Where to stay in Cardiff?

[nick s]

Hi guys, I'm heading upto Cardiff in a few weeks for my 25th weekend. The plan is literally to turn up on fri evening, find a hotel and come back sun morning. We want to make sure we're near all the shops and nightlife though really, and as none of us have been before, we don't know where this is! Anyone got any good recommendations for cheapish hotels around there that are close to everything? I'm not even sure how big Cardiff is?! I'm worried we might get it completely wrong and end up miles away from everything! What area do we need to be in? cheers!

[Stonebridge]

Start here
http://www.visitcardiff.com/
Cardiff is not huge and everything you might need or want to visit is in a fairly compact area.
It depends what you want to do, doesn't it?
Concerts? Pop. Classical.
Hotels? What's your budget?
Cardiff Bay is the place to go though. Just a short distance from the city centre by bus or train.

[nick s]

Thanks for the link, i'll check it out! We pretty much just plan on going out and getting drunk to some bars and clubs etc! Good to know that it's all pretty close though.
I guess we don't really have a budget for the hotel. Maybe 200 quid a night or something? Will we get something easily for that?

Edited by nick s on Thursday 9th September 10:09

[dmitsi]

http://www.thebigsleephotel.com/home.asp?hotelid=1
http://www.laterooms.com/en/p6845/pvnovotelcardiff...
http://www.sleeperz.com/

These three are all very central and cheap. Cardiff centre is small and easy to walk every where, the only distance would be if you go into the bay, but it's still only 10 minutes south of the centre.

Look here:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&um=1&i...

The centre is basically where the big cluster of dots is, beneath bute park and above penarth road, it's easy to get anywhere.

[mvalek1]

try this place, opposite the stadium, other side of the river...http://www.nosda.co.uk/

[Broomsticklady]

We've stayedat St Davids at Cardiff Bay - right on the front. lovely spa, food a bit dear but the bay is very easy walking distance - you can see it from the rooms. ALthough rack rate is high (5*), used Superbreak and it was less than £100 for 2 B&B.

[bob1179]

I always stayed at the Marriott, bang in the town centre and close to everything including the bars, retaurants, railway station etc. It also has it's own parking.

[anonymous-user]

nick s said:

Thanks for the link, i'll check it out!

Pretty much any of the first dozen hotels shown there will be fine (except the New House and anything that says Cardiff North - too far out) and there's a good range of prices.

[bmw2002]

I used to stay here http://www.hilton.co.uk/cardiff a couple of times a week when we had an office in Cardiff, pretty central and normal Hilton fare.

[maser_spyder]

The central ones, Hilton on one side of town, Thistle just up the road on Queens St, Marriot on the other side of town near the new shopping centre, and the Big Sleep is just on the edge of town (2 minute walk).

St David's at Cardiff Bay is nice and modern, but a little expensive.

Don't discount a lot of the smaller places, there's a really nice small hotel right in the middle of Cardiff Bay (but the name escapes me for the moment), right opposite the small Tesco store. Lots of other small but nice guest houses on Cathedral Road etc, again, on the edge of town.

Rugby weekends can be a bit raucous, where the valley boyos come to the 'big smoke' to get absolutely hammered, and generally watch their team get absolutely hammered. Drinking is the national sport of Wales.

In fact, drunks in town got so bad a few years ago (and a chap got knocked over by a bus), they now close the roads in the centre in the evenings at weekends.

If you're a 'drinker', you'll have a great time, if not, Cardiff Bay and the comedy club (Glee) is a good night out too, but a bit less frenetic.

HTH.