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.

Doing the Taff trail was a great way to say goodbye to Wales after Uni. My housemates and I decided…read moreto cycle up from Pontypridd to Cardiff Bay and wave at anything and anyone we went past. It really is a beautiful trail and was great to hire the bikes for a reasonable price. It's along the river as the name suggests and you get to go past some beautiful valley scenery, I really recommend. Really do try this in the summer, you'll love it.

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.

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?

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 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!'

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 museum is the perfect price. Free! It is a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours. There…read moreis lots of natural history as well as cultural history. Everything is in both English and Welsh. The natural history area had videos ad well as exhibits detailing the geographic history of the region. The Art of the Selfie exhibit had a small cost which was quite fair. Van Gogh's Self Portrait was the main draw, but they also had Rembrandt and other artists. In the other rooms, there were so many artifacts. Rooms within rooms and beyond, you can lose hours reading about everything on display.

it was a pretty good experience, but no one warned me that the bloody dinosaurs are getting starved…read morebecause they are literally just bones. animal mistreatment is NOT a joke I want to support, I cannot believe the STATE of this museum. Good value for money as its free. Cool stones and a selection of STARVED AND DEAD animals. and the service was poor because they encourage this. the toilets are good for kids, AND OTHER THINGS.

This may be called a wetlands reserve but its more like a little walkway along the reed area of the…read moresea front. Its not very big and don't expect to see a huge array of animals. There are information boards around so if your a keen wildlife spotter or want to get the kids involved they are a nice touch. What it is, is a very peaceful spot where even on a very busy summers day you can find a spot to sit and enjoy the sun, or feed the ducks (although I don't think your meant too!)

This is a fairly exposed nature reserve with a boardwalk for visitors to stroll along, bordered by…read moremarshy reeds and offering views out over the Bay. These wetlands were created in 2002 when the barrage was completed to compensate partly for the disappearance of the old saline mudflats, which of course were being turned into a freshwater lake. The wetlands provide an important habitat for over-wintering and breeding birds, so the reserve is justifiably popular with birdwatchers. On a cold and windy day, this isn't the most pleasant open space you could choose to explore because it often gets really windy with a nasty chill factor - far better off finding some secluded woods to shelter in. In the summer, however, it's a different story - with some good views from the boardwalk back over the reserve and to the Bay's skyline and out to Cardiff Bay Barrage.