Wales

Perched on the rocky fringe of western Europe, Wales packs a lot of physical beauty into its small mass of land: its mountain ranges, lush valleys, ragged coastline, old-fashioned market towns and ancient castles all invite long and repeated visits. The culture, too, is compelling, whether in its Welsh- or English-language manifestations, its Celtic or its industrial traditions, its ancient cornerstones of belief or its contemporary chutzpah. Wales often gets short shrift in comparison to its Celtic cousins of Ireland and Scotland. Neither so internationally renowned nor so romantically perceived, the country is usually defined by its male voice choirs and tightly packed pit villages. But there’s far more to the place than the hackneyed stereotypes and, at its best, Wales is the most beguiling part of the British Isles. Even its comparative anonymity serves it well: where the tourist pound has swept away some of the more gritty aspects of local life in parts of Ireland and Scotland, reducing ancient cultures to misty Celtic pastiche, Wales remains brittle and brutal enough to be real, and diverse enough to remain endlessly fascinating.