Ride White's Level, the 15.5km trail at Afan Forest Park

Ride the Skyline trail, the park's 46km trail

Ride the Penhydd Trail, now 14.4km, voted 'the trail to ride before you die' by What Mountain Bike magazine in 2004

Visit the South Wales Miners' Museum at the Forest Park Centre

The mountain-bike trails at Afan Forest Park are among the best known in Britain: the Penhydd, now 14.4km, was voted 'the trail to ride before you die' by What Mountain Bike magazine in 2004, and the Skyline runs 46km round the valley rim. The Forest Park Centre holds the South Wales Miners' Museum, a reminder of what the valley was before the trees.

Afan Forest Park: The Trail to Ride Before You Die

Step inside the entrance hall and staircase hall of Margam Castle, the Tudor Revival house Thomas Hopper designed for Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot, in the Grade I listed Margam Country Park

Visit the Margam Stones Museum, the early Christian carved stones by the site of Margam Abbey, the Cistercian monastery

Margam Country Park is a Grade I listed park. Its centrepiece, Margam Castle, is a Tudor Revival house Thomas Hopper designed for Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot from 1830, at a cost of £50,000; its entrance hall and staircase hall are open to visitors. Beside the ruins of the Cistercian Margam Abbey, the Margam Stones Museum keeps the early Christian carved stones of the site, and a herd of deer lives in the park.

Margam: Hopper's Castle and the Abbey Stones

Walk the Four Waterfalls Trail on the River Mellte and Afon Hepste at Ystradfellte, including Sgwd yr Eira, where a path leads behind the falls

Visit Henrhyd Falls, the 27m waterfall that is the tallest in South Wales, the entrance to the Batcave in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

See Porth yr Ogof, the cave where the Afon Mellte disappears underground

Around Ystradfellte the rivers of the southern Brecon Beacons drop through wooded gorges in a string of falls. The Four Waterfalls Trail follows the Mellte and the Hepste, and at Sgwd yr Eira the path goes behind the falling water. Nearby, Porth yr Ogof is the cave where the Mellte disappears underground, and Henrhyd Falls, 27m, the tallest waterfall in south Wales, was the entrance to the Batcave in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

Waterfall Country: Sgwd yr Eira and Henrhyd Falls

See Adelina Patti's castle, now a hotel, from the country park

Walk up the valley to the show caves at Dan yr Ogof

The soprano Adelina Patti bought Craig y Nos in 1878 and built a private theatre inside it, with an auditorium floor that could be raised level to turn it into a ballroom. The country park around it runs along the Tawe under the Beacons, and the Dan yr Ogof caves are just up the valley road.

Craig y Nos: The Opera Singer's Castle in the Swansea Valley

Take the underground tour led by former miners at the Rhondda Heritage Park in Trehafod, on the site of the Lewis Merthyr Colliery, which employed some 5,000 men and produced almost a million tons of coal a year by 1890

See the six-foot replica miner's lamp monument unveiled in May 2000 to those lost or harmed by the mining industry

Drive up the Rhondda, the valley that once had more than 53 working collieries in 16 miles

The Rhondda once had more than 53 working collieries in 16 miles of valley. At Trehafod, the Rhondda Heritage Park stands on the Lewis Merthyr Colliery, which employed some 5,000 men and produced almost a million tons of coal a year by 1890, and former miners lead the underground tour. A six-foot replica miner's lamp, unveiled in May 2000, remembers those lost or harmed by the industry.

Rhondda Heritage Park: The Lewis Merthyr Colliery

Walk the coast from Ogmore-by-Sea to Nash Point on the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, over cliffs of Lias limestone rich in fossils

See Nash Point Lighthouse, built in 1831–1832 by James Walker, 37m tall and the last staffed lighthouse in Wales until it was automated in 1998, and look for choughs in the meadow

See St Donat's Castle, begun in the 12th century, bought by William Randolph Hearst in 1925 and home since 1962 to Atlantic College, the first United World College

The Glamorgan Heritage Coast runs along cliffs of Lias limestone, layered and full of fossils. Nash Point lighthouse, built by James Walker in 1831–32 and 37m tall, was the last staffed lighthouse in Wales until it was automated in 1998, and choughs feed in the meadow around it. Along the coast, St Donat's Castle, begun in the 12th century, has been lived in since at least the late 13th; William Randolph Hearst bought it in 1925, and since 1962 it has been home to Atlantic College, the first United World College.

Nash Point and St Donat's: The Glamorgan Heritage Coast

Walk up to Dinefwr Castle on its bluff above the Tywi

Walk the deer park below the castle tower

Go through Newton House and its Edwardian rooms

Walk into Llandeilo and over the Tywi bridge

Dinefwr was the chief seat of the dynasty that ruled Deheubarth, held by Hywel Dda and rebuilt, it is thought, by Rhys ap Gruffydd, who ruled from 1155 to 1197. A narrow spiral stair climbs its tower for the view over the deer park to the north and the Tywi valley to the south, and Newton House was built beside it in 1660, when the old keep was turned into a summer house.

Llandeilo and Dinefwr: The Seat of the Lord Rhys

Visit St Davids Cathedral in Britain's smallest city by population, its present building begun in 1181, and see its sloping nave, the Irish oak ceiling of 1530–1540 and the restored Shrine of St David re-dedicated in 2012

Explore the ruins of the Bishop's Palace beside the cathedral

Take a boat trip from St Justinian's lifeboat station to Ramsey Island, the RSPB reserve where more than 400 grey seal pups are born each autumn, sailing from Easter to October

St Davids is Britain's smallest city by population. Its cathedral was begun in 1181: the nave slopes, the ceiling is Irish oak from 1530–40, and the Shrine of St David was restored and re-dedicated in 2012. Beside it are the ruins of the Bishop's Palace. From St Justinian's, boats cross to Ramsey Island between Easter and October; it is an RSPB reserve, and more than 400 grey seal pups are born on its beaches each autumn.

St Davids: Britain's Smallest City by Population, and Ramsey Island

Tour Blaenafon Ironworks, built in 1788–1789, with its Grade I listed blast furnaces, cast house and water-powered balance tower

Look at the site where Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and Percy Gilchrist experimented in 1877–1878 with the process that let phosphoric iron ores be used

Walk Stack Square, the workers' cottages restored to different periods

Visit the Blaenavon World Heritage Centre

Blaenafon Ironworks, as Cadw now spells it, was built in 1788–89, and its blast furnaces, cast house and water-balance tower still stand; it was here in 1877–78 that Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and Percy Gilchrist worked out the process that let phosphoric iron ores be used. The ironworkers lived in Stack Square beside the works, now restored to different periods. The town and its landscape became a World Heritage Site in 2000, and the Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway runs on the hill above.