Wales 5 (Lonely Planet)

I bought this book to help plan our trip to England & Wales. The book was invaluable in my being armed with information. I highly recommend it!

We are using this book as an aid to planning our trip to the southern coast of Wales. The maps are reasonably helpful and the listings of "sights" in each area are fairly comprehensive. There are some suggestions of eating places, and good shopping areas. I do wish, however, that there was an additional bit of info on which restaurants are especially family/kid friendly, since we will have 2 children, age 5 and 9, in tow.

Lonely Planet Guides are for "advanced" travellers, but this one is usable and very fine even for those of us who aren't in that category. It also seems to be the sole "Wales only" guidebook now available, so for those who plan to travel only in Wales and want detailed information about places, history, transportation etc. it is excellent. Although these days even the un-advanced can plan a trip by websites, most of us need a guide such as this to get started, and the material here proved more reliable than that on some websites. Realistic information about travel distances and times, cautious advice on how to climb Mt. Snowdon, and background about Welsh mythology all can be found here. The guide also tries to counter the "theme park" atmosphere by including the sad history of the collapse of mining and industry.