Aberystwyth Cliff Railway

The cable car climbs Pen Dinas hill at an angle that makes you grip the handrail without thinking. It's one of Britain's few surviving funicular railways, and from the top you get Cardigan Bay spreading out properly - no mucking about with distant views here. The journey itself takes a couple of minutes but the gradient is steep enough to feel like you've earned something. Once you're up there, you can walk around the headland, poke about the old cliff-top fortifications, and on a clear day see all the way up the Ceredigion coast.

Worth doing if you're already in Aberystwyth with kids or elderly relatives who'd struggle with the actual hill walk. The railway does the work for you, and the views from the top justify the trip - it's genuinely striking country up there. The town spreads below, the seafront curves away, and you're left wondering why more people don't make the effort. Allow half an hour minimum if you're just riding and looking, longer if you want to explore the paths properly.

Stay at Clarach Bay Holiday Village or Aber Bay Holiday Park - both are a short distance from the town centre - and you can pop up here easily enough. Combine it with a walk along the seafront or a look at the castle ruins. On a grey Welsh day it's moody rather than cheerful, but that's rather the point of this coast.