Wales Road Trip Tips!I have spent much of my life visiting Wales to see family but until recently I’d never spent any time exploring wales myself, but that changed when I decided to take myself on a road trip around Wales for a few days!
In this Wales travel guide, I want to share with you my wales road trip tips to help you with your Welsh road trip so you are prepared and you’re safe!
Wales Road Trip Tips
Keep reading for my top Wales Road Trip Tips!
Also see – best time to visit Wales to help you work out when to travel to wales!
1. Have change with you for parking!
Pretty much all of the car parking in wales at beaches, castles and major attractions are chargeable.
It can be from as little as £1.00 for an hour to about £5.00 a day but make sure you have those pound coins handy as most of them do not yet take cards! Most of us don’t carry cash these days but remember to get some out on your Wales road trip!
2. Be careful and have patience when driving down the lane roads!
This is my top safety wales road trip tip!
As soon as you come off the main roads Wales is full of one-way lane roads and your satnav will be sure to take you down a few thinking it’s the best way!
Although you may think it’s impossible to fit two cars down the road, the Welsh make it happen by being very patient!
How to navigate small one way lanes with 2 cars is to drive slowly and take the corners even slower so if someone is coming the other way you can stop.
There’s no need to drive more than 15mph, to be honest. Keep an eye on the inlets in the road and if you see a car coming at you then pull in and let them go past. Be sure to thank people too. The Welsh are very friendly!
My biggest Wales Road Trip Tips is to be patient on these roads!
3. Use a SatNav or Google Maps.
Talking of SatNav’s, definitely use one in Wales, or use google maps. Do not try to be a hero and work out where to go the old school way.
I was keeping an eye on the signs of where the satnav was taking me and most of the time the town or beach I wanted to go wasn’t even noted on the signs until I got closer which means you’ll have to go by road names which is way too confusing and I wouldn’t have had a clue where to go without the satnav so take this as one of my tips welsh road trip tips!
If you need to hire a car for your road trip around Wales, I suggest heading over to Rental Cars who check all of the top companies so you can compare the best prices and options!
4. Don’t get put off by the signs!
Remember that the Welsh have their own language so road signs and signs written on the roads are in both English and in Welsh.
I tend to get a bit panicky when I start seeing a sign with so much information on it but you soon realise that only half of it is applicable to you!
5. Google car park postcodes!
Typing the beach you want to visit into your satnav or google maps helps but it doesn’t always help work out where to park in Wales.
I soon discovered that after a bit of googling I could find the beach car park’s postcode and use that, and it didn’t fail me once.
6. Don’t rely on having internet and phone signal!
However saying that the phone and internet signal in Wales is hit and miss, especially when you’re out in the countryside or on a beach.
As I said, to find my way I was googling the postcodes of car parks for beaches and entering them in as I went, which was great until I was in a car park with no signal or 3G so I had to drive until I found the signal to search the postcode (which turned out to be in the wrong direction!).
I’d definitely suggest doing some research when you have internet and screenshotting postcodes so that you don’t end up not knowing where you are with no internet!
7. Don’t underestimate how much you can see!
Wales is only a small country and unless you are travelling the length of the country it doesn’t take long to get to places. They have lots of good A roads which tend to only get busy within the cities.
The M4 gets pretty busy at rush hour but apart from that it’s usually fine so be sure to fill your day with destinations!
These are 36 great places to visit on a Wales Road Trip!
Over 3 days I managed to spend time on Swansea Gower visiting Rhossili Bay
I spent 1 day exploring 5 beaches on the Pembroke Coast including doing a coastal walk!
And on my last day, I headed into the Brecon Beacons to hike up Pen Y Fan, and these Wales Road Trip Tips will help you do the same!
- More of my Wales Posts:
- Hiking Pen Y Fan in the Brecon Beacons.
- How to Climb Snowdon from Pen Y Pass!
- 16 Beautiful Staycations in Wales!
- 2 Day North Wales Itinerary!
- Places to visit on a Wales Road Trip!
- Best Time to Visit Wales!
- Amazing Glamping Pods in Wales with a Hot Tub!
- Amazing Glamping Pods in North Wales!
- How to Get to Barafundle Bay!
- How To Visit the Bosherston Lilly Ponds!
- Best Day Trips from Cardiff!
- Things to do in Saundersfoot!
- How to Walk from Tenby to Saundersfoot!
- Beautiful Tenby Cottages for Salf Catering in Tenby!
- Wales Road Trip Tips!
Rachel
Wednesday 11th of October 2017
Lovely post with brill pics - really makes me want to visit. Not so keen on those 2 way roads that look like tiny dirt tracks though! Watched your youtube video too which was fun.
TheWanderingQuinn
Wednesday 11th of October 2017
Thanks Rachel! It's so pretty in wales but the roads can be sooo tight in some places yes!! Haha. Glad you liked the video too :)