Aberystwyth

Aberystwyth is mid Wales's quirky, wind-battered university town on Cardigan Bay — part Victorian seaside resort, part Welsh-language cultural capital, part student town. The seafront promenade curves between two headlands with a gothic university building at one end, a Victorian cliff railway at the other, and Constitution Hill with its Camera Obscura at the top. The town punches well above its weight culturally. The National Library of Wales sits on the hill above the town housing millions of books, maps, and manuscripts in an imposing Edwardian building. The arts centre at the university is one of the best in Wales. The high street has the kind of quirky independent shops — bookshops, record shops, vintage shops — that university towns specialise in. The pier was partly destroyed by storms in 2014 but the town embraces its relationship with the weather. A sunny day on the prom is glorious. A stormy day with waves crashing over the sea wall is equally dramatic. The food scene has improved massively — Baravin on the prom does excellent seafood. The Devil's Bridge Falls, a few miles inland via the narrow-gauge Vale of Rheidol Railway, are spectacular.