English
Chinese (Simplified)
French
German
Italian
Spanish
Cardiff Bay Walk
The Cardiff Bay area is unique to Cardiff. The docks were once the busiest in the world and were the powerhouse behind the city. The area has seen much redevelopment and rejuvenation. Our walk covers all the best bits, including the Senedd building, which is the home of the government in Wales, the famous Norwegian White Church, and the Opera House. We will also go around the bay visiting the famous Cardiff barrage keeping the tidal waters at bay, and helped enable the establishment of boat marinas, sports facilities, and the wetlands used by many species of birds. Happy sightseeing.
Locations
Miles Covered
Users
Benefits
FREE App with A FREE WALK in Every City
Each walk delivers a unique and fascinating user experience. Through Tourist Walks’ self guided tour application you can explore the hidden gems created by local experts. For people wanting to explore the neighbourhood and experience the local culture, we provide a unique experience of exploring the city using GPS guided audio tours. We provide a free walk to our new users.
Full Audio Visual Commentary
Tourist Walks is an application that can give you the freedom to explore the famous walks at your own discretion. We have created a full audio-visual self-guided experience that gives you the confidence to explore and discover the stories of various cities on your own.
Visit the Best Tourist Sites & Explore Them
Get a list of all the tourist sites you can visit. The Tourist Walks application will guide you to your next destination because every journey starts with a single step.
GPS and Multilingual Audio and Text Guidance
Even if you don’t understand the local language of the city you are visiting, Don’t worry. Audio guided walks have multilingual text assistance that will guide you in your native language.
Start/Stop/Rewind
/Restart Go at Your Own Pace
Tourist Walks’ audios are narrated by professionals who will keep you entertained while you are walking your way to the next destination. We help you discover the city around you in a more impressive way.
Download the Walk App & Use Offline. No Mobile Data Required.
It is always frustrating when you wish to travel somewhere but your mobile phone service is out-of-order. Don’t worry! Tourist Walks comes with an offline version of built-in maps you might need, even without internet access.
FREE App & Walk Summaries
Each walk delivers a unique and fascinating user experience. Through Tourist Walks’ self guided tour application you can explore the hidden gems created by local experts. For people wanting to explore the neighbourhood and experience the local culture, we provide a unique experience of exploring the city using GPS guided audio tours. The App is FREE, and all the walk summaries are FREE, each walk is individually priced and you can buy all the walks for a city at a discounted price.
Full Audio Visual Commentary
Tourist Walks is an application that can give you the freedom to explore the famous walks at your own discretion. We have created a full audio-visual self-guided experience that gives you the confidence to explore and discover the stories of various cities on your own.
Visit the Best Tourist Sites & Explore Them
Get a list of all the tourist sites you can visit. The Tourist Walks application will guide you to your next destination because every journey starts with a single step.
GPS and Multilingual Audio and Text Guidance
Even if you don’t understand the local language of the city you are visiting, Don’t worry. Audio guided walks have multilingual text assistance that will guide you in your native language.
Start/Stop/Rewind
/Restart Go at Your Own Pace
Tourist Walks’ audios are narrated by professionals who will keep you entertained while you are walking your way to the next destination. We help you discover the city around you in a more impressive way.
Download the Walk App & Use Offline. No Mobile Data Required.
It is always frustrating when you wish to travel somewhere but your mobile phone service is out-of-order. Don’t worry! Tourist Walks comes with an offline version of built-in maps you might need, even without internet access.
Cardiff Bay Walking Tour
- Tour Name - Cardiff Bay Walk
- Tour Location - Cardiff
- No. of Attractions - #12
- Tour Starting Point - The Millenium Centre
- Tour Ending Point - Techniquest
Find our Cardiff Bay Walking Tour highlights below
Wales Millenium Centre
This is the Cardiff centre for performing arts, and it was a fundamental element of the redevelopment of the Cardiff Bay area. The Wales Millennium Centre is home to the Welsh National Opera, as well as the BBC Orchestra of Wales, and the National Dance Company of Wales. The National Opera company is a company with an international status, and would certainly be worth seeing if there is a performance on, when you are visiting. The best thing to do would be to check what is on online. Find out more on our tour.
The Pierhead Building
The Pierhead Building is a Grade 1 listed building. It was constructed in 1897, for the Bute Dock Company, as a replacement for their headquarters, which burned down in 1892. The clock tower is known as “baby” Big Ben. When the company was renamed the Cardiff Railway Company, in 1897, a coat of arms was added to the building with an inscription that means “by fire and water”, the key elements of steam power that transformed industrial Wales. The building became the administrative offices for the Port of Cardiff in 1947. In 2010 the building became “The Assembly at the Pierhead”. Find out more on our tour.
The Senedd
The word Senedd means parliament or senate, in the Welsh language. This unique building is the home of the Welsh Parliament, or the “Senedd Cymru”, in Welsh. It is a democratically elected assembly, with powers that have been devolved from the Westminster Government. These include some law-making ability, and the right to set certain taxes. It is officially bilingual, conducting business in both English and Welsh. It is made up of 60 members, who are elected for a term of five years. Find out more on our tour.
Norwegian Church Arts Centre
This arts centre is a landmark building, with extensive views over Cardiff Bay. It was once a Lutheran church, and it was consecrated in 1868. When Cardiff was a busy port, the Norwegian commercial fleet was the third largest in the world, and Cardiff was a main centre of its activities. With Norwegian guidance, the church was built to meet the needs of Norwegian sailors visiting the port. The writer Roald Dahl was baptised here, as he was born to Norwegian parents, living in Cardiff. The church was clad in iron sheets, on the instruction of the harbourmaster, to allow it to be moved if necessary. Find out more on our tour
Get Your Cardiff Bay Walking Tour Today!
Scott Antarctic Memorial
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, and his team, sailed from Cardiff Bay, on the 15th June 1910, on their unsuccessful expedition to the Antarctic. Their ship was called the Terra Nova, and crowds of Cardiff citizens lined the dock to watch them leave. Their mission was to become the first humans to reach the South Pole. They departed from Cardiff because the city had raised the most money towards the expedition. The Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen, made it to the South Pole first, and Scott, and all his fellow explorers, died on the return journey across the ice. Find out more on our tour.
The Cardiff Bay Barrage
The Cardiff Bay Barrage is meant to remove the tidal influences of the sea on Cardiff Bay and be a central part of the regeneration of the docks, and Bay area. It was one of the largest civil engineering projects in Europe during its construction, in the 1990’s. It was completed in November 1999. It nearly didn’t happen as there were objections from Environmentalists, the Treasury, and even Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It was allowed to continue when the Secretary of State for Wales, Nicholas Edwards, threatened to resign if it was not allowed to be built. It was allowed to take place by Act of Parliament in 1993. The act included provisions for compensation for any homes damaged by the barrage, and the creation of a large wetland for birds, further east. Find out more on our tour.
Penarth Marina
Penarth Marina is located in the old Penarth Docks. It can be said all the Marinas in Cardiff Bay, have directly benefitted from the Barrage, in terms of its attractiveness to boat owners, and the safety of their boats. Here there is all a boat owner could desire from a Marina including refreshments, showers, and washrooms, to marine engineering facilities, training, chandlery and shipwright services. Find out more on our tour.
The Cardiff International White Water Centre is a white water rafting centre, which has been built to Olympic standard. It is part of the Cardiff International Sports Village. It opened in 2010. It offers white water rafting and canoeing. This is another facility that has benefited from the Cardiff Barrage, that maintains the water level at low tide. The canoe slalom here was developed for full international and Olympic competition use. The first event of the International Canoe Federation’s 2012 World Cup, held on 8 June through 10 June, was used by several nations to conclude their selection of athletes for the 2012 London Olympics. Find out more on our tour
International White Water Centre
Book Your Favourite Walk Now!
Kevin Atherton Sculpture
Kevin Atherton is an international artist, born on the Isle of Man. His art includes, performance, film, and sculpture. One of his most famous pieces is three bronze sculptures of commuters at Brixton railway station. This piece, called “A Private View”, was placed here in 1995. If you stand behind the bronze figure you will see, and enjoy, his view of the Norwegian Church, on the other side of Cardiff Bay. Find out more on our tour.
Wetlands Reserve
A benefit of building the Cardiff Bay Barrage, was to enable the establishment of this Wetlands Reserve on, what was previously, a salt marsh. It covers approximately 20 acres, and is home to a number of bird species, including common reed buntings, reed warblers, and sedge warblers. Interesting birds can be seen here all year round, and in April several bird species breed here, and can often be heard singing. Fish also live around the reed beds here, which provide good cover, good nursery conditions, and plentiful food for them. The fish also attract fish eating birds, such as Grey Herons, and common kingfishers. Find out more on our tour.
Mount Stuart Graving Docks
A “graving” dock may look the same as a dry dock for ships, but they are not quite the same. A “graving” dock is designed for one purpose, to apply “graving” to the dried-out hull of a wooden ship. “Graving” was the name for the sealing compound, usually made from hemp rope and hot pitch and tar, which was forced into the gaps between the bottom planks, also known as “strakes”, to make a wooden hull water tight. What would happen is that a ship would be left for several days, or weeks, to fully dry out, before the “graving” was applied. The main benefit was in extending the life of the ship. Find out more on our tour.
Techniquest
If you like a hands-on scientific experience, then Techniquest is somewhere you should visit, whilst you are in Cardiff. The facility also includes a science theatre, and a planetarium. It was originally opened in 1986, on the site of the old British Gas showroom. It moved to this location in 1995, and was the UK’s first purpose-built science discovery centre. The aim is to make science more engaging, and interesting, for young minds, especially in the areas of mathematics, engineering, and technology. Find out more on our tour.
Book Your Favourite Walk Now!
Other Recommended Walks in the City
London Pub Walks Video Gallery
SELF GUIDED WALKS
Do you wish to explore all the beautiful tourist spots? Download our application and discover the hidden beauty and mystery of your destination. Explore today!
Frequently Asked Questions
No. After the walks have been downloaded, for which you need an internet connection, no mobile data is required to do the walks.
No you can pause and resume at any point within the walk. Whether you need a coffee or a comfort break the walks are entirely flexible.
Yes you will receive both verbal guidance and a GPS enabled map to take you around each of the points of interest on the walks.
No the walks are circular so you will receive multiple options of where to start each walk.
Yes there are providing you buy them as a bundle, not one at a time. You can even buy all the walks in one package at a very generous price.
For each point of interest you will get information both verbally and in text and sometimes video form together with helpful images to get the most from each one.
You can pay by all manner of credit and debit cards as well as Paypal.
In the walk summary we point out if the walk is suitable for wheelchairs and pets, and there is also an indication of the distance of the walk, and how long it will take.
Yes we would love to hear from you through our website: www.touristwalks.co.uk
Happy Tourists
I absolutely enjoyed using the Tourist Walk app! The guided walking tours are very informative and interesting. I was able to find the tour I wanted quickly and easily, and the app was very easy to navigate. The walking tour itself was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about the city. Overall, I would highly recommend this.
Carla Mathew
Tourist Walk is an excellent walking guide app. It is extremely user-friendly and provides great information on the various tours available. I would highly recommend this app to anyone visiting a new city!
Shaun Miles
Tourist Walk is an amazing app that provides guided tours of various cities. The app is extremely user-friendly and easy to navigate. I was able to find the tour I was looking for quickly and easily. The tour itself was very informative and interesting. I would highly recommend this app to anyone visiting a new city!
