outbreak of gorse.
A sign declared the local spectator sport: Sheepdogs - here - Saturday. This path comes with an introductory leg-stretching offer.
Try the first six miles and if not entirely satisfied, or if defeated by some tricky inclines and testing turns, give up at Llangunllo and take the train back, to Shrewsbury or Swansea, on the Heart of Wales Line. Glyndwr may sneer, but no one else need know.
I ambled on, untempted by the train, and was narrowly missed by a farmer bouncing urgently past on a quad bike.
Travel Guide: Wales
A caravan makeover in Pembrokeshire
From the Mail on Sunday
Did the French artist Renoir take secret holidays in Tenby? You would think so, looking at his The Beach At Pornic, hanging above the solid wood fireplace in the sitting room of my Gold Olympic Holiday Home. How suspiciously like the curve of sand and the rocky headland of Lydstep Haven I could see out of the picture window.
The early morning sun picked out a stripe of golden gorse above a sheer cliff. Fulmars wheeled around the Stargate rock, where daft, brave climbers cling by their fingertips - except right now, because the birds are nesting.
It lacked only Renoir's trademark fuzzy trees and sunbathing ladies in crinolines to complete the match.
I last stepped inside a caravan an age ago, when I was about eight. So I did not anticipate doing things such as admiring Impressionist art while I waited for my microwave to ping and debating which of the two showers I would use after my swim.
Caravans, or mobile homes, are half way to changing their image. Many are now like three-star hotels on wheels without room service. But it is when you see them from the outside, and in the plural, that they wouldn't make an oil painting.
Conservationist David Bellamy raged against the tedious ranks of mobile homes in clashing colours marring our most beautiful coastline. Then, 'ping!', he changed his mind, and I'm here at Lydstep, just up the coast from Tenby in the Pembrokeshire National Park, to find out why.
Prof Bellamy visited a sister site at Haggerston Castle in Northumberland and was surprised to find it, in addition to caravans, full of wildlife and good intent.
It became his model. Why not encourage other sites to become mini conservation centres, where they could plant trees and erect nesting boxes? Children and their parents could learn about ecology on their holidays and practise conservation when they went home.
Prof Bellamy launched his own award scheme for caravan sites, working as a consultant with British Holidays. Lydstep is a gold medal winner. The shape of caravan sites to come? The busy eco-prophet certainly thinks so.
Travel Guide: Wales
The great lobster hunt
"You want to buy seafood? " said the surprised shopkeeper. "I don't think there is anywhere around here. You could try the stall in the market, if it wasn't closed."
As we were in the most picturesque fishing village in Wales, my question was not unreasonable. Carmarthen Bay produces one of the richest harvests of seafood in Europe, yet almost all of it finds its way onto the better-priced dinner tables of Paris and Mediterranean holiday resorts.
But it seems to matter little to the people of the delightful walled town of Tenby. These days they have the bigger fish of tourism to fry.
Over the past 1,000 years Tenby has taken its fate calmly in its stride. It survived Norman occupation, French invasion and Civil War bombardment. Once a seaport second only in size and importance to Bristol, it was reduced to wasteland by the Great Plague in the 17th century.
Seventy years ago, Augustus John, who was born here in what is now the Belgrave Hotel, wrote of Tenby: "You may travel the world over, but you find nothing more beautiful. It is so restful, so colourful, and so unspoilt. "
Many of the clusters of pastel-painted Regency terraces and Victorian villas that tumble down to the harbour have since become hotels or guesthouses. But otherwise, the artist would be pleased that Tenby has survived intact.
(Picture courtesy of Wales Tourist Board)
Travel Guide: Wales
At home with Dylan Thomas
From the Mail on Sunday
Craning my neck, I could see the window of one of the most famous back bedrooms in literature.
From here, at Number 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea, a 20th Century superstar looked down over the town to the 'two-tongued .. . carol-singing sea' and fuelled his fantasies.
This is one of those ordinary places that sets your pulse racing. In this room, in A Child's Christmas In Wales, Dylan Thomas turns the gas down, gets into bed, says some words to the 'close and holy darkness' and sleeps.
It was in these same back gardens that he threw snowballs at Mrs Prothero's cats.
Number 5, where Dylan was born and lived for his first 20 years, is a shrine on a steep hill. It was in the posh part of Swansea in his day.
I had struggled up and read the blue plaque to confirm this was where the uncles examined their cigars as if they were unexploded bombs and Auntie Hannah attacked the parsnip wine.
Over the road is Cwmdonkin Park, a vacant stage for the imagination where the rascal with tousled hair and angelic looks played, grew up, drank from a tin cup at the fountain (still there, but minus cup) and was thwacked on the leg by the park keeper.
Today the sound of children playing in this bountiful park resounds around the world in such works as Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Dog.
Dylan wrote half of his poems - And Death Shall Have No Dominion is the best known - and many short stories when he lived at Number 5.
By the time he left home in 1934 he was one of the most exciting young poets writing in the English language.
Growing fame dragged him to London; gravity tugged me downhill only as far as the beach, part of that curve of coast that poet Walter Savage Landor declared was better than the Gulf of Salerno and Naples 'for scenery and climate'.
Travel Guide: Wales
Sausages, songs and souffles
From the Daily Mail
On top of the world on Snowdon's summit, I took a great gulp of fresh air and - surprise! - it smelt of sausages. Sausages?
Yes, there at the highest point in England and Wales, a group of young hikers were frying sausages, boiling beans and chasing away two sheep that kept nosing towards their camping stove.
Sausages apart, talk about exhilarating. The views at 3,560 feet are fabulous and your head spins a bit when you peer down through the clouds swirling below.
Actually, I did Snowdon the easy way, taking the Mountain Railway from Llanberis, an hour-long, five-mile, very steep journey that chuffs past waterfalls, screes, rocky ravines and hikers who wave as they slog up the slopes.
The only hazard nowadays is sheep wandering on to the line but on the day this amazing little railway, first opened in 1896, the engine ran into thick fog, came off the track and plunged over the cliff edge at Clogwyn.
These days the driver taps on the window then points to photo opportunities and the odd buzzard soaring high above the peaks. A notice reminds you not to miss the return journey, as the company cannot guarantee transport down, and it's a very long walk.
Three and a half hours, in fact - although at the summit I met dozens of people who had walked up along with a miniature Yorkshire Terrier no bigger than a hamster, which looked upon us rail passengers as wimps.
As someone who suffers from vertigo and claustrophobia, it was a case of 'out of the frying-pan and into the fire' when, having descended from Snowdon, I drove to the nearby Electric Mountain for an underground tour.
Wearing a hard hat, I was mini-bussed along tunnels for a guided tour of Dinorwic Power Station, hidden deep inside a mountain.
The vast main hall is two football pitches long, and big enough to contain St Paul's Cathedral. More than three million tons of rock were excavated to create this non-polluting wonder, which uses water to provide electric power. With its 10 miles of tunnelling, giant turbines, pumps and pipework, it resembles a scene from a James Bond movie.
From high to low in one day - and then on to the coast. In North Wales, you are spoilt for stunning scenery and attractive places. Conwy, for example, with its fairy-tale 13th-century castle on the curve of the harbour, is like a set from Disney World.
Travel Guide: Wales
Peaks of perfection
Views. Snowdonia has them in such spectacular abundance that you quickly run out of superlatives to describe them.
At the top of every peak a glorious vista unfolds. Each bend in the road unfurls to reveal a new perspective of gasp-inducing splendour.
Adults - myself among them - are, predominantly, mightily impressed with views. They will sit on a sunny terrace, sipping a cooling drink and marvelling at the loveliness of the outlook.
Children - my nine-year-old, Amy, among them - need other diversions to supplement the glory of the landscape.
They have no objection, per se, to a prospect of lakeside or mountain if there is, for example, a ride on a steam train to jolly it up a bit.
When the train driver permits them to go inside his cab, sound the train whistle and get their faces covered in soot smuts, they are willing to be very impressed indeed by the view.
Hefin Owen, engine driver on the Llanberis Lake Railway, is a treasure of inestimable value to the North Wales tourist industry.
He tells us the history of his 97-year-old engine, Thomas Bach, which was named after a diminutive slate quarry worker, Jack Thomas, who died last year, coincidentally also aged 97.
We slow to a halt at Cei Llydan station. Amy pulls the whistle self-importantly. Hefin's fiancee jumps aboard. We wave like old friends.
Hefin tells us how his little engine used to lug slates from the old Dinorwig Quarries to the shores of the Menai Straits. Now it takes tourists on scenic trips round Lake Padarn.
Travel Guide: Wales
Puffins to the rescue in Wales
From the Daily Mail
The noise came from underground - a hybrid of honk and grunt, prolonged, comical and loud enough to be heard above the din of wheeling seabirds that rose from the cliff face in front of us. At our feet, like strutting businessmen, were the puffins.
They quickly approached, popping up from burrows and running in their bossy gait to within a yard or two before turning back to guard their homes. 'That sound you can hear is their chicks in the burrows,' said a warden. 'They're protective little birds.'
Skomer Island, just 20 minutes by boat off the coast of Pembrokeshire in south-west Wales, is home to the largest colony of puffins in southern Britain. And we were certainly pleased to see them.
After early enthusiasm, our two young children had soon tired of Skomer, a desolate, treeless island and nature reserve uninhabited except for a permanent warden and his temporary volunteers.
They'd had enough of the giant turtle washed up on shore and now on exhibition in one of the barns; rabbits were two-a-penny; and the guillemots, gannets, razorbills and other spectacular seabirds were just boring.
So here we were, the return boat from the island two hours away, with both children, Tom, three, and two-year-old Chloe, refusing to walk.
My wife and I had been carrying them and the picnic paraphernalia and rucksacks over rocky, and occasionally precipitous, cliff paths for what seemed like miles.
The puffins saved us. They were fearless, approached within a toddlers' reach and their strangulated foghorn calls were greeted with screams of delight. Not only were the children walking now, but they were imitating these orange-billed clowns.
The entertainment lasted long enough to restore all of us to good humour. Afterwards, the children even mustered the energy to put a skip in their steps on the return walk to the boat.
Skomer was an ambitious day outing with small children because a boat abandons you in the morning to walk miles around the island and only returns to collect you at teatime. But we had been staying in a house on a cliff looking out at this world-renowned seabird sanctuary, and decided to chance it.
From the bottom of our garden, a short walk along the vertiginous coastal path the previous day had taken us to a secluded bay where we had whiled away hours splashing in surf and rummaging in rock pools with shrimping nets.
In the other direction was the windswept surfing beach of Newgale, spectacular for the sheer expanse of golden sand and its Baywatch bodies, but marred by a rash of caravan sites in the fields behind.
We preferred yet another beach, Druidston Haven, reached from the coast road via a path perhaps a quarter of a mile long.
At its top, overlooking the crescent of sand, is a strange house similar to the Teletubbies', with walls of glass, a roof of grass and built into the cliff. It is the holiday home of Labour MP Bob Marshall-Andrews.
Travel Guide: Wales
How to give the dog a break
From the Daily Mail
Man's best friend can be the worst enemy of anyone who wants to go on holiday in Britain. Although famed as a nation of dog lovers, the truth is that most hotel owners ban anything with four legs.
Our dog Lucky has become a regular pre-holiday worry. Apart from feeling the pinch in the wallet (a week away usually costs us around £70 in kennel fees), the holiday starts with terrible feelings of guilt at abandoning Lucky to strangers.
But then we heard about Pembrokeshire. The westernmost corner of South Wales has seized a huge potential market with its comprehensive list of dog-friendly attractions and accommodation.
For our two-centre holiday, we booked a rural self-catering cottage for exploring the Preseli Hills, and a three-star hotel on the coast at St Davids.
At Ivy Court in Llys-y-Fran, a collection of handsome stone cottages in the foothills of the heather-dappled Preselis, there was instant access to the garden for Lucky and, beyond the gate, a gorgeous churchyard and forested walks.
For the rest of us, there was a tennis court, a pool, badminton, croquet and a games room. Bike hire and fishing were also available in the adjacent Llysyfran Country Park.
Over the next few days, we explored walks in 'Bluestone Country' (the new marketing name for the Preselis, capitalising on them being the source of the building blocks of Stonehenge).
Each was carefully arranged around lunch stops. The most memorable was in Rosebush, where we drank in the Tafarn Sinc - the Zinc Pub - with sawdust on the floor.
Once watered, we popped down a couple of doors to the Old Post Office with its shoebox-sized restaurant and even smaller adjoining bar and grocer's shop.
Unfortunately, because of health and safety regulations, Lucky was left tethered outside with her own refreshments - perhaps Pembrokeshire isn't so dog-friendly after all.
But it is early days, and the county does have one other huge advantage over others: more award-winning beaches and coastal footpaths than anywhere else.
Travel Guide: Wales
High heels and mountain life
If you want the body of Lara Croft, an action holiday in North Wales isn't a bad place to start.
Sound unlikely? Well, Angelina Jolie's recently finished filming scenes, for the upcoming Tomb Raider film, in and around Snowdonia and she looks good on it.
But don't worry if all that sweaty kick-boxing sounds too much, there's plenty of relaxed Hollywood glamour in the hills, if you know where to look.
Wales is heaven for outdoor types, with climbing, abseiling and canoeing just some of the activities on offer.
While it looks small on a map, it's not called the big country for nothing. "If you ironed Wales out, it would be the same size as Texas," says a tourist board representative.
Don't be daunted, beginners can get training and guidance from the Plas y Brenin centre at Capel Curig, Conwy.
The crags of Cwm Silyn and Cwm Idwal may turn out easier to conquer than pronounce with a little help from the instructors at Plas y Brenin. (www.pyb.co.uk)
If you're happier at sea level, a weekend introductory kayaking course starts at £135, and you need nothing except a willingness to get wet.
The best way to soak up the beauty of Snowdonia is to ride over it - either on two wheels or four legs. Local bike company Tyred-Out (www.tyred-out.com)offers bike hire and guides and uses a different part of the valley to horse-riders, so you can free-wheel without fear of being trampled.
Travel Guide: Wales
Britain's deserted islands
From the Mail on Sunday
As I lay sunbathing on the clifftop, listening to the waves lapping against rocks, I had the lovely island to myself, apart from the seabirds whirling above and rabbits scampering below.
Yet if I turned my head to one side I could see the packed beaches of Barry Island and Penarth in South Wales. And if I rolled over to look the other way I could spot the holiday hordes of the North Somerset and Devon resorts.
I'd found a lonely getaway-from-it-all island, only five miles from a capital city. Flatholm and its neighbour Steepholm sit in the Bristol Channel between Cardiff and Weston-super-Mare.
The islands are only three miles apart, but the Flatholm boat leaves from Barry in South Wales, while the Steepholm boat goes from Weston-super-Mare, 60 miles away by road. That's because the main shipping channel runs between the two islands.
One of the best parts of visiting either island is the boat journey. I imagined I was taking part in a major expedition as vital supplies were loaded aboard and we were given careful safety instructions.
It takes an hour to cross from Weston to Steepholm, 40 minutes from Barry to Flatholm. The Channel that looks so calm from the shore gets choppy a couple of miles out. The tidal flow is one of the world's most extreme, rising and falling by 47ft.
Some boat trips get all the way there only to find it is too rough to land. Visitors have often been stranded. In 1985, 12 were marooned on Steepholm for four days. They were rescued after a CB radio fan heard their SOS.
Travel Guide: Wales
Hideaways to set hearts fluttering
Love will, of course, find a way - Romeo and Juliet on a balcony, Heathcliffe and Cathy on the moors, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet on the Titanic.
But why make things difficult? Why not a meeting place that's breathing romance before either of you has taken your topcoat off?
There are such places in Britain, here is a small selection.
AT THE SIGN OF THE ANGEL
Lacock, Wiltshire. Tel: 01249 730230, www.lacock.co.uk
The fireplaces in the three cosy dining rooms are magnificent; burning brightly, stacked either side with logs and big enough to roast an ox in.
The atmosphere in this 15th-century wool merchant's house is so powerful that tables set with crystal and silver look wrong - pewter tankards and platters seem more appropriate.
Narrow stairs, low doors concealed in age-dark panelling, squeaky floors, bulging walls, bedrooms with latched doors - keys are far too modern - and a resident ghost make for a break that is out of time.
Fortunately the bedrooms - six in the house, four in the garden cottage - are en suite and the food, high-quality English traditional, is well up to the standard of the silver, crystal and candelabra.
Scenes from costume dramas such as Pride and Prejudice and Emma were filmed in near-perfect Lacock.
This year it's Harry Potter in the Abbey cloisters rather than Colin Firth in the High Street.
Travel Guide: Wales
Dolphins delight off the Welsh coast
From the Mail on Sunday
As I drew back the bedroom curtains, sunlight flooded in. I looked out across the harbour and there they were, leaping and dancing in the waves - the dolphins of Cardigan Bay.
This was the living proof that you don't have to be on the distant shores of, say, South Africa or Florida to catch a glimpse of everyone's favourite sea mammal. Bottle-nosed dolphins are alive and well and living in Britain. There is a small group of them off Cornwall (and, if it is to be believed, a great white shark!) and two large established colonies - one in the Moray Firth in Scotland, and the other here in Wales.
It was dark when I arrived at the Black Lion Hotel in the little town of New Quay (Ceinewydd in Welsh), and during the four-and-a-half-hour drive from London, I kept thinking: This is a long way to travel on the off-chance of spotting dolphins.
In the bar, my fears were confirmed. 'I've been here five times and never seen one,' said a young woman from Southampton.
But with the dawn, our doubts vanished - maybe a dozen dolphins popped into New Quay harbour for a fish breakfast. I watched from my window for several minutes, dressed quickly and hurried down to the harbour. They were still there, much to the delight of the visitors who had gathered, and stayed for an hour or more.
'This is the best time to see them,' I was told by one of the local team of amateur dolphin spotters who keep a regular track of the colony - even posting up sightings on their own website. They reckon more than 130 dolphins live in the bay, designated Britain's first Marine Heritage coast in 1993.
Travel Guide: Wales
Great days out
From the Mail on Sunday
You could convince any child that science can be thrilling by taking them on a visit to one of the lively and informative special attractions around Britain during the school holidays.
ExploreatBristol, Harbourside, Bristol (tel: 0117 915 5000, www.at-bristol.org.uk) This is 21st Century technology at its stimulating best. Test your reactions, activate brain cells to move a skeleton, or walk into the eye of a tornado. Old technology - pumping pistons, operating lock gates, building bridges - is equally popular. Explanations of complicated processes - for example, what keeps planes flying - are masterly. Open daily 10am-6pm.
Woolsthorpe Manor, Colsterworth, Lincolnshire (01476 860338) Isaac Newton discovered gravity when he was hit on the head by a falling apple in his garden. At his delightful birthplace visitors can try his discoveries - test the law of gravity, pass a beam of white light through a prism to break it into a rainbow, and use calculus to work out the speed of a bungee jumper's fall. Open daily (not Mon or Tues except Bank Holiday Mon) 1pm-5.30pm.
Satrosphere - Science and Technology Expo, The Tramsheds, Constitution Street, Aberdeen (01224 640340, www.satrosphere.net) Heat, light, sound and energy are the themes here. Become a human battery, or watch a transparent sheep light up when it is fed and digests its food. But don't try the spin chair just after lunch. Planets hang from the black ceiling of this former tram depot. Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 11.30am-5pm.
National Space Centre, Exploration Drive, Leicester (0870 607 7223, www.spacecentre.co.uk) A 136ft rocket launcher towers over this exhibition dedicated to space. Ethereal music envelops you as you launch a rocket and find out what it takes to be an astronaut. You might even discover how the universe will end. The Russian Soyuz T space capsule, moon rock and our own Blue Streak technology. Open 9.30am (Mon noon) - 4.30pm.
Magna Science Adventure Centre, Sheffield Road, Rotherham, South Yorkshire (01709 720002, www.magnatrust.org.uk) The former Templeborough Steel Works now contains two multimedia shows, pavilions dedicated to earth, air, fire and water and is packed with interactive games. Dodge water cannon, drive a JCB, blow up a virtual rock face, experience the power of lightning, get close to a tornado and feel what it is like to fly. Open 10am-5pm.
Electric Mountain, Llanberis, Gwynedd (01286 870 636, www.fhc.co.uk) Dinorwig power station - inside a man-made cavern on Llanberis mountain - is reminiscent of a James Bond film. When they start the turbines - electricity is generated by pumping water between two reservoirs - feel the vibration through your feet. A film show and interactive displays set the scene before a tour. Open daily 9.30am-5.30pm.
Explosion, Priddy's Hard, Gosport, Hampshire (023 9250 5600, www.explosion.org.uk) Seeing how many shells they can load in 60 seconds is popular with competitively-minded fathers and sons in this interactive museum in Priddy's Hard, a store for gunpowder since l777. It tells the story of naval fire power from the time of Nelson to the atom bomb and the Exocet. Visitors can walk on a mine-strewn seabed or stand on a heaving deck to fire a naval gun. Open daily 10am-5.30pm.
Travel Guide: Wales
Take some walks on the wild side
From the Mail on Sunday
Walking is the new jogging — health experts reckon it's the best way to get fit and lose weight.
It's also the best way to see some of the finest places in Britain. With a stout pair of boots (break them in beforehand), an Ordnance Survey map, a compass and a packed lunch, the most glorious hidden corners of the UK are at your disposal.
If you're keen to take a trial dip into the wonderful world of walking, here are a few of my favourites that you should consider. Good hiking...
BRECON BEACONS, WALES
'Do you want the hard way - or the harder way?' asked the tourist board man. 'Unless you prefer the easy way. That's by helicopter.' So we walked up Pen y Fan (2,907ft above sea level) the highest place in southern Britain.
Pen y Fan is a great sloping shoulder of a mountain, topped with a ridge as sharp as a knife. No need for a map on a fine day - stop climbing only when you can't see anything higher up ahead.
An excellent path to the top switches gears - the final stretch is in steepest mode. It must make even the SAS, who train here, pause for breath. Reaching the top gives you the right to stroll about looking smug.
We gazed over half a country, a patchwork quilt of fields, and into a blur of hills lost in blue mist. Then back to our hotel in Brecon, an easy-paced market town of Georgian and Jacobean streets and passageways with interesting shop-fronts and a splendid traditional ice cream parlour.
Next day we sampled the easiest route, a wonderful seven-mile flat walk, of zooming kingfishers and gently phutphutting narrow boats. In the distance, those famous peaks.
Tourist information: Cattle Market Car Park, Brecon LD3 9DA (Tel: 01874 62248)
Travel Guide: Scotland
A warm welcome on the Welsh farm
Coming face to face with your dinner is a slightly disconcerting prospect for those of us who think chickens grow on supermarket shelves.
The thought is compounded on our drive to a small organic farm in North Wales, passing fields full of newborn lambs taking their first faltering steps.
But your mind will be opened on a trip to Hafod Elwy Hall - a farm that offers fantastic food produced with love.
David and Andrea Lee produce enough food for themselves and their guests on a 60-acre organic farm in Denbighshire. They have a paternal but unsentimental approach to their livestock.
"That's Sir Francis," says David, as a stately drake waddles on to the lawn. "He's a great chap. He's getting on a bit now but he'll still watch over those three females. They'll produce eggs and offspring but they are all for the table."
As well as the ducks, the Lees keep sheeps, cows, pigs, dogs, cats and various poultry on their small-holding.
"What would you like for dinner?" Andrea asks my enthusiastic meat-eating husband, "Pork, beef, duck, chicken or lamb?" He opts for beef one night, lamb the second.
What he gets is prime organic meat - fed and cared for according to strict rules set by the Soil Association.
Along with pale marbled Dexter beef, dinner is roast potatoes, spring greens and carrots - all home-grown. It could only just beat the starter - succulent inch-thick asparagus spears hand-picked from the polytunnel just half an hour before we sat down for dinner.
Dessert is delicious rhubarb brulee - yes, that fruit is also to be found growing in neat crowns in the sprawling organic garden. Other successful crops include garlic, purple-sprouting broccoli, chicory, an array of beans and lettuces and all manner of berry fruits.
The Lees are prepared to try their hand at anything and most of it will find its way on to your plate via Andrea's toasty farmhouse kitchen.
Travel Guide: Wales
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Yet all this time we could have taken a day trip to Wales, sat on the jetty and seen dolphins for nothing. That's where I was, one wet lunchtime, next to a couple from Merseyside. It was quite the finest thing to be doing in the rain.
I thought that was splendid enough, watching two or three dolphins plunging and surging a few hundred yards away. 'You should have been here yesterday,' said the couple. 'We spotted them from our restaurant table just up there. They were splashing about right under the wall.'
Researchers believe there is a resident population of up to 170 bottlenose dolphins in Cardigan Bay. Their prospects for survival improved considerably in 1993 when this stretch of Cardiganshire was declared Britain's first Marine Heritage coast.
Boaters must now observe strict rules to avoid disturbing them. In keeping with the green theme, I arrived by rail, on the train from Birmingham to Aberystwyth.
This must qualify as one of the most scenic lines in Britain. It snakes through the great round hills of Mid Wales, then races down the widening Dovey estuary.
A few rugged cows and sheep dolphins to play roamed the flat salt marshes. A buzzard sat on almost every fence post.
The train curled down the coast through Borth and into the terminus, whose small-town seaside ways were gently mocked in the novel Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce (to be fair, another book called it the liveliest resort in Wales). A steam loco from the mountain rail service puffed quietly on the next platform.
New Quay, an hour down the coast by bus, is neatly arranged against the hillside, three streets of pale houses strung one above the other in the Cardigan Bay style.
I was staying at Bourne Leisure's holiday home park Quay West, just above town. Bourne, which retains David Bellamy as a consultant, sees this site as a clifftop extension of the conservation going on out at sea.
People nearest the sea report seeing dolphins from their caravan sitting rooms. The mammals are a bonus at this site, over and above the company's standard conservation details, such as tree planting, buddleia for butterflies, nest boxes for the disappearing house sparrow and nature walks.
Christa Sinclair, Bourne's conservation officer, whose job is to oversee the greening of the group's 19 camps across Britain, told me: 'It's just possible to come here and not see dolphins, but you'd be unlucky. They've been spotted every day for the past month off the pier.'
There was another place I had to go, so we drove south from New Quay and squeezed down lanes so narrow the overhanging foxglove and oak, wild carrot and ox-eye daisies polished the sides of Christa's car.
Plunging and surging
In the dark days of captive dolphins, people would queue and pay to see them in zoos. We gave that up and switched to watching the creatures in Attenborough marine series on TV.
Yet all this time we could have taken a day trip to Wales, sat on the jetty and seen dolphins for nothing. That's where I was, one wet lunchtime, next to a couple from Merseyside. It was quite the finest thing to be doing in the rain.
I thought that was splendid enough, watching two or three dolphins plunging and surging a few hundred yards away. 'You should have been here yesterday,' said the couple. 'We spotted them from our restaurant table just up there. They were splashing about right under the wall.'
Researchers believe there is a resident population of up to 170 bottlenose dolphins in Cardigan Bay. Their prospects for survival improved considerably in 1993 when this stretch of Cardiganshire was declared Britain's first Marine Heritage coast.
Boaters must now observe strict rules to avoid disturbing them. In keeping with the green theme, I arrived by rail, on the train from Birmingham to Aberystwyth.
This must qualify as one of the most scenic lines in Britain. It snakes through the great round hills of Mid Wales, then races down the widening Dovey estuary.
A few rugged cows and sheep dolphins to play roamed the flat salt marshes. A buzzard sat on almost every fence post.
The train curled down the coast through Borth and into the terminus, whose small-town seaside ways were gently mocked in the novel Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce (to be fair, another book called it the liveliest resort in Wales). A steam loco from the mountain rail service puffed quietly on the next platform.
New Quay, an hour down the coast by bus, is neatly arranged against the hillside, three streets of pale houses strung one above the other in the Cardigan Bay style.
I was staying at Bourne Leisure's holiday home park Quay West, just above town. Bourne, which retains David Bellamy as a consultant, sees this site as a clifftop extension of the conservation going on out at sea.
People nearest the sea report seeing dolphins from their caravan sitting rooms. The mammals are a bonus at this site, over and above the company's standard conservation details, such as tree planting, buddleia for butterflies, nest boxes for the disappearing house sparrow and nature walks.
Not exactly Las Vegas
Celebrities signed up to appear at Pontin's centres this summer include Ken Dodd and Seventies groups the Real Thing and The Three Degrees. Not exactly Las Vegas...
Kim, however, may have her eye on the Pontin's Starquest talent show in which she would have a good chance of winning as a Kim Cattrall impersonator.
Pontin's said last week that they had not yet received a booking but that the centre 'will be pleased to welcome her' should she decide to make a reservation.
If she does choose to stay, Kim and her mother will no doubt opt for the Club accommodation.
Club rooms offer free-of-charge electricity and heating (presumably the Hollywood stars' favourite hostelry, the Beverly Wiltshire, hasn't yet got around to charging its lower-income guests for the use of electricity as Pontin's does in its Classic and Popular accommodation).
Kim's character Samantha famously enjoys her shopping sprees in Manhattan's swankiest boutiques.
She may find retail therapy a little harder to come by at Pontin's. The main on-site retailer is the grocery shop Londis.
Kim's mother may also find the modern concept of the 'holiday centre', with its accent on self-catering and laissez-faire attitude to activities, uncomfortably far removed from the sort of highly regimented holiday camp where she worked.
The holiday camp concept was established in Skegness by Billy Butlin in the Thirties.
Fred Pontin set up a rival operation after the Second World War, using his experience of running workers' hostels.
Sir Fred Pontin, as he became, is reckoned to have been the model for Joe Maplin, the boss of Maplin's holiday camps in the TV comedy series Hi De Hi - in which Su Pollard played the part of chalet maid Peggy, the very job Kim's mother once had.
One thing that might attract Kim and her mother is the price.
With a night at Sandy Lane, Barbados, for example, likely to work out at about £1,000 a time, Kim will be pleased to discover that an up-market two-bedded Club suite at Prestatyn Sands will cost them just £560 for a whole week.
The rush of Hollywood stars to Prestatyn may only have just begun...
Poem In October
Thomas notably evokes that effect in his Poem In October, written in his 'thirtieth year to heaven' when, out walking in damp Carmarthenshire, 'the weather turned around'.
'It turned away from the blithe country / And down the other air and the blue altered sky / Streamed again a wonder of summer / With apples / Pears and red currants.'
Thomas is primarily remembered as a romantic poet of the countryside. But little in his background suggested an obvious affinity with rural life. He grew up in suburban Swansea, where his father taught at the local grammar school.
His old family house at No 5, Cwmdonkin Drive in Uplands, a mile or so west of the centre of the city, is as good a place as any to start a tour of this poet's Wales.
It is an undistinguished semi-detached villa, rather small and cramped.
As a child, Thomas would race down the hill to the railway that once trundled along the front between Swansea and Mumbles, the village on the western edge of the bay.
Here, seaside villas give way to the magnificent 19-mile long Gower peninsula, Britain's first- ever designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The train service is long gone, but Mumbles, with its pier, retains a relaxed period charm that has been enhanced by amenities such as a wine bar (Barrows) and a good Turkish restaurant (the Mediterranean).
As a teenager, Thomas would wait under the railway arches, eyeing the girls. During the holidays, he escaped into the Gower, with its windswept cliffs, rolling dunes and unspoiled villages such as Llangennith (which boasts a ninth-century church).
His story Extraordinary Little Cough tells of a camping expedition to Rhossili on the western tip of the Gower, where the bay was 'the wildest, bleakest and barrenest I know - four or five miles of yellow coldness going away into the distance of the sea'.
Restoration was completed
Holidaymakers holding a booking for 2001 were offered the same or similar dates in 2003 as 2002 was already fully booked.
Finally, at the end of last month, the restoration was completed and the first holidaymakers were able to move in.
They were in for a treat. Not only is the house in a fabulous location, it has also been lavishly redecorated and, refurbished, with central heating now installed.
Far from the madding crowd, the good news is that mobile phone reception is patchy but the cottage has its own payphone.
Its remoteness is highlighted by the fact that the rector served two parishes - Rhosili and Llangennith - and the Old Rectory was located midway between the two. The isolation of the house initially also appealed to Dylan Thomas, who is said to have toyed with the idea of moving in - until he contemplated the long walk to the pub (he chose instead the Boathouse in Laugharne).
Although some people claim it is haunted by the famous writer, locals will tell you that one of the former rectors still appears from time to time and, at the strike of midnight, a carriage with galloping horses can be glimpsed racing across the moonlit beach below.
HOW TO BOOK
Determination and persistence are the main factors in securing a precious week at the Old Rectory. According to Judy Robson, The National Trust's Holiday Cottages and Travel Manager, the Trust allows bookings no more than two years ahead - with 2003 already fully booked.
No reservations will be taken for 2004 until January next year. However, the booking department runs a waiting list and in the event of a cancellation, you may be notified and allowed to take over the reservation.
Contact the booking department: The National Trust (Enterprises) Ltd, Holiday Bookings Office, PO Box 536, Melksham, Wiltshire SN12 8SX (www.nationaltrustcottages.co.uk tel: 0870 458 4411). A £2 donation is requested towards the cost of the 237-page brochure.
Welsh industrial miracle
There's profit as well as grandeur in these hills. Men who toiled to sustain the Welsh industrial miracle - coal miners and iron and steel workers - would be wryly amused to know that today a great Welsh export is water.
The hills collect it after it has filtered through layers of rock 'to achieve its exceptional taste and purity'. I passed the modest little plant where they bottle mineral water from the Radnor Hills for smart tables everywhere.
In the market town of Llanidloes, under the elegant three-arched bridge, I found Britain's longest river, the Severn.
A drop that passes under me here takes 36 hours to reach the sea. It rises in the peat bogs 1,600ft up in the hills close to the summit of Plynlimon, which is where I was heading.
Living dragons are hard to spot in Wales, but I saw a red kite hovering above.
This is its kingdom; the great bird was persecuted by the Victorians when it scavenged in the streets of London and it retreated to remoter parts of mid-Wales and prospered.
The views over Cardigan Bay and north to Snowdonia were sensational. The low evening sun turned the area bright gold. It seemed the modern patron saint of this region - ITV weather lady Sian Lloyd - was right.
On the Cambrian Railway brochure she promises sun 'all along the line' from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli.
Earlier in the day I forgave her slight error when I sat in fine drizzle under a mountain ash on the slopes at Hyddgen, where, outnumbered, Glyndwr won his most important victory.
I walked down the Roman Steps past Celtica, a visitor centre presenting the history and culture of the Celts, and into Machynlleth, known as Macc and the trail mid-point. Glyndwr held his parliament here in 1404, but the exciting link is with Pennal, just to the west.
Take the lazy branch line to Tenby
Mobile homes are fine places for the early start. At 5am I stepped out into the velvety West Coast air. The site was still asleep. I had a choice of walks. Below me was the sea, with the 186-mile Pembrokeshire Coastal Path running past high tide mark. But instead I headed to the wood on the slope above.
Later on, the park rangers would be leading caravanners on guided walks up here. The really lucky get to see badgers gambolling at dusk, the smell of humans, no doubt, neutralised by carpets of heady, blooming wild garlic.
Gold medal caravan sites have ticks in the boxes alongside a wide range of virtues, from leaving grass areas uncut for wildlife to using long-life lights, switching to eco-friendly cleaning products and changing to down-lighting around the park so you can still see the stars at night.
Some even plan to break up the straight lines of caravans and form them into circles, just like covered wagon trains waiting for the cavalry.
They score, too, by encouraging you to use public transport. I had decided to polish my green credentials and take the lazy branch line to Tenby.
Prepare for the Bisto Kids reaction when you mention this town. 'Ah, Tenby,' people say (no offence to fine places, but did you ever hear anyone say 'Ah, Cleethorpes'?). One Tenby devotee I know went 18 years in succession.
What to do
TENBY MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY (01834 842809): Celebrating its 125th anniversary, this is the oldest independent museum in Wales. Exhibits range from the 250,000-year-old jaw of a hyena, and the tooth of a woolly rhinoceros, to paintings by Augustus John and his sister, Gwen. Open daily 10am-5pm, March to September. Adults £2, children £1, family ticket £4.50. (All prices correct in June 2003)
THE TUDOR MERCHANT'S HOUSE (01834 842279): This is Tenby's principal architectural attraction, a narrow three-storey house near the harbour that has been restored by the National Trust. Daily (except Wed) from April to September, 10am-5pm (Sun 1pm-5pm).
CALDEY ISLAND: The 550-acre island, three miles offshore, has a Cistercian monastery which produces perfume. Boats run every 20 minutes from the harbour. Adults £8, children £4.
CARRIAGE RIDES: Take a 15-minute horse and carriage tour of Tenby from St Mary's Church every morning and afternoon. Adults £2, children £1.50
GHOST WALK (01834 845841): Tales of fairies, witches and local traditions. Meet 8pm daily (except Sun and Thurs) outside the Lifeboat Tavern for the 90-minute walk. Adults £3.75, children £2.75, family ticket £12.
COASTAL CRUISES (0973 280 651/ 01834 811 378): A two-hour sunset tour of the rugged coastline aboard the Katalina. Adults £7, children £4.
BEST BEACH: Tenby has three glorious stretches of firm sand. Castle Beach is more inviting than the bigger South Beach or North Beach, except in peak holiday times when it gets overcrowded.
BEST THING ABOUT THE RESORT: The pastel-painted Regency terraces and Victorian houses leading down to the harbour. Writer Paul Theroux described it as "more than pretty - like a watercolour of itself".
WORST THING ABOUT THE RESORT: The scarcity of local seafood.
The year Swansea cashes in
This was where Dylan imagined two 'hale young men' walking into the waves, still puffing on their pipes.
This year is the 50th anniversary of his death in New York, aged just 39.
It is a fine time to recall how high he sits in the 20th Century cultural pantheon.
Try this test. What do Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Albert Einstein and Dylan Thomas have in common? They all appear on probably the best known of all record sleeves, the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. John Lennon put him there, recognising a great influence on his work.
Catherine Zeta-Jones, a Swansea girl, named her son Dylan. James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan went one better: his son is christened Dylan Thomas. The name was 27th in last year's list of favourite boys' names.
It is likely to go higher when Dylan comes to a cinema near you.
Mick Jagger's Jagged Films will begin shooting Map Of Love, based on the life of the poet, in Swansea soon. Dougray Scott will play Thomas, with Emily Watson as his wife Caitlin.
This could be the year Swansea cashes in on a goldmine. Tours of Dylan's home town start soon and the council has just published four trails, linking places associated with his life.
Many locations are found in his works. There are few left who recall the swaggering, dazzling Dylan, but if a barman tells you he was a regular in that pub, it is probably true.
As a student at the art college, where Dylan had his best friends, my late mother was one of many to receive the silken-tongued chat-up.
My journey began in Paddington for a train trip Dylan made many times, lured back to his 'ugly, lovely town'.
Jolly seaside resort
There's a shop called Knights Gone By, which sells swords, armour, daggers and chain-mail, where you can tog up as a knight or medieval lady and be photographed for £10.
Here, too, is the quirky Teapot Museum.'You'd have to be potty to miss it', announces the blurb outside, and indeed you would.
These are not just any old teapots, they are the absolute cream - double-spouters, Beatrix Potter sets and a unique Thirties racing car pot with the licence plate OKT42. All rare, all very valuable.
Further along the coast is Llandudno, a jolly seaside resort with two fabulous beaches, a lovely pier and shops made elegant by pretty Victorian canopies.
Thirty per cent of the population here speaks Welsh as a first language and visitors soon grow accustomed to its fascinating lilt. A few miles on from Llandudno is the outstandingly beautiful 50-acre Bodnant Garden, famous for its Laburnum Arch, which - when in bloom - must surely be one of the wonders of the world.
The autumn colours take your breath away. Many of the garden's trees date back to the 1790s and its abundant streams, vast lily-covered ponds and wonderful woodland waterfall make your average garden-centre water feature look unspeakably feeble.
Based at the 17th-century mansion of Bodysgallen Hall Hotel, set in 200 acres of glorious grounds, it was sheer bliss to lounge in the oak-panelled entrance hall, to peruse the excellent menu while sitting in the first-floor drawing room with its stone-mullioned windows.
Another great joy was lingering over chef David Thompson's perfect raspberry souffle with views of the gardens and distant mountains through the dining room's leaded windows.
After lunch, it was a short drive into Llandudno to hear the Llanddulas Male Voice Choir at the Methodist Church. Their harmonies had me in tears.
Singing, Snowdon, seaside, and spectacular scenery - what more can a tourist ask for?
TRAVEL FACTS:
Bodysgallen Hall Hotel, telephone 01492 584466.
Snowdon looms majestically
Snowdon, shrouded in mist, looms majestically. 'The view from my 'office' window is the loveliest in Britain,' says Hefin, authoritatively.
He points out the prospect from the round window of his cab. Amy looks out and gasps appreciatively.
Snowdonia and all its scenic glories was effectively closed for two months during the foot-and-mouth crisis.
Now all its paths, byways and attractions are again open. We visited during a hot spell. For four days the sun baked us and the countryside offered us sublime views.
We went to the castle at Beaumaris in Anglesey to play at being medieval sentries. Then we stood on the town's pier.
The Menai Straits glittered like cut glass in the sunshine; behind, the peaks of Snowdonia rose into a hazy blue sky.
Amy lamented the fact that she had left her crabbing line at home. She was appeased by the promise of an afternoon swim.
Meanwhile, we visited the town's Museum of Childhood to look at the sort of toys they had in the days, 'when Mummy was a little girl'.
We marvelled at the fairy cycle that once belonged to the infant Marquis of Anglesey and examined the extensive collection of tin cars.
'That one's very old,' pronounced Amy, mistaking the engine size for the year of manufacture. 'More than 200 years, in fact.'
Visit Britain's smallest city
As with so many holidaymakers in this agricultural county, Marshall-Andrews is a return visitor: he's been making his way to Pembrokeshire for 25 years.
Over that time, as motorways have improved (the cottage we were renting was little more than four hours by car from London), tourist numbers have soared. Yet the beaches, inland hills, wooded valleys, moorland and the path running along the entire coastline were quite empty.
The crowds that swarm over Cornwall each summer don't make it to South-West Wales, though its coast is just as spectacular.
There's nothing like the famous Rick Stein fish restaurant in Padstow, or a resort as smart as Rock, the Kensington-on-Sea of the north Cornish coast with cohorts of excitable, chino-clad public school teenagers.
Pembrokeshire's fishing villages are not sophisticated or terribly pretty - pebble-dashed bungalows seem to be the stock-in-trade of local architects. But towns such as Newport on the north coast or Manorbier in the south, with medieval castles overlooking ancient estuaries and dune-backed sands, are a match for Cornwall's offerings.
As are the snug hamlets such as Little Haven and Porthgain in coves sprinkled with lobster pots, where ruined wharves and warehouses are all that remain of a sea trade that once brought prosperity.
Then there are sailing villages such as Dale, where windsurfers tear across the bay and inflatable speedboats offer trips to seal sanctuaries. Nowadays, oil tankers queue to berth at Milford Haven, a deep, once-beautiful natural harbour renowned even in Shakespeare's day.
'Tell me how Wales was made so happy as to inherit such a haven,' he wrote of 'this blessed Milford'.
Today the Bard would find his haven scarred by brutal, ugly refineries, a harbour subject to oil spills from which, mercifully, the sea appears so far to have recovered. But on a rainy day it offers a local museum which shows how the town's forlorn old docks once used to bustle with Victorian ships from the Atlantic, bringing with them a different kind of fuel - whale oil - which was sent on to London to light the street lamps.
There's a dinosaur theme park at Tenby, the Victorian resort in the region. And Britain's smallest city, St David's, is worth a trip.
There, the Norman cathedral, set in a hollow, slopes downhill and young children love to play amid the dungeons and ruins of the Bishop's Palace nearby.
But wait for the sun before you go on the most spectacular outing of all - that short boat trip to the puffins of Skomer. And if you feel brave, and strong enough, you could take your children. Just make sure they take their walking boots.
Travel facts: Skomer is open from early spring until late autumn. Boats depart from Martin's Haven, west of Haverfordwest, except Mondays (they do run on Bank Holiday Mondays). Puffins can be seen offshore in late March, and on land April to early August. Contact Wildlife Trust West Wales, tel: 01239 621212.
A terrific week
When, after a few days, we moved from the Preseli foothills to St David's we exchanged forests and hill walks for a dramatic coastal landscape.
The 186 miles of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park could have kept us walking for the next fortnight, but we chose a few modest sections.
The best was the 45-minute cliff top hike from Abereiddy to Porthgain, where we lunched in brilliant sunshine on the Sloop Inn's terrace before spotting two seals in a bay on the return leg.
At our hotel, Warpool Court, a bowl of water was waiting for Lucky in our bedroom. While our son Max swam in the hotel pool, my wife and I enjoyed cream teas in the hotel garden overlooking St Non's Bay and Lucky barked at the statues.
Her biggest adventure came on our final day when she joined us on a high-speed boat trip around the bird sanctuary of Ramsey Island, getting a drenching into the bargain and champing at her leash to be allowed to join the seals and porpoises.
All in all, it was a terrific week for her: we only hope that other holiday regions will follow suit and offer similar opportunities for canine-friendly holidays.
Otherwise, thanks to the pet passport, the Continent beckons - and Lucky will simply vote with her paws.
ATTRACTIONS
Dogs on leads are welcome at Caldey Island (where Cistercian monks make perfume), Carew Castle (medieval re-enactments) and Castell Henllys (a reconstructed Iron Age hillfort).
Wales' premier theme park, Oakwood, and the biggest farming attraction, Folly Farm, permit dogs on leads in some areas.
The one-hour Voyages of Discovery boat trip around Ramsey island (www.ramseyisland.co.uk tel: 0800 854 367) costs adults £15; children £8; dogs free.
Still time for a bit of pampering
After a day's exertion in the mountains, you're likely to end up stiff as a board.
No problem if you stay at Bodysgallen Hall, Llandudno, which has superb spa facilities, offering a range of treatments to ease aches and pains.
If you can bear to go back in the water after a day's canoeing, its pool is a few degrees warmer than a Welsh lake.
A walk in the lovely gardens of Bodysgallen Hall reminds you that not all of North Wales is turbo-charged - a sentiment echoed in Llandudno itself.
Its quiet seaside charms echo its past Victorian popularity but have none of the brash flashiness of Blackpool or even nearby Rhyl.
Wander along its well-preserved promenade or stroll around beautiful and historic Conwy Castle.
After a day whizzing down muddy bike tracks, canoeing in a loaned wetsuit and roaming round castles, enjoy putting on the glitz in the evening.
Your aching calves may baulk at the idea of high heels for dinner, but don't be dissuaded. It may only be Wales but think Hollywood - Lara Croft style.
Further information:
Short break packages at Bodysgallen Hall start from £220, which includes dinner and B&B for two nights. Reservations Tel: 01492 584466
www.bodysgallen.com
www.visitwales.com
The Sundance kid
Steepholm is a mile-long sausage shape with sheer 250ft cliffs and a wildly overgrown plateau on top. The Kenneth Allsop Trust bought the island 25 years ago as a memorial to the popular TV naturalist.
Flatholm is a flat medallion of rock about half a mile across. Cardiff Council owns the island and its boat. It even employs two boatmen and staff who live on the island. It plans sailings throughout the year, almost daily in summer.
Schools take educational visits and any groups can arrange stays, as long as there's some slight educational or environmental aspect. This can range from painting courses to religious retreats.
Despite colourful histories involving Vikings, smugglers, pirates and Second World War antiaircraft battles, both islands are now tranquil nature reserves. Expert eyes can pick out rare wild leeks and peonies, slow-worms (Britain's biggest ever was found on Steepholm) and Flatholm's colony of shelducks.
Gulls are everywhere in the spring. There are also two cashmere goats which were imported to Flatholm as part of a herd to clear its rampant brambles and bushes. They jumped a five foot wall and ran for the trees when the others were rounded up and returned to the mainland.
Staff nicknamed them Butch and Sundance. I bet they're having a great time - they must reckon there's no place like Holm.
Norfolk and Yorkshire
THE OSTLER'S HOUSE, Hedenham, Norfolk. Tel: 01386 701177, www.ruralretreats.co.uk
How's this for escapism? A strikingly decorated and furnished cottage with a wood-burning stove in the sitting room, an abundance of beams and vaulted ceilings and a private garden overlooking the grounds of a fine Elizabethan house.
Ostler's, part of a renovated Tudor barn, is one of three detached 15th-century cottages standing in the grounds of privately-owned Hedenham Hall.
It has a beamed, en suite bedroom complete with canopied bed. You can enjoy walks in the private grounds and the handsome city of Norwich is close by. There is even a spare bedroom for friends.
Add the generous welcome hamper - wine, cheese, milk, tea, coffee and groceries - and you have all you need.
THE WHITE SWAN, Pickering, Yorkshire. Tel: 01751 472288.
We arrived at this old stone inn after a cold, wild day on the North York Moors and were instantly enveloped in warmth and light.
It was bliss sipping walkers' reward - whisky and ginger wine - in front of the toasty-hot log fire in the snug.
This family-owned coaching inn, built as a four-room cottage in 1532, has had a makeover. When Victor and Marion Buchanan left high-flying City jobs to take over from Victor's parents, they brought a touch of southern luxury with them.
The welcoming atmosphere and traditional comfort remain, but now, new bathrooms sparkle and bedrooms are crisp, fresh and nicely co-ordinated.
Good local food, including fish and game, is praised by locals as well as visitors; the wine list is serious.
And there are all those romantic walks on the Moors.
Dolphins or Dylan?
New Quay is a seaside resort clinging picturesquely to the cliffs, with a population of about 800. Surveying it from the harbour when the sun shines, you could be in the south of France.
Dolphins are now outdoing Dylan Thomas as New Quay's biggest claim to fame. Thomas lived here for a year in the 1950s and may have transformed it into Llareggub in his poem, Under Milk Wood. Some locals remember him fondly; others brand him a drunken lout who left without paying his bills.
No one has a bad word for the dolphins, though New Quay is very low-key about its biggest draw, as it wants to protect them from exploitation. Leading proponents of this policy are those who could make most money from dolphins, the boatmen. 'We don't shout out "Come and see the dolphins". When we take visitors out for a trip, we tell them they are going to see the wildlife of the heritage coastline,' says Mike Jones, who skippers the Ermol VI and is the longest-serving member of the local lifeboat crew.
'There are grey seals out there and nine different species of seabird nesting on the cliff ledges. We mention dolphins as one of the creatures they might see, if they are lucky.'
With local officials and the Countryside Council for Wales, boatmen have drawn up a 'dolphin-friendly' code of conduct stating: 'If these mammals are encountered at sea, please maintain a steady speed and course, or slow down gradually. Do not chase, manoeuvre erratically, turn towards or attempt to feed or touch them. Take extra care to avoid dolphins with their young.'
Another boatman, Steve Hartley, who runs the Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre, told me: 'If they want to play round our boats, it's up to them. I have a good idea where to find these animals, but I don't make a beeline for them. If we come across them, that's a bonus. If they show any sign of stress, we leave immediately.' It is a voluntary code, but organisations such as the Welsh Wildlife Trust are calling for it to become law.
Streatley, Thames Valley
STREATLEY, THAMES VALLEY
Forget the dull Thames Valley of M4 gridlock and high-tech factories, and welcome to the glorious original Thames Valley - haunt of Ratty, Mr Toad and Three Men in a Boat, of fine houses and the Queen's Swan Uppers gliding by in majestic liveried boats.
The Berkshire village of Streatley, favourite of landscape artists and stopping point for Jerome K. Jerome's rollicking trio who 'stayed' at The Bull, on Streatley Hill, and companion village Goring face each other over one of the oldest crossing points of the Thames.
Two ancient ways join here. For two miles the Thames Path merges with the Ridgeway (Avebury in Wiltshire to Ivinghoe in Buckinghamshire: 85 miles).
Take the flat Thames Path to Wallingford or as far west as Oxford - you can catch the train back to Goring. Or venture east as far as Pangbourne, Henley or even Windsor.
The Ridgeway is utterly different. Up on the Marlborough Downs it trails the chalk ridge route used by prehistoric man to the White Horse at Uffington and beyond.
Heading north, the Ridgeway switches identities again, climbing into the Chilterns, past villages like Nuffield and unexpected wonders such as the Maharajah's Well, the gift of a 19th Century Indian grandee, at Stoke Row.
Tourist information: Chain Street, Reading RG1 2HX (Tel: 0118 956 6226). Thames Path and Ridgeway information: National Trails Office, Oxfordshire County Council, Holton, Oxford OX33 1QQ (Tel: 01865 810224)
Dine like a king in a mobile-free zone
It's not just the food that makes dining such a central part of a stay at Hafod Elwy Hall. Sitting in the old dining hall, built in the 1600s, you feel something like Henry VIII.
The former shooting lodge is filled with impressive oak antiques and dinner is served in front of a huge roaring fire.
We're in no rush to end the five-course meal. There are no TVs in the rooms and mobile phones won't work. Bliss.
There are just three rooms for guests so the focus is on intimacy with a hint of luxury.
The upstairs rooms have vast bathrooms with roll-top baths built for two. Soft towels are plentiful and fluffy bathrobes are an unexpected extra.
You might not be able to plug in your laptop but you can tuck into homemade cake while you lay on the four-poster bed admiring the views of Snowdonia.
If you've had your fill of relaxing in front of the log fire, which seems unlikely, head into the great outdoors.
Hafod Elwy Hall is five miles from the nearest village Bylchau, perched atop moorland that stretches out in all directions. Aside from birdwatching, angling is one of the big draws of the area.
The farm has fishing rights for the nearby lake so two keen anglers can try their luck for brown trout.
If you want other diversions, north Wales has lots of interesting villages in which to while away a few relaxing hours. As well as eccentric Portmeirion, Betws-y-Coed is a popular place with walkers and cyclists of all ages.
There's plenty to see but I'm happy to spend all my time back at the farm with family dog Bonnie curled up at my feet.
More details:
Dinner, bed and breakfast at Hafod Elwy Hall is from £55-£65 per person per night. Bed and breakfast only from £30-£40. Reservations on 01690 770345.
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| | | | See the dolphins performing
We arrived at Mwnt, a huge green mound behind a little church. Some wheatears, jaunty seaside birds that seem to have been half-dipped in cream, flitted over the short grass.
Halfway up the steepest climb in West Wales we saw a family with binoculars trained on the sea. But we didn't need any visual aid to see the dolphins performing elegant loops close to shore, this time popping up at unexpected places as if to confuse us.
We had seen dolphins from three different places on land. Now it was time for the close encounter. We called on Steve Hartley at the Marine Wildlife Centre, his really useful information point on the harbour edge. Greeting us was the life-size outline of dolffn trwyn potel - the bottlenose - painted on the floor.
Steve is a boatman turned bottlenose guru. He runs dolphin-watching trips and monitors sea creatures for scientists, following them as far as the Irish coast.
Holidaying seals from here have been traced to Cornwall, even Spain. But the free-spirited dolphins can't be fitted with tracking devices. So much about them remains a mystery.
We went out in the Sulaire, with nonchalant young skipper Ed. A hundred years ago he would probably have been running schooners round Cape Horn, but today he is limited to the two-hour run down to Ynys Lochdyn.
'Shout if you see anything and we can all have a look,' said Ed. Some sheep picking their suicidal way down ridiculously steep slopes didn't count.
We spotted our first seals, loitering on rocks. Then a group of the shy harbour porpoise, similar to dolphins but with a smaller fin. Ed cut the engine and we watched them gambol while researcher Becky took notes. And, of course, there were dolphins.
This coast was once busy with boats, carrying materials and produce to numerous landing stages. All those pursuits came and went. Perhaps a glorious age of dolphin watching will take their place.
Whenever I think of these wonderful mammals, I recall that line from the dolphins leaving Earth in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: 'So long and thanks for all the fish.' Happily, if we keep caring, they will be staying with us off New Quay into the very distant future.
TRAVEL DETAILS:
British Holidays offers stays at Quay West. Call 0870 2425 500 or visit www.british-holidays.co.uk
Dolphin-watching trips can be booked from the harbour, from one hour up to a day's excursion. Call 01545 560032.
For information on rail travel to Aberystwyth telephone 08457 48 49 50. For details of bus services from Aberystwyth to Newquay, call Traveline on 0870 608 2608.
Jaunty seaside birds
Christa Sinclair, Bourne's conservation officer, whose job is to oversee the greening of the group's 19 camps across Britain, told me: 'It's just possible to come here and not see dolphins, but you'd be unlucky. They've been spotted every day for the past month off the pier.'
There was another place I had to go, so we drove south from New Quay and squeezed down lanes so narrow the overhanging foxglove and oak, wild carrot and ox-eye daisies polished the sides of Christa's car.
We arrived at Mwnt, a huge green mound behind a little church. Some wheatears, jaunty seaside birds that seem to have been half-dipped in cream, flitted over the short grass.
Halfway up the steepest climb in West Wales we saw a family with binoculars trained on the sea. But we didn't need any visual aid to see the dolphins performing elegant loops close to shore, this time popping up at unexpected places as if to confuse us.
We had seen dolphins from three different places on land. Now it was time for the close encounter. We called on Steve Hartley at the Marine Wildlife Centre, his really useful information point on the harbour edge. Greeting us was the life-size outline of dolffn trwyn potel - the bottlenose - painted on the floor.
Steve is a boatman turned bottlenose guru. He runs dolphin-watching trips and monitors sea creatures for scientists, following them as far as the Irish coast.
Holidaying seals from here have been traced to Cornwall, even Spain. But the free-spirited dolphins can't be fitted with tracking devices. So much about them remains a mystery.
We wnet out in the Sulaire, with nonchalant young skipper Ed. A hundred years ago he would probably have been runningschooners round Cape Horn, but today he is limited to the two-hour run down to Ynys Lochdyn.
'Shout if you see anything and we can all have a look,' said Ed. Some sheep picking their suicidal way down ridiculously steep slopes didn't count.
We spotted our first seals, loitering on rocks. Then a group of the shy harbour porpoise, similar to dolphins but with a smaller fin. Ed cut the engine and we watched them gambol while researcher Becky took notes. And, of course, there were dolphins.
This coast was once busy with boats, carrying materials and produce to numerous landing stages. All those pursuits came and went. Perhaps a glorious age of dolphin watching will take their place.
Whenever I think of these wonderful mammals, I recall that line from the dolphins leaving Earth in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: 'So long and thanks for all the fish.' Happily, if we keep caring, they will be staying with us off New Quay into the very distant future.
TRAVEL DETAILS:
British Holidays offers stays at Quay West in a mobile home. Call 0870 2425 500 or visit www.british-holidays.co.uk
Dolphin-watching trips can be booked from the harbour, from one hour up to a day's excursion. Call 01545 560032.
For information on rail travel to Aberystwyth telephone 08457 48 49 50. For details of bus services from Aberystwyth to Newquay, call Traveline on 0870 608 2608.
Captain Cat and Polly Garter
Later, after joining the local paper, the South Wales Evening Post, he gravitated to the bars and cafes in the centre of town, around Wind (pronounced Wine) Street.
This thoroughfare still exists, but its stores convey little of the charm of the time when Dylan and friends congregated at the Three Lamps public house or Kardomah coffee bar.
Something of the old bustle can still be found off the bottom of Wind Street, where enthusiast Jeff Towns runs Dylan's Books in the Dickensian- sounding Salubrious Passage.
Best attractions are the municipal museum, which Thomas once described as 'the museum which should have been in a museum', and the Dylan Thomas Centre (01792 463980) which offers a comprehensive introduction to the city's best-known poet.
As a young man, Dylan could not wait to leave the place. But he always returned to Wales, where he produced almost all his best work.
An early stay in Laugharne, on the River Towy near Carmarthen, did not work out. He gravitated northwards to a bungalow on the outskirts of New Quay, above Cardigan Bay.
There, in the Black Lion pub, he encountered models for Under Milk Wood's Captain Cat and Polly Garter, and first contemplated Llareggub.
On his return to Laugharne, the idea flourished. Through the generosity of a patron, he lived in the Boat House, perched on the rock face overlooking the estuary.
Now a well-run museum, it was the archetypal poet's residence, with sweeping views over to the Gower, up to Sir John's Hill (the subject of a late poem), and down on to 'the heron-priested shore'.
TRAVEL DETAILS:
Swansea and South-West Wales are easily reached by road (M4) or by rail (three hours from London).
On the Gower, the five-star Fairyhill (01792 390139) and the Oxwich Bay (01792 390329) hotels are recommended. At Laugharne, Castle House (01994 427616) is a superior bed and breakfast.
Preserved steam railway
The Pennal Letter, part of his negotiations with his allies, was drafted after Glyndwr was crowned Prince of Wales. Maybe at this point the path should deviate to Paris where, in 1406, Glyndwr sent the goatskin parchment letter. It has been there ever since.
At my farmhouse B&B the hostess Mrs Breese must have been expecting a marauding warlord. She sat me down to a massive chicken casserole.
Next day I headed back east, to the remote high ground of bracken-cloaked hills at the edge of Snowdonia National Park.
First stop was the Centre for Alternative Technology, where every weather forecast is good. The centre and restaurant are powered with renewable energy: gales keep the windmill spinning; the sun drives solar heating.
Last stop was Lake Vyrnwy, which keeps Liverpool in water. Glyndwr might have fought to save this valley from drowning, but that's ancient history.
Another Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, performed the lake's opening ceremony more than 100 years ago and today, above the water, the area is a national nature reserve. The RSPB has installed user-friendly hides beside the car park.
The path then ambles over the hills, alongside the preserved steam railway at Llanfair and on to Welshpool.
Once more I met the Severn, my drop of water long since delivered to the sea. The path ends in a little park near the pretty Montgomery Canal Basin.
From here it's one stop to Shrewsbury by rail, or several million steps - by Offa's Dyke Path - back down to Knighton as a 25-mile encore. Tempted? No. I had paid my homage to Owain: I took the train.
TRAVEL DETAILS:
Wales & Borders Trains operate from Birmingham New Street to Shrewsbury and call at towns and villages on Glyndwr's Way. Details: www.walesandborderstrains.co.uk, tel: 0845 6061 660, or National Rail Enquiries (www.nationalrail.co.uk tel: 08457 484 950).
The Visit Wales Centre (www.visitwales.com tel: 08701 211 251) has information on breaks in Wales and bookings.
The Ramblers'Association (www.ramblers.org.uk tel: 020 7339 8500) has details of long-distance trails, including Glyndwr's Way, with information on bed and breakfast accommodation.
For more details on Glyndwr's Way call its National Trail Officer (tel: 01654 703376).
Gareth Huw Davies stayed at Gogarth Farm in Pennal (tel: 01654 791235).
A sensible place
You have to warm to a place that uses its main piece of history, the 14th Century town walls, by tucking restaurants into them like culinary Polyfilla.
And it's a sensible place. There are two beaches pointing in different directions. So if the wind changes on one beach, I suppose they all trek across to the other, but I doubt if many fathers make it past the tantalising profusion of pubs.
I searched pub windows for authentic local fare; I could have patriotically dined out on chicken tikka masala for a fortnight and not eaten at the same place twice, but I wanted something distinct.
There it was: 'Tenby mackerel meunier' and 'fresh rod-caught trout'.
Landladies in the prim B&Bs above the dinky little film-set harbour could easily holler down for an extra trout or two from the men with rods lined up on the jetty - it is that close. Though I imagine they do it by mobile phone these days.
The decorum of Tenby is balanced by the raw struggle against the waves just up the coast at Freshwater, scene of the Welsh Surfing Championships.
I resisted the call of the wild breakers and returned to Lydstep, where the tide was now out. It's the impossible confusion of pools and rocks that make the British seaside so compelling. Time to sally forth with the park ranger for some serious study of fishes.
Prof Bellamy would have approved.
Travel facts British Holidays has 19 UK sites. Call 0870 242 5678 or visit www.british-holidays.co.uk. For details of train travel to Tenby or Penally: 08457 48 49 50. Pembrokeshire National Park Information: 01437 720392. Wales Tourist Board: 2 Fitzalan Rd, Cardiff CF2 1UY (02920 499909).
Getting there:
BY ROAD: 240 miles from London, 197 miles from Birmingham, 130 miles from Bristol.
BY RAIL: Paddington to Tenby 4hrs 40mins - 5hrs. £48 Supersaver return (08457 000125).
Where to stay:
GOLD: Penally Abbey Hotel (01834 843033) is a gothic, stonebuilt country house with view of Camarthen Bay. Price £126-£146 for a double room with breakfast.
SILVER: Heywood Mount Hotel (01834 842087) is situated 800m back from the town centre and beaches. £40-£45pp B&B, £55-60pp with dinner.
BRONZE: Tenby House Hotel (01834 842000) is a fine Regency house in the town centre. £85 for double room B&B.
B&B: Grey Rock House (01834 843 548) overlooks Castle Beach. £26-£32pp for a double.
Where to eat:
GOLD: The Plantaganet (01834 842350), the most famous fish restaurant in this part of Wales. Main course £14.95-£19.
SILVER: The Reef, in St Julian's Street. Mediterranean cuisine. Main courses £10.95-£14.95
BRONZE: Blueberry's in the High Street is renowned for its sizzling tiger prawns. Main courses £6.50-9.50
Reassuringly untarted
The industrial hell is gone, a marina and apartments replacing the grimy port. Port buildings have been converted into a hotel, Morgans, with a 'Zeta' suite.
Nearby are statues of Dylan and Captain Cat, from Under Milk Wood. I walked out of the station, past the Bush Hotel, where he spent his last night in Swansea before catching a train for his fateful trip to America, and into the city centre.
Here Dylan 'mucked about as chirpy as a sparrow after the sips and titbits and small change of the town' as a reporter with the local newspaper, turning many a working day into a pub crawl.
Much of central Swansea was flattened in the war, but many Dylan locations from his stories survive.
The ornate BBC studios, where he broadcast in that voice like warm treacle, are still there. The bombed Kardomah Cafe, where he plotted artistic revolution with his friends, is reincarnated in Portland Street.
The best of old Swansea survives in Wind Street. Leading off it are the cobbled Green Dragon Lane and the splendidly named Salubrious Passage where Dylan would drop heated pennies from upper windows and roar with mirth as passers-by picked them up.
Swansea's oldest pub, the No Sign Bar, was a regular haunt, renamed the Wine Vaults in his story, The Followers. Inside, it is reassuringly untarted.
Centre of gravity for Dylan mania is the Dylan Thomas Centre, opened by another fan, former American President Jimmy Carter, in 1995.
This is a fulsome homage. I liked the love letter to Caitlin on a cheque stub.
From here I took the trail west around his beloved bay to the fishing village of Mumbles, passing places close to Dylan's home which he knew well: the Patti Pavilion (the Melba Pavilion in his stories) which was built for Italian operatic diva Adelina Patti; the grand Brangwyn Hall, with its splendid tapestries; nearby is the memorial to the life-saving dog, Swansea Jack VC.
Shady woodland glade
Lunch was at Ye Olde Bulls Head (circa 1617) in Castle Street. The bar area is all horse brasses and florid curtains.
It looks like a Brown Windsor soup and mutton chop sort of place until you walk into the brasserie, which has skylights, a slate floor and the sort of menu that includes ravioli with ricotta, smoked bacon and passata. There are children's portions, too.
We ate voraciously, which is just as well because that afternoon we trekked for an hour to the beach at Llanddwyn Bay. We walked through furze and marram grass thrumming with insects.
We hiked on through a shady woodland glade then stumbled out into dazzling sunlight and a sandy beach that warrants the epithet 'golden.'
The sea was clear, calm and almost tepid. We could see through it to the crabs scuttling along the bottom.
After a swim we fashioned a scale model of Beaumaris Castle from sand, complete with dungeons and moat.
Edward I generously endowed North Wales with a selection of castles when he conquered the country - not that the Welsh would have thanked him for them at the time. Today, however, they are a great lure for tourists.
My own favourite is Conwy. I love the way the little town snuggles down between its walls.
I love the clutter of slate-tiled roofs, cramped terraces and granite chapels you see from your vantage point as you walk around them. I never tire of the view of the quay and its haphazard jumble of fishing boats.
Conwy has a rich history. There is Plas Mawr, arguably the best-preserved Elizabethan townhouse in Britain.
There are separate commentaries (with headphones) for adults and children, plus a quiz for the latter. Amy was utterly absorbed; so was I. Five stars.
Places to stay
BEST WALKS
All beaches welcome dogs, but between spring and September 30, there are restrictions on the more popular bathing stretches.
Britain's only coastal national park also makes sorties inland into the Preseli Hills (watch out for wild ponies) and the Gwaun Valley (a Site of Special Scientific Interest).
TRAVEL DETAILS:
To order the free brochure, Pembrokeshire - A Guide To Holidays With Your Best Friend, tel: 01646 682278 or pick it up from countrywide Tourist Information Centres.
The guide provides an extensive list of hotels, guesthouses, selfcatering cottages, and caravan and camping sites, as well as listing dog restrictions, local vets and details of the dog warden service (which picks up strays).
For further information:
www.visitpembrokeshire.com
www.explorepembrokeshire.com tel: 08705 103103.
Ivy Court (www.ivycourt.co.uk tel: 01437 532 473) makes a weekly charge of £15 for dogs. The cottages sleep from two to seven people.
Warpool Court Hotel (www.warpoolcourthotel.com tel: 01437 720300) add £5 a night for dogs.
We've sniffed out some more dog-friendly hotels around the UK.
Cotswolds: New Inn At Coln, Coln St Aldwyns, near Cirencester, Glos (www.new-inn.co.uk tel: 01285 750651).
Devon: Combe House, Gittisham, near Exeter (www.thishotel.com tel: 01404 540400).
Lancashire: The Inn at Whitewell, Forest of Bowland, near Clitheroe (01200 448222).
Somerset: Crown Hotel, Exford, Exmoor (www.crownhotelexmoor.co.uk tel: 01643 831554)
Yorkshire: White Swan Hotel, Market Place, Pickering (www.white-swan.co.uk tel: 01751 472288)
The AA Pet Friendly Places To Stay 2002 guidebook (£8.99) features more than 1,700 hotels and B&Bs throughout Britain.
Oxfordshire and Snowdonia
THE LAMB INN, Sheep Street, Burford, Oxfordshire. Tel: 01993 823155
As you step on to timeworn flags and take in the old country chairs and well-polished tables, the discreet amounts of gleaming brass and shining copper, the antique soup tureens on deep-set window ledges, you know you've struck lucky.
Comfortable sofas - including one magnificent settle with a draught-excluding back at least 5ft high - nestle round briskly burning log fires in the three lounges.
After 20 years' devotion, Richard and Caroline de Wolfe have got the style of this mellow stone Cotswolds inn to perfection.
Guests eat wild boar or rabbit, venison or duck at candle-lit tables in the spacious dining room. Breakfast is excellent; bedrooms stylishly furnished.
Centuries ago, when Sheep Street was Burford's main thoroughfare, farmers crowded into what is now the best bedroom, with magnificent four-poster, leant out of the mullioned window and chose which shepherds to hire.
NANTLAS, SNOWDONIA, NT Holiday Cottages. Tel: 0870 4584422, www.nationaltrustcottages.co.uk
The full address - Nantlas, Near Dolgellau, Gwynedd - is hint enough about the romantic isolation of this National Trust holiday cottage, and it lives up to the dream.
You feel safe and sheltered from the world in the snug timber and stone cottage for two set in the spectacular Snowdonia National Park.
Surrounded by magnificent scenery and secluded in the wooded Dolmelynllyn estate, it is close to Rhaeadr Ddu, one of Wales's most spectacular waterfalls.
This intriguing and comfortable 19th-century cottage - recently redecorated and with a spanking new bathroom - was originally built to house a telescope for the scientifically-minded occupants of nearby Dolmelynllyn Hall.
Cosy chairs sit either side of the coal fire, which will be ready laid when you arrive, with set tea tray to hand. Don't forget the champagne, chocolates and groceries - the main shops are about five miles away in Dolgellau.
More properties in the National Trust Holiday Cottage brochure (0870 4584411).
The main attraction
After my morning sightings, I decided luck was with me and, in the hope of having a close encounter, I took a two-hour trip with Steve Hartley.
As we hugged the spectacular coastline, sure enough the dolphins came to play. For 30 minutes or so, the boat was their centre of attention. It was like being in the best seats for a show in a marine park, except that we were the ones confined and they were free.
They rode the bow waves and did their tricks - one moment right up against the side of the boat, then dozens of yards away. It was an exhilarating experience. Dylan Thomas would have found some mellifluous words for it. Further out, Steve has also seen common and Risso's dolphins, leather-backed turtles and even killer whales.
Suddenly, our bottled-nosed friends seemed to tire of us and leave as unexpectedly as they arrived. On this calm, sunny day there was just one cloud, figuratively, on the horizon for dolphin lovers. There is great concern that an EU grant of £100,000 to help research the size, health and future welfare of the Cardigan Bay colony will run out later this year, long before the work is completed.
So here's a challenge for the new Welsh Assembly. The nation has the dragon as its symbol, but why not sponsor some real-life creatures in need of protection - the dolphins of Wales?
Helmsley, North Yorkshire Moors
HELMSLEY, NORTH YORKSHIRE MOORS
Helmsley, on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors in Ryedale, is a little market town with big connections.
There are riverside walks, traditional tea rooms, four former coaching inns and a ruined castle - the town's Royalist stronghold was blown up by Cromwell's men in the Civil War.
The real action begins at the market cross - start of two of the finest paths in the North.
Heading south is the 70-mile Ebor Way. Officially classified as easy, it runs through the gentle low-lying countryside and woodland of the Vale of York to York (24 miles) and then heads west via Tadcaster and Wetherby to Ilkley.
Or are you tough enough for the Cleveland Way? This epic route runs for 108 miles in a broad horseshoe round the North York Moors National Park.
When it reaches Saltburn it snakes south via Whitby and Scarborough, finishing at Filey. If you want to dip in rather than walk the full distance, the entire route is accessible by buses and trains.
Pick of the public transport is the North York Moors Railway. Steam trains weave down through Heartbeat-style moors from Grosmont to Pickering.
Tourist information: Town Hall, Market Place, Helmsley YO62 5BL (Tel: 01439 770173)
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| | | | Beautiful, melancholy place
Beyond is Gower which Dylan described as 'one of the loveliest sea-coast stretches' in Britain. In 1956 it became Britain's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Later I drove to Laugharne, 30 miles west, his 'timeless, mild, beguiling island of a town'.
People come here for the graves of Dylan and Caitlin, but far more uplifting is the Boat House, Dylan's only real home, where he wrote Under Milk Wood.
Some prankster Dylan would have applauded had turned the sign from the car park through 180 degrees, sending several people - including me - the wrong way.
By the time I rounded the headland to find the tucked-away building clinging to the cliff, the custodian was locking up.
No matter. I gazed over the estuary as the light seeped out of a grey West Wales day and an oystercatcher rasped a raw lament.
I understood why Dylan loved this beautiful, melancholy place.
TRAVEL DETAILS:
For details of trains to Swansea call national train enquiries (tel: 0845 748 4950).
Gareth Huw Davies stayed at Morgans Hotel, Somerset Place, Swansea SA1 1RR (tel: 01792 484848).
For more information, contact the Dylan Thomas Centre, Somerset Place, Swansea SA1 1RR (www.dylanthomas.org tel: 01792 463980) and Swansea Tourist Information (www.swansea.gov.uk/tourism tel: 01792 468321).
Sumptuous gardens with palms
There is also the Castle Hotel, which holds memories for me because it was where I had my first holiday job as a waitress.
In those days, Lord (Charles) Forte owned it - and I probably took the prize for being its most inept waitress.
Today it is privately owned by Peter Lavin and its head chef is one of the Welsh National Culinary Team. I can say with quiet assurance that I would not get a job there now.
West of Conwy we spent a jolly day at the Greenwood Centre near Y Felinheli. Plenty of educational stuff about trees is tempered by a lot of enormously fun things to do with only a tenuous connection to them.
There is stilt-walking, archery and a huge slide. While on the slide you are drenched with water replicating the experience of rain even on the brightest day.
We stayed at Portmeirion, that dreamy Italianate village designed by Clough Williams-Ellis (1883-1978). Little houses, painted ochre, terracotta and turquoise tumble over the hillside in an artfully contrived jumble.
There are sumptuous gardens with palms, cascading flowers and chiselled topiary of yew and box. And the view from the hotel dining room - over a perfect parabola of ochre sands - is simply breathtaking.
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs
LOCH LOMOND AND THE TROSSACHS
The largest expanse of freshwater in Britain, Loch Lomond was designated a National Park last year along with the glens and lochs of the Trossachs.
Less than an hour from Glasgow and not much more from Edinburgh, Loch Lomond is the geological heart of Scotland where Highlands and Lowlands merge.
The Loch Lomond Shores visitor centre offers views from a seven-storey castle, explains one of the richest habitats in the UK, and proposes a feast of walking ideas. A cinema shows The Legend Of Loch Lomond. There are picnic areas, a pebble beach, children's adventure playground and boats.
Access to the loch shore used to be restricted, now much of it is open to walkers. Only your legs will tell you when to stop - preferably after you have seen one of the resident golden eagles.
One of Scotland's best long-distance trails, the West Highland Way, runs along the entire east shore of Loch Lomond on its way from Milngavie, outside Glasgow, to Fort William.
Tourist information: Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park HQ, Old Station, Balloch Road, Balloch G83 8SS (Tel:01389 722600)
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| | | | Exmoor, Devon and Somerset
EXMOOR, DEVON AND SOMERSET
Its proud eyes gazing high, the red deer was as fine a sight as anything on the plains of Africa.
We found it kneedeep in heather on one of Exmoor's trademark sudden slopes, tumbling away to a wood-cloaked stream. This is the only place where red deer are found, truly wild, outside Scotland.
We stayed at Exford, deep in the Exmoor National Park, where the Friday night company in the pub was convivial. There's a friendly youth hostel and the fine White Horse Inn, next to the old stone bridge over the River Exe.
Footpath signposts beckon at almost every field gate. The choice from 600 miles of rights of way, including bridleways, ranges from the easiest stroll along the Exe to the Macmillan Way West (supported by the cancer charity) which crosses Exmoor at the end of a classic cross-England route.
The Exe Valley Way runs 45 miles across Devon between the Exe Estuary and the heights of Exmoor.
The Two Moors Way connects Dartmoor with the Bristol Channel on the top of Exmoor. And that's where we ended up, walking the South West Coast Path, taking in the huge panoramas to beaches far below.
Tourist information: West Country Holiday Line Tel: 0870 442 0880
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