The 2006 "Rough Guide to Wales" features a part of Great Britain generally off the beaten track for most tourists coming from the United States. Although a small component part of the United Kingdom, Wales has fiercely maintained its independent character over the centuries. Travelers will find a geographically varied region celebrating its Celtic origins while welcoming tourists.
The Rough Guide to Wales combines vital visitor information, maps, graphics, and photographs in a compact format, along with the expected Rough Guide opinions on where to go and what to see. Wales offers some dramatic shoreline and equally dramatic hill country in Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons. Wales also features an excellent selection of castles, many in good repair and most open to the public. If some popular areas, especially along the seacoast, have become overrun with caravan (trailer) parks, other parts are relatively uncluttered and offer spectacular attractions. Wales has been a tourist destination for the British for many years and the infrastructure for accomodations, eating, and traveling are both well-developed and offer options across a broad price range.
The Rough Guide breaks down Wales into seven geographic regions in order to address to address the principal attractions, accomodation, and information on how to get around. Website addresses are generously included for those needing additional information about hours, rates, and times of specific facilities. The last portion of the guide features some interesting narrative essays on the history of Wales, its modern sense of nationalism, its natural history, and its music and other cultural attractions.
This guide is highly recommended to visitors to Wales. Coupled with the appropriate Ordnance Survey maps, the guide should be a very sufficient planning resource for most vacations.