When it comes to 'Location, Location, Location', Swansea is streets ahead of other cities. It sits on the grand, sandy sweep of Swansea Bay - just a stone's throw from the shopping centre, there's the beach and Maritime Quarter, the transformed docklands that has become a role model for other waterfront redevelopments.
Dylan Thomas, when he wrote about Wales' 'fields of praise', was alluding to the countryside he knew best: Carmarthenshire's timeless landscapes, from the Brecon Beacons in the east to the greener-than-green oasis of rolling farmland that distils the country's reputation for natural beauty.
If any place is defined by its coastline, it's Pembrokeshire. For 186 miles the shore ducks and dives, wriggles and squiggles around the south-western tip of Wales. Soaring headlands give way to sheltered coves, big beaches end abruptly at sheer cliffs, placid estuaries flow into wild, west-facing seas.
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