By AMY PAY

Amy Pay is a freelance journalist and content creator living in Cardiff. She writes features about travel, lifestyle, tech and business, with work published by Lonely Planet, Evening Standard, The Telegraph, BBC, The Guardian, BuzzFeed, food magazines and others. Amy is passionate about sharing hidden spots only locals know, micro-adventures, vegan living and gaming.

Welsh heritage: Sightseeing tours

Unlock the past with a sightseeing tour from a specialist guide. They’ll bring our wonderful castles, monuments and museums to life with tales of poets, princes, dragons and ghosts.

Cardigan, Cenarth & the Wool Museum

In the Cenarth, Cardigan and National Wool Museum tour, West Wales specialist Marion Davies will show you the heritage rich Teifi Valley. Visit Cardigan, an elegant, largely Welsh speaking town with a dramatic Norman Castle, and Cenarth, home to the National Coracle Centre and a 17th century mill. You’ll also go to the National Wool Museum in Drefach Felindre, a village which used to produce blankets, shirts and socks by the cartload.

Castles and Forts of North Wales

Distilling centuries of history into a two day tour, Celticos will show you the best of Celtic, Roman and medieval North Wales and introduce you to the story of the Princes of Gwynedd. This fascinating route covers over a dozen castles, forts and burial chambers in Snowdonia and Anglesey, including Conwy, Caernarfon, Segontium and Dolbadarn.

The Dylan Thomas Birthday Walk, Laugharne

Created by local Dylan Thomas enthusiast Bob Stevens, this is a two-mile self-guided walk around Laugharne’s inspiring landscapes, marked by benches engraved with lines of the great man’s poetry. The name is a reference to ‘Poem in October’, one of Thomas’ best loved poems, describing a walk on his 30th birthday. Follow the Dylan Thomas Birthday Walk on your own birthday and local businesses will offer you treats on the house.

Family tree and heritage tours

If you were born into a family with Welsh roots but have never visited the places where your ancestors lived, Celticos can help. They will connect you with specialist genealogical researchers who will piece together your family tree and plan a tour of the places where your forefathers were born, married or buried, and sites where they farmed or mined. Welsh-American family links are a speciality. Dragon Tours offer a similar service.

I Predict a Riot: The Chartists

In November 1839, John Frost led a group of passionate political activists, many of them coal-miners, on a march in the town of Newport. The aim of the Chartists was to demand the kind of democratic freedoms we now largely take for granted. Phil Coates will guide you to historic industrial sites in the South Wales Valleys, the Wye Valley and the Vale of Usk to tell the full story.

Mountains, Mines and Ale

Starting in Cardiff, the Sightseeing tour of Mountains, Mines & Ale in Wales  begins with a journey to the former heart of industrial South Wales: the Blaenavon World Heritage Site. Here, you’ll visit Big Pit, the National Coal Museum, for a fascinating tour led by a former miner. From there, a drive through the mountains takes you on to discover another great Welsh product – real ale – at the nearby Rhymney Brewery. The day ends in the foodie market town of Abergavenny.

Tawe River Heritage Trail

The lower Tawe Valley, where the River Tawe flows south towards Swansea Bay, was a hive of copper, coal, lead, nickel and porcelain production in the 18th and 19th centuries. At one time, over 90 per cent of the world’s copper came from Swansea. Take a short heritage cruise on the Tawe with the Swansea Community Boat Trust, and you’ll learn about the river’s role in Welsh history.

Romans and Ruins

On this Wye Valley tour by See Wales, you’ll see priceless Roman jewels retrieved from a drain, an abbey that inspired Turner and Wordsworth and one of the finest late-medieval fortresses in Britain. You’ll start in Caerleon, where you can visit the Roman amphitheatre and bathhouse, then head east to the romantic ruins of Tintern Abbey and north to Raglan Castle.

Royal Anglesey

North Wales expert Amanda Whitehead, a Blue Badge Guide, will take you right back to the 7th century. The Royal Anglesey is a tour of historic sites with connections to kings, princes and princesses of Wales, England and France. Amanda also offers a two-day Pilgrims Way tour of holy sites in Flintshire, Snowdonia and the Llŷn Peninsula.

The Story of Wales

With Planet Wales, the story of Wales can be as short and sweet or as long and involved as you like. They will tailor a guided tour of our most absorbing heritage sites lasting anything from a day to several days, according to your interests. A qualified historian will tell you about the people who shaped the land and show you why Wales has more castles per square mile than any other country on earth.

Cardiff Cycle Tours

During the warmer months of the year, Cardiff Cycle Tours offer a number of expert-let bike rides around some of the capital’s most famous sites. They provide the bikes and helmets and plan a fairly easy route that’s flat and mostly off-road. Over three hours, you’ll traverse parks, rivers, docks and heritage sites, learning how Cardiff grew from a small town to a thriving capital in less than two centuries.

City Sightseeing Cardiff

Take the strain off your feet with a tour aboard the City Sightseeing Cardiff bus. Multiple buses circle the city every 30 minutes, with audio commentary as the bus drives from one site to another. You can hop on and off as you wish, which is useful if you want to explore some of the points in more detail. Stops include Cardiff Castle, National Museum Cardiff, the Wales Millennium Centre, Techniquest, St David’s Dewi Sant and the Principality Stadium.