Survival Guide - Wales - page 657

gested car tours. The free Wales Bus, Rail and Tourist Map and Guide manages to map just about every bus and train
route in Wales that has more than three services per week, plus the essentials of bus, train and ferry connections into
Wales, as well as tables of frequencies and information numbers. Both maps will come in very handy on the ground.
Free regional transport booklets, with complete maps and timetables, are also available at tourist offices, and train sta-
tions stock free timetables provided by each train operator.
For motoring, there is a huge array of maps available. You can pick up a decent road map, such as the AA Road Atlas
Great Britain and Ireland, at just about any motorway service station you stop at on the way through Wales. Also look
for the OS Routemaster series at 1:250,000, while A to Z publishes 1:200,000 North Wales and South Wales road maps,
with useful detailed town indexes.
For walkers and cyclists, it's essential to have a good map before setting off on any trip. Most tourist offices and local
bookshops stock maps produced by the UK's national mapping agency, the Ordnance Survey (OS;
www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk ) , which cover its regions, including the useful 1:50,000 Landranger series and the excruci-
atingly detailed 1:25,000 Explorer series. OS Pathfinder Walking Guides cover short walks in popular areas, and Out-
door Leisure maps cover the national parks, both at 1:25,000.
Maps can be ordered online at the OS website or from www.amazon.co.uk .
Toilets
Public toilets can be a hit-and-miss affair, depending on how much the local council spends on their upkeep, but they are
almost always of the sit-down variety and equipped with toilet paper. In major towns and cities, the public toilets are
generally clean and free to use. Likewise, toilets at train stations and motorway service stations are regularly maintained
and fine on the whole.
For a more luxurious loo off the beaten track, you can always stop off at a local cafe, a village pub or a rural coffee
shop to use the facilities. You will be expected to buy a coffee or drink while you're there, but it's a chance to sit down
and plan your route at the same time.
If you're particularly concerned about public conveniences, do some advance research at www.loo.co.uk .
Tourist Information
Wales is blessed with a network of superb, government-funded tourist offices in just about every major town and city
you could hope to visit, and they are staffed with friendly, knowledgeable staff. Make the tourist office your friend. It
will serve you well.
Tourist offices can provide maps and brochures, and often also feature books on Welsh culture, food and mythology,
OS maps for walkers, and even local art exhibitions. Staff speak English, often Welsh, and sometimes have a basic grasp
of other main European languages. For specialist outdoors information, towns in and around Wales' three national parks
also often boast a tourist office run by the park (which can be attached to the regular town tourist office).
Many tourist offices make local hotel and B&B reservations, sometimes for a small fee; you pay a £2 fee and a 10%
deposit, which is then deducted from the cost of your accommodation. Some tourist offices now have limited currency-
exchange services and internet access, the latter especially in more rural areas.
Visit Wales ( 08708-300306; www.visitwales.co.uk ; 9am-5pm Mon-Fri) is the department for tourism within
the National (Welsh) Assembly. Its contact centre is your first port of call for information on holidays and short breaks
in Wales.