A lovely walk in the park!…read more We came here just to walk around on our last afternoon in Cardiff. We were tired of the Arcades and shopping. We wanted some natural scenery. This was a lovely walk. There was a cute cafe we popped into for a cup of tea on our walk.

We love walking through this park. Bute Park was originally part of the Cardiff Castle grounds…read more It is a spot of peaceful tranquility along the River Taff. There are a couple cafes in the park for drinks or a snack. It really is a beautiful place to stroll and enjoy the trees.

Last year I decided to try some of this windsurfing lark at The Channel view leisure centre,…read morededicated water to all things water sports related. I went on the absolute beginners course which to begin with is expensive. £124 for two days. But once you get your level one it goes down to £34 for 5 sesh so gets better as you do. What consists of the beginners course is to begin with an on land simulator to make you feel an utter charlie. YOu are embarrassingly guided by qualified wind surfing tutors. You are then allowed out in the wet stuff after a few hours and this is where the real fun begins. Expect to get wet, col and spend more time off your board than on it...Well me anyway. It was so much fun my face was hearting from smiling so much over the two days. It's a great way to meet people and you become quite close to your group over the time and I still speak to a couple of the people I met there. There is so much more at CBWAC with Kayaking, sailing, rowing and power boating. If summer pops up this year you must visit here!

This Centre is housed in a purpose-built facility in South Cardiff, on the edge of the River Taff…read moreby Cardiff Bay. Despite the name, they actually offer activities both in the water and on land - including climbing (using Channel View's indoor climbing wall and automatic belaying equipment, as well as the outside bouldering facility); archery; bell boating in a vessel up the Taff; bush survival skills; trail biking; sailing; windsurfing; course and sea fishing; rowing; etc. For parties and corporate days they do day packages, and this is what I've experienced - all great fun, with excellent tuition and guidance, and a choice of 16 different activities (though obviously you have to choose in advance and book which you want to do, as there's not enough time to fit all of them in!). Great for a team day out away from the office.

If you're visiting the enchanting fairytale castle of Castell Coch, it's well worth exploring this…read moreancient woodland that surrounds it, and the sculpture trail of public art. It's Forestry Commission Beech woodland linked to the castle by public rights of Way, and is popular with walkers and horse riders. It's also along the Taff Trail route, so you can walk or cycle directly to or from Cardiff to Castell Coch and its woodlands In the Springtime, particularly May, it's especially beautiful - as is the case with many of Cardiff's woodlands. The rather 'aromatic' white garlic flowers carpet the woodland floor, along with bluebells and wood anemone - and this is one of the best times to visit.

Oh, wow. I love…read morestumbling across old childhood memories and getting ridiculously excited about them all over again. Llanishen Leisure Centre is one of those places. As an excited child, I recall this place seeming like it took over an age to get to, so was surprised to drive past it the other day and discover that it wasn't 20,000 miles outside Cardiff like I'd always imagined. In actuality it's an easy 15 minute drive from the centre. Who knew? Llanishen Leisure Centre has the most spectacular of swimming pools. Oh, the fun and jollity I did have there. There is a fountain and hundreds of floats and giant balls the big kids always tried to stand on (I was resolute that I was not tall enough/I was a coward). There is also, majesty of majesty, a wave machine. A giant wave machine! The pool itself has a gradual incline from one end so you can walk in as you might walk into the sea. This means that the pool is great for all ages, and it's easy to keep an eye on the extra small ones with the help of the ever present lifeguard. When the siren for the waves (yay!) goes off, they actually break and roll up the side of the pool, making great sport for active imaginations. Llanishen Leisure Centre also has a whole heap of badminton and squash courts, a gym, yoga, swimming lessons and a pool-side cafe and pool tables. Did I mention the wave machine?

Tried to book a handful of slots on their shockingly slow, clunky and useless website. It only gave…read moreme the option to book one, impossible to book more than that. Thought I'd try phoning the helpline to speak to someone who could talk me through it. Spent ages going through all the options only to be hung up on after requesting to speak to an advisor. Appalling customer service the last time I went there, but thought I'd give it another try. never, ever again. Anyone wanting to go there should look at all the awful reviews online about this place and make their mind up.

Victoria Park is, apparently, one of the most popular parks in the UK. I can understand why. This…read morepark is full of flowers (beware, hay-fever sufferers), trees, winding paths and grassy areas. This is a fantastic place to bring children on a sunny summer day. Victoria Park is probably most famous for its spectacular playground and massive shallow paddling pool (in the summer). Imagine ice creams and picnics and children splashing water everywhere. Good times. There are also a number of summer events that go on in this park. Summer Fetes and Scout/Guide events, face painting and throwing wet sponges at teachers. There is also a bandstand and a cafe. The only thing wrong with this park is its popularity, as it does manage to get heavingly busy on hot days. You've been warned. I have lovely memories from Victoria Park, so could you!

A lovely traditional park, covering nearly 20 acres, situated just west of Canton, on Cowbridge…read moreRoad. It has been awarded a prestigious 'Green Flag' award and attracts over 600,000 visitors a year. It was founded in 1897 and contains a mixture of traditional flower beds, mature trees, a paddling pool, bandstand, children's playground, tennis courts, a 5-a-side football pitch, and open lawns. There's a cafe, toilets and a park-keeper's lodge - one of the few left in the UK where the keeper lives on site. The park used to have animals in a small zoo (my mother used to visit them in the early 1930s), most famously Billy the Seal; caught accidentally by a local fishing boat in 1912, he was donated to the park, living there until 1939. After he died, he was found to be female! She is commemorated by a life-size statue in the park. A great place for families and children, as well as for a quiet stroll.

These gardens feel a little like a secret when you're in them. They're not as busy as the main part…read moreof Roath Park surrounding the lake can sometimes be on a Summer's day and they offer a relaxing addition to your walk around this Cardiff favourite. There's a huge greenhouse full of more exotic plants that you have to pay to get into, I think. They also sell bird seed at the entrance to this greenhouse for something like 20p if you want to go and feed the ducks. Last time I did this there was no one manning the seed bags, some people may have seen this as an opportunity for some free seeds, which can be too tempting for some, but our conscience kicked in and we made sure to leave our 20 pence pieces. I regretted this later as I didn't have enough for the bus home. True and less than exciting story.

My housemates thought that this was Roath Park. When I took them on that little bit further to real…read moreRoath Park, they were extremely excited. After you've walked around Roath Park's lake in the middle of a hot day, you will be a little disappointed to discover that the Pleasure Gardens are not one and the same. However, the Gardens are gorgeous on their own. It is a completely beautiful little park, quite quaint in some ways as it has a little river running through the middle of it. However, it also has a basketball court and a couple of tennis courts. There is also a bowling green. There are a lot of trees and you'll feel as though you're walking through a little woodland, something that I really miss living in Cardiff. Also, birdsong from birds apart from seagulls - lovely.

This park in Pentwyn has the area's leisure centre within its boundaries, plus sports pitches and a…read morebowling green surrounded by borders of flowers and plants and some covered seating. The best thing about this space, however, is the large area of centuries-old woodland it incorporates, which is the most established part of the park (the rest was created more recently when the residential housing area was created). There are wilder woodlands than these in other locations in and around Cardiff, but Parc Coed y Nant's woods still offer a great escape for Pentwyn residents. Next to the woods there's a large lake often lined with people fishing, with swans and other birdlife swimming about. The park is not far from the River Rhymney and more rural areas, so if you keep your eyes peeled you can sometimes spot more unusual visitors such as the odd kingfisher or heron around the lakeside. If you're visiting the park by car, you can park in the leisure centre car park.

Boasting a wide variety of weights, resistance and cardio equipment, Fitness Solutions offers…read moreeverything you need to get in shape and achieve your training goals, be it fat loss, bodybuilding or simply maintaining general health and wellbeing. The large cardio area includes numerous exercise bikes, cross trainers and running machines, as well as rowing machines and steppers for a maximum cardio workout, while the weights room has a full rack of dumbbells and numerous benches along with a smith machine and a squat rack for those looking to build and tone specific muscle groups. In addition to these, there are many machine weights such as the cables, a pec deck, a shoulder press and two chest press machines. Also, a varied selection of supplements are available at decent prices to help you make the most out of your session without having to shop elsewhere and fork out on expensive store prices. With a recent expansion to include a second floor, there is now even more facilities and services on hand for members, such as dietary advice, sports massage and a unisex hair salon. Add to this the already established sauna and Jacuzzi area and there really are no excuses for being too tired to train. Regardless of experience, Fitness Solutions caters for all levels of training. With friendly staff on hand to help out with assistance and advice, this is a superb gym for both the competent regular looking to continue their routine training and also the inexperienced newcomer hoping to drop a few unwanted pounds.

This gym is fantastic! The staff are great and very welcoming. Unlike most ive vistited before…read more Great prices! And yummy milkshakes! Highly recommend this gym.

If you're a Christmas-lover, you're going to love Cardiff's Winter Wonderland, full stop. I came…read morehere on the 23rd and the atmosphere was fantastic. ~ Atmosphere: Really where the stars come from! Even though the place is super crowded, it wasn't dirty because there was constantly staff walking around ensuring that all the litter left by drunk people were cleaned up. There's music playing and be sure to snag a seat by huge German sausage BBQ pit, the smell is divine! The Christmas decor was top notch as well, with the traditional wood cabins for all the food stalls and shops. ~ Variety: The main reason why they don't get a full 5 stars from me. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of things to do if you have kids. A good 3/4 of the event space is composed of kid-friendly rides! Guaranteed that your children would be massively entertained for hours here. Unfortunately, my partner and I didn't have any kids and adult entertainment is limited. There's ice skating, a bar, ice sculpture viewing, and a ferris wheel. A small selection of things that doesn't really populate an entire evening (though I guess you can spend plenty of time at the bar). ~ Food: The food they had here was definitely amazing, though I'm slightly disappointed at the choices. They had plenty of drinks options, but only sausages for hot food. Desserts however include crepes; nutella crepes anybody?! They were absolutely delicious! --- Overall, Winter Wonderland gets a 4 stars from me. Lacking in entertainment for adults, but what I did get I was really happy with!

The Winter Wonderland is the most Christmasy thing to possibly do this side of the North Pole…read more Now be warned this make-shift park is only open from November and closes in the January, so try and plan your visit around these dates if you fancy a 'festive fancy'. With an ice-rink, fairground, tents filled to the brim with winter warmers and treats, if your not feeling festive by the time you've left your name must be Ebaneezer. Even me, the harshest Christmas critic left planning on putting a tree up. With so much to do and such a pretty, happy atmosphere this is a must for people who still believe in the guy with the red suit. The ice rink is a nice size and plays up to the date chart music mixed in with the odd carol. Staff have that friendly aura that usually only comes with Disney Land. The hot chocolate, although slightly pricey is seriously out of this world and if you feel like being really cheeky add a sneaky Baileys. I'm off now to play; 'Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!'

This is an indoor entertainment complex packing in all the elements you'd expect from a place like…read morethis, such as a cinema, a bowling alley and lots of restaurants - plus it's also home to one of South Wales's best-established radio stations, Red Dragon FM. It's located just a short walk from the main Mermaid Quay area of Cardiff Bay, and offers a warm refuge from the harsh weather that often hits that part of the city in the winter. It's open seven days a week and is home to Wales' only IMAX cinema screen (within the Odeon cinema), plus the 26-lane Hollywood Bowl bowling alley, Grosvenor Casino, the Doctor Who 'Up Close' exhibition, and lots of restaurants - including big chains such as Bella Italia and Chiquito. There's also a Cadwaladers ice cream parlour, an Indian and a Chinese restaurant, and a family sports bar with loads of screens and pool tables called R Bar. Overall it aims to offer a variety of things to do, all in a dry, indoor environment. It's not a particularly exciting venue, but on a wet and windy day it's an easy place to park up for free and take your family for some entertainment or food. Sometimes - particularly during school holidays - they have special events such as craft workshops, live jazz, or even anti-bullying workshops.

This centre is sometimes over looked due to Mermaid quay's reputation shining a little brighter in…read morethe world of attractions for visitors to Cardiff Bay and yet its only 5 minutes walk away. You can watch a film do some bowling and eat and drink to your hearts content, whether it be Chinese, Italian or plain old pub food. It also undercover, which in our Welsh climate can sometimes make the all the difference between a happy day and a cold miserable day. Parking also costs nothing as long as you patronise one of the establishments within the centre. Why wouldn't you want to go there?