Riverside caravan parks near Hay on Wye

The River Wye bends through emerald-green pastureland and pretty bands of woodland close to the town centre and along the border with England. With the riverside paths and kayaking possibilities, the camping and glamping is excellent. Hay-on-Wye's popularity with tourists ensures there is plenty of choice, too, and the competition pushes standards up.

Hay-on-Wye has many indoor attractions—its famous bookshops and festivals notwithstanding—which make the tourist season stretch longer than the typical Easter-to-September season most of Mid Wales has. Even if many campsites are closed out-of-season, several glamping sites are open year-round. Late spring, summer, and early autumn get the best weather out in those hills, but this is a notoriously wet part of a wet country—rain can descend at any time.

• Hay-on-Wye is served by bus, most straightforwardly from Hereford in England and Brecon.
• Visitors can pick up camping supplies in Hay-on-Wye or in Brecon, 15 miles southwest.
• Besides conventional camping, this area offers permanently pitched yurts and safari tents, and, in the Black Mountains, bothy overnights (rudimentary shelter accessible by foot only).
• If you are trying wild camping in Wales, the Brecon Beacons National Park (including the Black Mountains and Eastern Brecon Beacons) may be the place. Wild camping needs landowners' consent, but park authorities publish a list of landowners that permit it, making camp planning easier.