A day out in Cardiff Bay

Cardiff Bay has always been a favourite place of mine. I love watching the boats, wandering around the boutique shops and sitting back with an ice cream from Cadwalders whilst watching the world go by!

Towards the end of May, during the bank holiday weekend, my husband and I decided to take our girls there for a day out. The sun was shining, we plastered the kids in sun cream and packed far more food and ‘essential things’ into our backpack than we actually needed!

We arrived around 9.30am, and parked the car. We hadn’t realised that the car park has changed since our last visit. Usually you pay for how long you want to stay, but now you simply pay when you return your car due to registration number recognition which picks up on what time you arrive. There were a few confused people wandering around trying to figure out what to do! So, if you do go to Cardiff Bay, don’t pay until you leave! It’s known as ticketless parking!
Anyway, back to our visit! We headed toward the millennium centre as we’d heard that there was a vintage fair on. On the way we wandered down past the boats as I really wanted to take the girls on a boat tour of the bay. I think M was a little scared though as she said she didn’t want to go on a boat, so hopefully next time she will instead!

We were a little early for the vintage fayre as everyone was still setting up when we arrived, so we walked over to the Red Dragon Centre and had a wander around the amusements. The girls had a go on some of the rides and the air hockey game too!

We then wandered back through the millennium centre and browsed through some of the stalls before heading to Cadwalders for an ice cream! The girls had chocolate ice cream in a teddy bear wafer cone, I had a sticky toffee ice cream in a wafer cone, and my husband has raspberry ripple ice cream. We sat outside in the heat of the sun to enjoy our ice creams.

We then went on the giant merry-go-round which I thoroughly enjoyed, as did the girls!

On the way into the bay we’d noticed the craft stalls were set up so we walked over and had a look at the hand made products before heading to Fast Eddies Diner for some food. My husband and I had hotdogs with fries and the girls had chicken nuggets and fries. It was very tasty!

There are so many things to do down the bay and we didn’t even do half of them! You could go in Techniquest, the Doctor Who Exhibit and World of Boats. You could go on a boat into the city centre or just on a 45 minute boat tour of the bay. You could walk over to the barrage where there’s a sandy park for kids and a skate park. You could also go into the Norwegian church and the park that’s nearby.

We had a lovely time down Cardiff Bay and I’m sure we’ll return again soon! I didn’t take many pictures as I just wanted to enjoy the day and making memories! It was nice to have a phone free day!