Destination awards and accolades recently won by Wales

• Wales has many places to enjoy fine dining and award winning restaurants. Four restaurants feature in SquareMeal's UK’s Top 100 Restaurants for 2025, with Gareth Ward's Two Michelin star Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms at number 2. Gwen Restaurant, Machynlleth (also owned by Gareth Ward of Ynyshir) also features, as does The Jackdaw, Conwy and Annwn, Narberth
   
• Allt Yr Afon at The Wolfscastle awarded 3 AA Rosettes. The restaurant in 4 star Wolfscastle Country Hotel & Spa in Haverfordwest, West Wales, offers modern classic cooking in a historic location
   
• Harbourmaster in Aberaeron, Ceredigion named as The Times 'Wales Hotel of the Year'
   
• Coety Bach, a cabin with private hot tub in rural Mid Wales, awarded Best Romantic Getaway in Wales for 2025 in the UK Enterprise Awards
   
• The Angel Hotel, Abergavenny named by The Times as 'Best Foodie Hotel'  in the UK for 2025
   
• Cardiff comes in at number nine on The 15 Best Places To Visit In The UK In 2025, ranked by Time Out Editors
   
• Gower has recently won the international acclaim by being designated an International Dark Sky Community
   
• Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park has won Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel - Most Underrated Park for 2025

• A position in Lonely Planet’s ‘Best in Travel 2024’ awards for ‘Best Sustainable Destination’ for the Wales by Trails concept
   
• Five Welsh beaches feature in Time Out's Top Beaches in the UK – four in the top 20. Freshwater West and Rhossili are in the third and fourth place, with Barafundle Bay, Morfa Nefyn and Llandudno also featuring. Rhossili Bay features on Lonely Planet's World's Best Beaches for 2024
   
• The Times the UK’s 50 best beaches feature 10 Welsh beaches, with Llanddwyn, Anglesey and Porth Iago, Gwynedd in North Wales. Penbryn, Ceredigion, Mwnt, Ceredigion, Pendine Sands, Carmarthenshire in Mid Wales make the list.. In West Wales Manorbier, Pembrokeshire, Mewslade and Oxwich, Gower and the Wales regional winner Freshwater West, Pembrokeshire feature. In South Wales Monknash/Cwm Nash, Vale of Glamorgan is listed

• Pettigrew Bakeries in Cardiff, one of the tasty Welsh food and drink from local independent producers, named Craft Bakery of the Year’ at the UK Baking Industry Awards
   
• Five restaurants featured on SquareMeal's UK’s Top 100 Restaurants for 2024, with Gareth Ward's Two Michelin star Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms at number 2. It is described as one of the UK’s most unique, unmissable restaurants. Gwen Restaurant, Machynlleth (also owned by Gareth Ward of Ynyshir), The Jackdaw, Conwy, Annwn, Narberth and Michelin star Home at Penarth also featured
   
• The Good Food Guide 2024 Exceptional & World Class Restaurants featured Ynyshir as a World Class Restaurant. ​​​​​​Annwn, Narberth, Home at Penarth and Michelin star Sosban and the Old Butchers, Anglesey are listed as Exceptional Restaurants

• Hay Castle's revamp by MICA Architects has been named Welsh building of the year by the Royal Society of Architects in Wales (RSAW)
   
• Ty Cwch Boathouse wins the Green Tourism Gold Award, for finding greener ways to run their business
   
• The Checkers in Montgomery awarded AA Restaurant with Rooms of the Year Wales 2024
   
• AA Restaurant of the Year Wales Thomas by Tom Simmons, Cardiff
   
• AA Hotels of the Year The Parkgate Hotel, Cardiff
   
• AA Wine Award Wales Plas Dinas Country House, Caernarfon
   
• voco St David’s Cardiff wins Wales’ Best MICE Hotel 2024
   
• The Dreaming named the best spa in Wales by The Times and Sunday Times 50 Best UK spas guide
   
• Tyddyn Isaf Caravan Park named as the AA's campsite of the year
   
• Lisvane & Llanishen Reservoirs win RIC UK award for sustainable development
   
• Cardiff's Queen Street came first in a consumer survey by GlobalData for American Express to find Britain’s best high street. There are many choices for shopping in the capital city, with Cardiff and many of places in Wales offering a range of independent shops

• The World Media Group has announced Cymru Wales as the Grand Prix winner of the 2023 World Media Awards and ‘Wales To The World’ campaign also won the Travel & Tourism category. It capitalised on the opportunity to showcase the nation to an international audience when Wales qualified for the FIFA World Cup finals for the first time in 64 years. Other brands included Adidas, Birkenstock, Visa and Volkswagen
   
• Cardiff - Best UK City and Most Friendly UK city in 2023 at the Readers’ Choice Awards (CN Traveller)
   
• Pontcysyllte Aqueduct – the world’s most beautiful UNESCO site in the UK (TimeOut London – according to tour operator Explore Worldwide). There are six other sites with UNESCO World Heritage Status in Wales to discover
   
• Angela Shanley Associates (Cambria@ASA) – tour operator of the year (UKinbound). In June 2022 Angela Shanley Associates welcomed Wales specialists Cambria DMC into the ASA group offering a complete DMC service dedicated to Wales for FIT, Group & Business Events travel
   
• The Royal Mint – best museum or gallery and runner up best guided tour (Group Leisure & Travel Awards 2023). Tourist attraction of the year (Welsh Hospitality Awards 2023)
   
• Hensol Castle Distillery - TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Award 2023 for the second year
   
• Pembrokeshire – included in best destinations to visit in 2023 (Rough Guides). Pembrokeshire - one of the 20 highest scores in Leading Places Tourism Sentiment Index, ranking it among the top 100 most loved destinations in the world. The list is based on review sites and millions of online conversations
   
• Solva included in 20 most beautiful villages in the UK and Ireland (CN Traveller)
   
• Wales featured in global list of places to go in 2023 and on list of 13 exciting UK destinations for 2023 (Conde Nast)
   
• Cardigan featured in the top three Best UK Places to Visit in 2023 – (TimeOut)
   
• Penally Abbey Hotel, Tenby named AA Hotel of the Year (Wales)
   
• The Jackdaw, Conwy named AA Restaurant of the Year (Wales)
   
• Plas Tan yr Allt won Rural Hotel of the Year 2023/24 Wales Prestige Awards, Historic Country House of the Year 2023, Resorts and Retreats Awards and Best Georgian Country House in Wales LUX Life Travel & Tourism Awards 2023
   
• Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms named AA Restaurant with Rooms of the Year (Wales); National (UK) Restaurant of the Year (National Restaurant Awards, second year running)
   
• The Coastal Way, a 180-mile (290km) route that runs the entire length of Cardigan Bay, came second in TimeOut's UK’s most epic road trip. 

• Global award winning and AA rated 5 star luxury hotel voco® St David’s Cardiff won a Green Key accreditation for its environmental and sustainability efforts. The prestigious, international eco-label is awarded to tourism and hospitality businesses in recognition of their commitment to ensuring that their establishment adheres to the strict criteria stipulated by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE)
   
• The Old Vicarage in Corris near Machynlleth won the marketing and social category of the 2023 Excellence in Luxury Service Awards. Luxury B&B Magazine whose judges selected the four bedroom 5 star guest house for working hard to promote the business together with the local community. This new accolade is added to five star gradings from Visit Wales and the AA who also gave the guest house an award for its three course breakfasts
   
• The Grove of Narberth won the UK’s Best Small Hotel by TripAdvisor in the Travellers’ Choice Best of the Best Hotels 2023
   
• Good Hotel Guide's Winner of Editor’s Choice 2023 Awards for Country House awarded to Bodysgallen Hall & Spa

Previous awards include in 2019, Wales was listed in Rough Guide's Most Beautiful Countries in the World list. 'There’s a lot of love for this country among our readers – and many of us have nostalgic memories of summer holidays along the coast of Wales,' say Rough Guide. 'With beaches that could rival the Mediterranean (on sunny days at least), plus a slew of historic castles, mountains to climb, coast paths to walk, and of course, buttered Welsh cakes to eat, there's a host of entertaining ways to spend your days. We think a walk along the Pembrokeshire coastline followed by a hearty lunch in a cosy coastal pub is quite hard to beat.'

We have so many beautiful beaches in Wales, and we are very proud that in July 2019, The Sunday Times’ Beach of the Year was awarded to Castle Beach in Tenby. 

Visit Wales received The Times and Sunday Times Travel Editor’s Award, selected by travel editor Duncan Craig at the News UK Travel Awards 2019 in London;

The Wales Way has been named among 25 of the best trips in the world to take in 2020, according to the National Geographic's international editorial teams. The Wales Way featured number 3 in the ‘Adventure Trip’ category, topped by Tasmania, Australia (1), Grossglockner High Alpine Road, Austria (2), and ahead of Tohoku, Japan (4), Kamchatka, Russia (5), and Zakouma National Park, Chad (6);

We won the Silver Award in the International Travel and Tourism Awards for Best Destination Marketing Campaign – Country for our Year of Legends campaign.

In 2017, Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel featured North Wales, which was named on the list of the Top 10 Regions for 2017. North Wales was the only place in the UK included in Best in Travel 2017, and according to Lonely Planet ‘earned its place as a must-see destination for 2017 thanks to the region’s reinvention‘. Penrhyn Quarry is the amazing setting for Zip World Velocity, and if you visit Bounce Below at Zip World Slate Cavern Adventures, you’ll be bouncing around in what was once a Victorian slate mine.

Every year, expert travellers from Lonely Planet tour the world to find 10 of the best countries, cities and regions to visit for the year ahead. From charismatic old quarters to modern masterpieces of architecture, they take it all in to come up with a list of 30 places that travellers need to check out and publish it online and in paperback.

The Best in Travel list is a high-profile, agenda-setting selection of destinations, offering tourists something new that they possibly haven’t thought about before. All of the places included have something extra special about them, be it beautiful scenery, amazing adventuring opportunities or exquisite cuisine. To make the list means you're quite a big deal.

In 2016, Wales was named as one of the top ten countries to visit in the world by leading travel guide, Rough Guides. We beat both Kenya and Sri Lanka to be ranked number 8 in the list, thanks to our ‘extraordinary beauty and remarkably preserved historical sites’. The guide went on to say ‘Culture vultures, foodies, festival junkies, adventurers, hikers and extreme sports enthusiasts will be spellbound here. Wales celebrates its “Year of Adventure” in 2016, and there’s no better time to explore one of the finest natural playgrounds in Europe.'.