Villas in Wales

Table of Contents

• At a glance: What should you know about renting a villa in Wales?
• Villas in Wales: find your perfect retreat
• Exploring Wales: our top recommendations
• Activities: What are the top things to do and see in Wales?

• Large houses, few true villas: Wales rents out cottages, converted barns and roomy holiday houses, some sleeping up to 16 guests, rather than Mediterranean-style villas built around a courtyard pool.
• Space and privacy: Expect big kitchens, open-plan living rooms, gardens with barbecues and, on around half the listings, a private pool or hot tub.
• Where to base yourself: Pembrokeshire and the Gower for beaches, Eryri (Snowdonia) for mountains, Bannau Brycheiniog for quiet valleys.
• Dining worth the drive: Cardiff, Tenby and the Gower hold Michelin-recognised kitchens as well as unhurried bistros and seafood kitchens made for a long, late family dinner.
• Days out for everyone: Caernarfon Castle, Rhossili Bay, Hay-on-Wye and the Llŷn Peninsula all sit within a comfortable drive of the main letting areas.

A Welsh villa rarely looks Mediterranean. What you actually book is a generously sized private house: a stone cottage across the country, a converted barn, or one of the larger holiday homes and luxury rentals sleeping up to sixteen guests in open-plan comfort. Facilities on these bigger properties are more generous than the region's rugged reputation suggests.

• Private pools, found on many properties with a pool across the country
• Large kitchens with islands, built for cooking together
• Gardens, terraces and barbecues for long, light evenings
• Wood burners and snug lounges for wet Welsh afternoons
• Space for the dog, common on pet-friendly rentals

Together these features suit two families sharing, or a milestone birthday weekend.

What are the best areas to stay in Wales?

For a first large-house holiday, Pembrokeshire offers the widest choice of spacious coastal properties, while Cardiff suits groups who want city dining on the doorstep. The table below details regions for specific interests:

What do our guests say?

Guests booking the larger Welsh properties tend to praise the same things: the amount of room indoors, how well the kitchens work for group cooking, and how quickly you reach a beach or a mountain path from the gate. Hosts are regularly thanked for local walking notes and for stocking the log basket. Ratings are shown out of ten, so anything at 9.5+ has pleased almost everyone who stayed. Reviews from the past year point most often to the coastal properties on Anglesey and in Pembrokeshire, where guests single out the short walk to the sand and the amount of outdoor space.

Here are our top-rated places to stay in Wales from the past year:

1. Cottage for 4 people - 10.0+: A quiet Monmouthshire base with easy access to the Wye Valley, praised for comfort and space.
2. Cottage for 6 people, with yard, with pets - 10.0+: In Benllech on Anglesey, with an enclosed yard, room for the dog and beaches minutes away.
3. Cottage for 4 people - 10.0+: An Isle of Anglesey retreat guests describe as spotless, calm and well placed for the coast path.

Wales fills the western side of Great Britain: three national parks, mountain ranges rising above slate villages, wooded river valleys and a coastline running from Conwy round to Cardiff.

🥗Where to eat in Wales?

According to Google Maps data and reviews, Heaneys Restaurant is the best rated restaurant in Wales. Below is a table showing the top 5 highly-rated restaurants hand-picked by our travel experts.

⭐Our guests' recommendation: Our guest traveller Charlotte recommends the Beach House Oxwich in Wales: a long Saturday lunch above Oxwich Bay was the highlight of the week, with tasting plates of Welsh produce and the tide filling the bay beyond the windows.

1. Walk the walls at Caernarfon Castle
2. Ride the railway up Yr Wyddfa
3. Stretch out on Rhossili Bay
4. Follow the Pembrokeshire Coast Path
5. Chase the Bannau Brycheiniog waterfalls
6. Browse the bookshops of Hay-on-Wye
7. Drive the Llŷn Peninsula

1. Walk the walls at Caernarfon Castle

   Edward I's fortress at Caernarfon is the most imposing of the north Welsh castles, its banded stone towers standing over the Menai Strait and the old walled town. Part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it rewards a slow visit: spiral stairs, wall walks and long views towards Anglesey. Combine it with an hour wandering Caernarfon's harbour and independent shops, and it fills a comfortable half day from almost any north Wales base.

2. Ride the railway up Yr Wyddfa

   From Llanberis, the Snowdon Mountain Railway climbs to the summit of Yr Wyddfa, the highest peak in Wales, without a boot leaving the carriage. Services run seasonally and sell out in the school holidays, so book well ahead and check the forecast, since the summit can sit in cloud while Llanberis stays sunny. Walkers can take the train up and the Llanberis Path down, which is the gentler way round.

3. Stretch out on Rhossili Bay

   Three miles of pale sand at the western tip of the Gower, backed by Rhossili Down and pointing out towards the tidal causeway of Worm's Head. It is a beach for long walks and kite flying rather than crowded sunbathing, and the clifftop path above it is one of the best short walks in south Wales. Check the tide table before crossing to Worm's Head, and leave time for a coffee at the village.

4. Follow the Pembrokeshire Coast Path

   The Pembrokeshire Coast Path runs for 186 miles past cliffs, coves and seabird colonies, but you only need a couple of hours to enjoy it. The stretch between Tenby and Saundersfoot is easy going with children, while the cliffs around St Davids feel wilder. Boat trips to Skomer for puffins leave from Martin's Haven in early summer, and most sections end near a village with somewhere to eat.

5. Chase the Bannau Brycheiniog waterfalls

   In the southern corner of Bannau Brycheiniog, the Four Waterfalls Walk near Ystradfellte links a chain of falls through steep woodland, including Sgwd yr Eira, where the path passes behind the curtain of water. It takes around four hours with proper footwear, and the ground stays muddy long after rain. The wider national park is an International Dark Sky Reserve, so the drive home on a clear night is worth slowing down for.

6. Browse the bookshops of Hay-on-Wye

   On the edge of the national park, Hay-on-Wye packs dozens of secondhand and specialist bookshops into a few streets, a legacy of the town declaring itself an independent kingdom of books in 1977. The literary festival in late spring fills every bed for miles, but the shops, castle grounds and riverside walks are quietly enjoyable at any time. Bring a bag: nobody leaves with an empty one.

7. Drive the Llŷn Peninsula

   Reaching west from Eryri, the Llŷn Peninsula is one of the strongholds of the Welsh language and one of the country's quietest coastlines. Sail or swim at Abersoch, walk the headland at Porthdinllaen where the pub sits on the sand, and finish at Aberdaron looking across to Bardsey Island. The lanes are narrow and slow, which is rather the point of the day.