CARDIFF & THE SOUTH OF WALES - England 2012 and the Best of Wales - page 689

slate-floored bar with a log stove and red-leather sofas. Most of the bedrooms have
views of the bay, and most come with king-size beds. Some of the bathrooms have
whirlpool tubs and one has a “wet room.”
5 Bute Crescent, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff CF10 5AN. www.jolyons.co.uk. & 029/2048-8775. Fax [phone]-
8775. 6 units. £75-£150 double. AE, MC, V. Rates include Welsh breakfast. Amenities: Bar; room service.
In room: TV, hair dryer, Wi-Fi (free).
Park Inn Cardiff City Centre Next to the Cardiff International Arena, the
Park is stylish and classic. Spacious and well-furnished bedrooms are grouped around
an atrium, which gives access to the smart public rooms. A few family rooms are
available.
Mary Ann St., Cardiff CF10 2JH. www.cardiff-city.parkinn.co.uk. & 888/201-1801 or 029/2034-1441. Fax
029/2022-3742. 146 units. £85-£165 double. Rates include breakfast. AE, DC, MC, V. Parking £8. Ameni-
ties: Restaurant; bar; babysitting; room service. In room: TV, hair dryer, Wi-Fi (£10 per day).
INEXPENSIVE
Abbey Hotel Built in 1898 as a home for a wealthy sea captain and his family, this
place has many of its original features and is one of the better and more reasonably
priced B&Bs. Richard Burton once attended elocution lessons in the public lounge
back when the hotel was a private school. Bedrooms are small but comfortable. A few
have four-poster beds.
149-151 Cathedral Rd., Cardiff CF11 9PJ. www.bandb4u.co.uk. & 029/2039-0896. Fax [phone].
26 units (shower only). £60-£75 double. MC, V. Free parking. Amenities: Restaurant; bar. In room: TV,
hair dryer.
Big Sleep Hotel This place is part of a small chain of cool budget hotels
partly owned by actor John Malkovich. What was a 1960s' office block is a great place
to stay at great prices. Decor is sleek and modern, location is good (right by the St.
David's shopping mall), there's a decent bar, and you even get a continental breakfast.
Bute Terrace, Cardiff CF10 2FE. www.thebigsleephotel.com. & 029/2063-6363. Fax [phone].
81 units. Mon-Thurs £45-£69 double, £99 suite. Rates include continental breakfast. AE, MC, V. Parking
£6. Amenities: Bar. In room: TV, hair dryer, Wi-Fi (£7.50 per day).

18

THE WELSH VALLEYS:
THE WORLD OF COAL
165 miles W of London; 29 miles NE of Cardiff
The Welsh Valleys are the home of the coal industry. Or at least they were, until the
ones that were left were closed in the 1980s. But despite the hardship that followed,
the locals never gave up and have reinvented the brooding, often bleak, area as a
mecca for industrial-heritage tourism. Pits have been turned into museums and even
the most daunting landscape, littered with slag heaps and once-abandoned buildings,
has risen in a new clanking, grinding glory. The area around Blaenavon (on the edge
of the Black Mountains, southeast of Abergavenny) is one of the best. It's only a short
drive from Cardiff but might as well be in another world, in another century. Tour the
area, and you'll come across towns such as Merthyr Tydfil, which in 1845 had a popu-
lation of 40,000 thanks to its iron and steel industry. Here the Cyfarthfa Castle
Museum remembers the 1966 Aberfan disaster, when 20 houses and a school were
buried in a slag-heap slide killing 144 people, mostly children.