Basics

Wales is the friendly green hilly bit on the western side of Britain. We’re about 2 hours west of London by rail or by road.

It might not take you long to get here, but you’ll find that Wales is a very different place.

First there’s our language: it’s one of the oldest in Europe, spoken fluently by about one in five of the population. Although we all speak English as well, Welsh is a thriving mainstay of our way of life.

Then there’s the landscape. The facts and figures might lead you to believe that Wales is small – it covers an area of around 8,000 square miles (or 20,800 square kilometres). But if you could roll it out flat, we bet it would be bigger than Texas.

We’ve got 3 National Parks and 5 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, all part of a  landscape that offers opportunities for all kinds of activities. Walking, cycling, climbing, golf, mountain biking and paragliding are just the beginning of the list.

Our population currently stands at around 3 million people, so there’s plenty of room.

Famous sons and daughters of Wales you will have heard of include Richard Burton, Sir Tom Jones, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones. And lots of other people have been tracing their Welsh ancestry recently - including Tom Cruise, Susan Sarandon, Russell Crowe and Kylie Minogue. If you think you might have family connections with Wales too, take a look at our genealogy site at Homecoming Wales

We’ve also got lots and lots of castles (over 400 at the last count), the Welsh National Opera (one of the world’s premier Opera Companies), the largest single-span glasshouse in the world (at the National Botanic Garden of Wales), and a cool flag with a Red Dragon on it.

Our capital city is Cardiff. The Romans had a fortress here in the first Century AD, but Cardiff’s a lively youngster really. It was officially designated as capital in 1955, and it’s home to a large concentration of media and creative types, turning out award- winning productions like the current incarnation of the legendary Dr Who series.