Cardiff is a port city on the south coast of Wales, where the River Taff meets the Severn Estuary. It was proclaimed the nation’s capital in 1955. The revitalized waterfront at Cardiff Bay includes the Wales Millennium Centre, home of the national opera, orchestra, theater and dance companies, plus shops at Mermaid Quay. Architect Richard Rogers’ strikingly modern Senedd building houses the Welsh National Assembly.
Bristol is a city straddling the River Avon in the southwest of England with a prosperous maritime history. Its former city-centre port is now a cultural hub, the Harbourside, where the M Shed museum explores local social and industrial heritage. The harbour's 19th-century warehouses now contain restaurants, shops and cultural institutions such as contemporary art gallery The Arnolfini.
The Celtic Manor Resort's three golf courses, including its newest, the 2010 Ryder Cup host Twenty Ten Course, are stages for the world's top pros every year. But the recreational, vacationing golfer will likely enjoy the new Montgomerie Course more than the Twenty Ten, which was designed with the Ryder Cup Matches in mind more than the mid-handicapper.
Royal Porthcawl in Wales sees just a fraction of the rounds of its more famous neighbors in England and Scotland. The result is a golf course just as good as most British Open venues, but one that gives golfers an isolated, tranquil round.
It's been designed and redesigned several times over the past century, but Southerndown Golf Club remains relevant today. The golf course poses problems with its approach shots that encounter deep bunkers. Set on common ground, it serves as home to sheep that roam free and graze on rough, adding to the unique experience off the southern coast of Wales.