2024

  • 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 20Freshwater West and Rhossili are in the third and fourth place, with Barafundle BayMorfa 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.
Walkers at Rhossili.

Rhossili, West Wales

restaurant with rooms and surrounding countryside, with low clouds.
chef cooking with multiple sparks of fire.
food on table.

Ynyshir and Gareth Ward, chef and food, at Ynyshir, Mid Wales

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

2023

  • 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 – top three Best UK Places to Visit in 2023 – (TimeOut).
  • Penally Abbey Hotel, Tenby – AA Hotel of the Year (Wales)
  • The Jackdaw, Conwy – AA Restaurant of the Year (Wales)
  • Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms – 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. 

Aerial view of New Quay showing beach, harbour wall and village.

New Quay, Ceredigion, Mid Wales on The Coastal Way

  • 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.
  • 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

exterior of white hotel, surrounded by trees.
An old mansion set in beautiful gardens from above.

The Grove, Narberth, Pembrokeshire, West Wales and Bodysgallen Hall, Llandudno, North Wales

Previous awards

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.'

 

Wales Destination Awards 2019

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.

Castle Beach, Tenby - Sunday Times Beach of the Year 2019

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.'.

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