GORGG Regional Tourism Links...
Official Wales Tourism Site
South Wales Tourism Guide
The Upper Swansea & Dulais Valleys
Brecon Beacons National Park

And, to assist in our broadening undertanding of Welsh.... Welsh to English Lexicon site

Flying to Wales...
http://www.flywales.co.uk
Anyone got an opinion on this? We all congregate in London then charter a flight to Wales?

For what it's worth, the fare produced here was about $100 less than I saw elsewhere for the same Newark-->Cardiff-->Newark flight: http://www.airgorilla.com/tickets6.html

Didn't feed any data into this one because they said it was not only an on-line search, but the info would be fed to travel agents who would respond by e-mail, and I'm not quite ready to buy a ticket yet: http://www.discountairfares.com/frqcoun/qukwal.htm

Some other possibly useful links... Cardiff Airport, Heathrow Airport, Gatwick Airport

To get there by train...
For those thinking of flying into a London airport, which one is the most convenient train-wise to connect to the station that is only 30 mins from the castle. The Nearest station in question is called Neath Central. Trains from Paddington (London) arrive every hour and the journey is quick (2 hours or so) and visually interesting, they are clean and comfortable too.

Cardiff airport is about 90 mins from the castle but of course there are only 2 flights a day (KLM/Northwest from Amsterdam) which makes the pick-up easier unless there is some co-ordination on train arrivals.

John's preference is to have folks fly into Cardiff and have two shuttle runs for there to the castle. I am sure many of the european folks will fly into London or train over to Neath Central, Neath Central is a 30 minute ride to the castle

London Heathrow Airport has a direct express train route to Paddington (about 20 mins). www.heathrowexpress.co.uk £13 single £25 return.

Gatwick. There is the Gatwick Express train route to London Victoria station (30 mins), from where it is about 20 mins or so to Paddington on the Underground.
www.gatwickexpress.co.uk £11 single £21.50 return (fair deals for groups "4 for 2").

Train fares to Neath Central...
Note: there are some British rail terms here. The trick is to book early enough to get a "Saver" return (round trip), or "Supersaver". The only thing you really need to know is Supersaver is generally cheapest. Standard return is usually double the standard single fare. Oh, and you need to book in advance to get the good deals. Assumptions: fares are based on going on a Monday midday and coming back on a Friday
evening, as the dates are 25 -29 Oct. Coming back on the Saturday pushes the Supersaver up. Also, you can't get prices on journeys that far ahead. Use this web site to book your tickets online: http://www.internet-booking.co.uk/trainbooking.htm

Paddington - Neath
Supersaver Return 37GBP each

Saver Return 56.50GBP each
Standard open return is 128GBP
Will check on if and how Supersaver price can be obtained.

Portsmouth - Neath
Supersaver Return 38GBP each
Saver Return 48.90
Standard open return 144GBP

Birmingham - Neath
This is showing odd results.
The only return fare available is the Saver, at 41.90 GBP, yet the single
price is showing "from 13 GBP".

To get there by car...
www.easycar.com has cars for October for only about 16 pounds/day (US$30), for those of you game enough to try driving from Heathrow to Wales. They have GM Zafiras as well as Merc "A" classes. The prices include insurance. BTW peeps, you need about 4 quid to cross the bridge to get in to Wales. So
it's not acomplete freeway. They let you out for free though.

To get there by bus/coach...
For any who might be so inclined... check www.nationalexpress.com