Llanrhidian Holiday Park - Fun Days Out

Oystermouth Castle is a Norman stone castle in the village of Mumbles, overlooking Swansea Bay on the east side of the Gower Peninsula. It dates back to the 12th century, and the de Braose family rebuilt it in stone as a comfortable residence, with a high curtain wall, a chapel and three-storey living quarters with fireplaces.

Today you can explore the gatehouse, the keeps and the surfaced paths around the site, and visit the visitor centre. The highlight is the 14th-century chapel, with its traceried windows and traces of a medieval painting. A 30-foot glass viewing platform and bridge leads to it. Dogs on leads are welcome inside.

The castle was built for defence, so access is limited, especially for wheelchair users and pushchairs. Some paths are steep, and inside there are steps and uneven floors.

Tip: There is no parking at the castle. Try the car parks on Mumbles Road, or the Underhill car parks at the top of the village, which are a 5 to 10 minute walk. Check the Swansea Council visiting page for current opening and guided tour times.

The National Waterfront Museum in Swansea's Maritime Quarter tells the story of industry and innovation in Wales over the last 300 years. It is part of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, housed in an original listed warehouse linked to an ultra-modern slate and glass building.

Inside, cutting-edge interactive technology sits alongside traditional displays, and you can go as deep into the exhibitions as you like. You'll find the Transport, Materials and Networks galleries and the "big things" that shaped the nation's industrial history. The Made in Wales gallery shows objects and artefacts from 1930 to the present day.

It is also one of the first museums in the UK to offer multilingual voiceovers and British Sign Language captioning on all interactive content.

Tip: There's no dedicated car park, but several pay and display car parks are a short walk away. For satnav, the museum's site suggests postcode SA1 3ST.

Swansea Museum is the oldest museum in Wales, opened in 1841 in a Grade II* listed neo-classical building in the Maritime Quarter. Its six galleries hold objects from Swansea, Wales and the wider world, with everything from an Egyptian mummy to a Welsh kitchen. Temporary exhibitions change through the year, so there is usually something different to see.

The museum also runs the Tramshed on Dylan Thomas Square, a conservatory-style gallery with a double-decker tram and a reconstruction of the 1804 horse-drawn Mumbles train, the first passenger railway service in the world. It suits history fans and anyone who likes a browse through local stories. There is an outdoor picnic area, a shop and toilets on site, and entry is free.

Tip: Parking at the museum is limited to a few free spaces, so the City Gates NCP or East Burrows Road car parks, both about a 4-minute walk away, are a good fallback.

Wales Ape and Monkey Sanctuary sits between Caehopkin and Abercraf in Powys. It began as a hill farm and grew into a final home for unwanted primates, including chimpanzees, baboons, spider monkeys, capuchins and marmosets. Its first chimpanzees arrived in 1999, when seven were taken in from Penscynor Wildlife Park after it closed.

You can also see non-primates such as meerkats, wolf dogs, horses, donkeys and pigs. The animals cannot survive in the wild, so the aim is to make the rest of their lives as enjoyable as possible, and the sanctuary does not breed any of them. It is a registered charity and receives no government or council funding, so it relies on donations and entrance fees. It suits animal lovers who want to see rescued animals and support the work.

The National Botanic Garden of Wales is in Llanarthney, in the River Tywi valley. It is both a visitor attraction and a centre for botanical research and conservation. The centrepiece is the Great Glasshouse, the world's largest single-span glasshouse at 110 m long and 60 m wide. It stands virtually on the site of Cockerell's mansion, the new Middleton Hall.

The garden sits on the historic Middleton Hall estate, which is registered Grade II* for its special historic interest. Much of the original waterscape has been restored, with cascades on the western approach to the Glasshouse. The view from the east side of the mansion has also been restored, stretching out towards Paxton's Tower in the distance. Experts say it helps visitors understand what "picturesque" meant to the great landscape architects of the late eighteenth century.

Tip: Look out across the restored eastern view towards Paxton's Tower, which was designed to be seen from the mansion's east side.

Margam Castle is a Grade I listed country house near Port Talbot. Thomas Hopper designed it in the Tudor Revival style for Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot, and it took five years to build. It stands in Margam Country Park, the former estate, which is also Grade I listed on the Cadw/ICOMOS register of historic parks and gardens in Wales.

The house is built of finely cut stone and is highly asymmetrical, with an elaborate porch, turrets, oriel windows, clusters of chimney stacks and plenty of heraldic decoration. A prospect tower modelled on the one at Melbury House crowns it. The castle also has a place in photography: the earliest known Welsh photograph, a daguerreotype, showed it. North of the castle you'll find the remains of an Iron Age hill fort, Mynydd-y-Castell.

Kidwelly Castle (Castell Cydweli) is a ruined castle overlooking the River Gwendraeth and the town of Kidwelly in Carmarthenshire. It began as a Norman earth and timber ringwork in the early 12th century, and the semicircular outer ditch still survives. The stone castle has a square inner ward with four round towers, a semi-circular outer wall and a massive gatehouse begun in 1388-89 by John of Gaunt.

The castle changed hands during the conflicts between Welsh and English forces, and was attacked during the Glyndŵr Rising. Later it fell into ruin before being taken into state care. It is now managed by Cadw. Film fans may recognise it as the setting for the first scene after the titles in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Local folklore also says the countryside nearby is haunted by the headless ghost of Gwenllian ferch Gruffudd.

Tip: Look for the inner ward's four towers, which were raised in height in the 1390s to overlook the outer ward.

Carmarthen Castle is a ruined medieval fortress in the county town of Carmarthen, on a high terrace overlooking the tidal River Towy. It began as an early 1100s timber motte and bailey, was rebuilt in stone and was captured, destroyed and rebuilt many times. Owain Glyndŵr took it in 1405, and Henry VII's father, Edmund Tudor, died here as a prisoner in 1456.

The imposing 13-metre-high gatehouse on Nott Square is the surviving landmark, and the castle has shaped the town's streets and property boundaries. Later it served as the site of the county jail, designed by John Nash. Cromwell ordered the castle dismantled after the Civil War. It will suit history fans, and anyone happy to explore ruins and picture how much has happened here.