The Cawdor

The Cawdor is impossible to miss: a tall eighteenth-century coaching inn painted deep red, standing at the top of Llandeilo's steep main street above the Tywi valley. It has been the town's principal inn for more than two centuries and was restored in recent years into a comfortable small hotel that has found its way onto national best-of lists.

Bedrooms are individually put together, mixing Georgian proportions and period fireplaces with contemporary fabrics and good bathrooms. Downstairs there is a lounge with deep leather sofas and a fire, a bar that locals actually use, and Cegin Cawdor, the restaurant, which cooks Carmarthenshire beef, Towy sewin and produce from the valley farms.

Llandeilo itself has become one of the more interesting small towns in Wales, full of independent shops and galleries. Dinefwr Park and its castle are on the edge of town, the National Botanic Garden of Wales and Aberglasney gardens are a short drive, and Carreg Cennen castle sits dramatically on its crag to the south-east.