Wales

Since 2012, all of Wales' famously beautiful coastal paths have been linked up in one continuous 870-mile route. Walk for two months or for two days – there's no rule that you have to do it all in one go. The best stretches take in the Gower's beautiful beaches, Pembrokeshire's multicoloured cliffs and limestone arches, the remote edges of the Llŷn Peninsula and the ancient vistas of Anglesey. And if you link it up with Offa's Dyke Path, you can circle the entire country!

The rugged northwest corner of the country has rocky mountain peaks, glacier-hewn valleys and lakes, sinuous ridges, sparkling rivers and charm-infused villages in abundance. The busiest part is around Snowdon itself, where hordes hike to the summit and many more take the less strenuous cog railway from Llanberis. Elsewhere in Snowdonia's rugged mountains are rarely trodden areas perfect for off-the-beaten-track exploration. Glorious under the summer sun and even better under a blanket of snow, Snowdonia is one of Wales' absolute treasures.

Some places have a presence all of their own, and that's certainly true of precious little St Davids. Officially a city but more like a large village, the peaceful home of Wales' patron saint has attracted the spiritually minded for centuries. Whether you come seeking salvation in the surf, hoping to commune with the whales in the Celtic Deep, or genuinely wishing to embrace the grace of Wales' patron saint, St Davids is a strangely affecting place.

The golden age of castle building happened to coincide with the golden age of 'let's show the Welsh what's what'. There's barely a town in Wales of any note that doesn't have a castle towering over it. None has a more symbiotic relationship with its settlement than Conwy. The castle still stretches out its enfolding arms to enclose the historic town in a stony embrace, originally designed to keep a tiny English colony safe from the populace they displaced. Even today it's an awe-inspiring sight.

It's in the provision of top-notch produce that Wales has found its culinary niche, chanting the mantra 'local, sustainable and organic' all the way. Many fine restaurants have sprung up in the Welsh countryside, such as the Whitebrook in Monmouthshire, namedropping their farmers, butchers and other suppliers as if they were rock stars. Local craft breweries supply the better local pubs, while Penderyn Distillery has brought whisky, that nectar of the Celts, back to this once teetotal land. Some classics have never gone away – pass us another Welsh cake, will you?

Whether you come armed with hiking boots, a bucket and spade, or a surfboard, Wales' western extremity won't disappoint. Famous in Britain for its beaches and coastal walks, Pembrokeshire is a small sampler of all that Wales has to offer. Pembroke has one of Britain's finest Norman castles, and there are smaller versions at nearby Tenby, Manorbier, Carew and Haverfordwest. The Preseli Hills offer upland walking and ancient standing stones. Add to that wildlife reserves, cute villages and an ancient cathedral, and all bases are covered.

Once you could only get views this good if you were a hunk of slate on your way to the port. This twin set of narrow-gauge train lines now shuttles rail enthusiasts from Porthmadog up into the mountains of Snowdonia, with the Welsh Highland Railway slicing right past Snowdon to the coast at Caernarfon. The Ffestiniog Railway heads to the former industrial heartland of Blaenau Ffestiniog, where you can take a whistle stop to delve into the depths of the slate caverns.

Not as wild as Snowdonia nor as spectacular as the Pembrokeshire Coast, Wales' third national park manages quite a feat – and that's to be simultaneously bleak and beautiful. Walkers will delight in its unpopulated moors and bald hills, while history buffs can seek out hill forts and barrows, and the enigmatic ruins of abbeys and castles. The towns within the park's confines are some of Wales' most endearingly idiosyncratic, including Hay-on-Wye and Abergavenny – hallowed names for book lovers and food fans respectively.

When a former US president describes your annual festival as the 'Woodstock of the mind', you know you're doing something right. This unselfconsciously pretty border town has assumed near mythic proportions among both the worldwide literati and lit-loving Brits as the most book-imbued place in the world. Hay is like a bizarro world version of tabloid culture, where intellectuals are admired, poets are praised and librarians are the new Kardashians. Oh, and there's good beer and food to be had, too.

Take 30 men with maybe 20 necks between them, divide them into two teams and have them chase an oddly shaped pigskin down a field, and what do you have? A national obsession? A thing of beauty? A good excuse to sing and drink beer? All of the above. That this product of the English public-school system should become such a force of working-class cohesion across the border remains a mystery. For a glimpse into the very soul of Wales, catch a live match at Principality Stadium.

One man's devotion to the power of architecture to enhance the environment is encapsulated in Portmeirion, a fanciful slice of baroque Italy clinging to the North Welsh coast. Immerse yourself in the fantasy by booking into one of the scaled-down mansions or cutesy cottages facing the piazza. The unreal might shift gears into the surreal if you happen upon a Prisoner convention, where fans of the cult television series, filmed here in the 1960s, indulge in dress-ups and human chess tournaments.

It seems like you're barely out of Swansea when the Gower's beauty starts to assert itself. The roads narrow, the houses fall away and suddenly you're in verdant farmland between windswept hills and the glittering sea. It's this strange combination of accessibility and remoteness that makes the Gower Peninsula unique, but it's the gorgeous beaches that make it truly special. It comes to a worthy coda with the long sandy miles abutting Rhossili Bay, affording blissful solitude for surfers and beach strollers alike.

Artfully decaying ruins in remote locations have been attracting romantic souls to Wales for hundreds of years, and it's in places like Carreg Cennen that they reach their apotheosis. The hilltop setting, within the western reaches of Brecon Beacon National Park, is bleak and barren, moody and mysterious. As you edge nearer along country lanes and the castle looms into view in the distance, it's easy to make the mental trade-in of your rental car for a fine steed, galloping bravely towards unknown danger.

The transformation of stinky Cardiff Bay into the shiny architectural showcase of today is a textbook example of urban renewal at its best. Yes, it's cut off from the city centre and there are still abandoned buildings on its fringes, but Cardiff Bay is a worthy testament to the rebirth of an ancient nation as a modern democratic country, increasingly in control of its own destiny. A highlight is the Doctor Who Experience, right next to BBC Wales' flash studio complex.

Oh the Victorians, they really did like to be beside the seaside, and Llandudno is one of the few places where you can still stroll along the prom and have a reasonable chance of hearing a brass band playing 'tiddely-om-pom-pom'. It's not Wales' most beautiful beach but Llandudno has lashings of old-fashioned charm. Where else can you watch Mr Punch squabbling with fellow puppets over sausages and then head into a chintzy hotel for high tea? When it gets too genteel, escape up the Great Orme for a wilderness fix.

More than a mere arts festival or song contest, the eisteddfod is the way in which the nation hooks into its ancient past. Fundamentally, it's a chance for the Welsh people to simply sit (eistedd) and be (bod). Sure, the long robes and stone-circle ceremonies can seem a little silly, but if anyone has a claim to the traditions of ancient Britain, it's the Welsh. Both the National Eisteddfod and the youth version ping-pong between North and South Wales annually, but Llangollen's International Musical Eisteddfod is a permanent fixture.