Travel to Wales

Flying to Wales

Flights to Wales are served by Flybe (www.flybe.com) flies to Cardiff from Jersey, Edinburgh and Paris, while Lufthansa (www.lufthansa.com) fly to Cardiff from Dusseldorf. Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus.com) connects Cardiff with the USA (New York, Chicago or Boston) via Dublin.

Airport Guides

Flight times

From London flights take around 4 hours, with most indirect via Jersey. Flights to Cardiff from Dublin take 1 hour and 10 minutes, and from Paris 1 hour 30 minutes. Indirect flights from New York, via Dublin with Aer Lingus, take from around 9 hours 40 minutes.

Departure tax

None.

Travelling to Wales by Rail

There are two mainline routes into Wales. One runs from London Paddington to Fishguard along the south Wales coast (branching at Whitland to serve Haverford West and Milford Haven), while the other links Holyhead with Chester and northwest England before connecting with London Euston. In addition, the line from Cardiff to Chester (via Newport, Hereford and Shrewsbury) links the south Wales cities with Abergavenny in Gwent and Wrexham in Clwyd.

There are also two smaller cross-country lines. These run from Shrewsbury to Welshpool, Barmouth, Harlech, Porthmadog and Pwllheli; from Shrewsbury via Welshpool to Aberystwyth; and from Craven Arms (on the Shrewsbury-Ludlow line) through Llandrindod Wells and Llandovery down to Swansea. For details, contact National Rail Enquiries (tel: 0845 748 4950; www.nationalrail.co.uk).

Rail passes

A BritRail pass (www.britrail.com/uk) allows unlimited rail travel around the UK for a set number of days and within a set time period. Various options are available. These passes are not available to UK residents.

Driving to Wales

Once in the UK, driving to Wales is one of the easiest and most accessible ways to get to the country.. If driving from mainland Europe, the Channel Tunnel is the best way to get to the UK. From here on the south coast, the most direct route passes via London and then westwards onto the M4 motorway which crosses into South Wales. The A470 is one of the main roads leading north from Cardiff towards Snowdonia and Llandudno.

Driving note

National Express (tel: 0871 781 8178; www.nationalexpress.com) and Megabus (tel: 0871 266 3333; www.megabus.com) operate coach services between England and Wales and within Wales itslf.

Getting to Wales by boat

The main ports are at Fishguard, Holyhead (Anglesey) (www.holyheadport.com), Pembroke (www.mhpa.co.uk) and Swansea (www.abports.co.uk).

Ferry operators

Holyhead, Fishguard and Pembroke have ferry connections to the Republic of Ireland, with ferries run by Irish Ferries (tel: 0818 300 400; www.irishferries.com) and Stena Line (tel: 01776 802 165; www.stenaline.com).