Experience the best of Swansea

Swansea curves around Swansea Bay, with a marina and Maritime Quarter at its centre and a sweep of sand running west to Mumbles, a seaside village with a Victorian pier and a lighthouse on offshore rocks. The poet Dylan Thomas was born in the city in 1914, and the Dylan Thomas Centre marks his life and work.

The Gower Peninsula, the first part of Britain to be named an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, has cliffs, limestone caves and wide beaches such as Rhossili, with Worm's Head, a rocky tidal island, at its tip. Oystermouth Castle stands above Mumbles, and the hills of the Bannau Brycheiniog, or Brecon Beacons, rise to the north.

The covered market sells cockles from nearby Penclawdd, laverbread, a paste of seaweed, and Welsh cakes, and Gower lamb and salt-marsh produce reach the city's tables. The sea gives the city mild winters, spring and early summer bring sunshine to the beaches, and a few showers are never far away.