During Showcase Britain 2025 VisitEngland and Visit Wales presented to over 120 global travel trade buyers, encouraging operators to explore the England and Wales borders during their trips.
With a trainline that weaves in and out of the full length of the England and Wales border, your clients can get a taste of two countries in one trip. The main north/south rail route takes in market cities and towns on both sides of the border.
The border starts with the ancient Roman City of Chester in England, just outside North Wales, where clients can take the train to the Capital City of Wales in Cardiff – Wales’ cultural capital, with two National Museums, Cardiff Castle (Roman parts still visible) and home of Welsh Rugby at the Principality Stadium.
From Chester, clients can easily take a train to explore Wrexham, the real-life set of the football documentary ‘Welcome to Wrexham’, and from there can also easily explore Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Hereford and Abergavenny – with Black and white architecture, local food and drink experiences and a captivating border history. As signs change from English to Welsh and back again, your clients will be able to take in both Welsh and English culture in one holiday.
To the south, the Wye Valley and the Forest of Dean are the home of beautiful landscapes such as Symonds Yat, sitting above the river Wye and the forest full of deer and wild boar. You can travel from Ross-on-Wye in England to Monmouth in Wales by bike or bus, or along the river, indeed a rope footbridge allows you to stand with one foot in Wales, one foot in England. The Wye Valley is home to the recent Netflix show Sex Education, which so beautifully shows off the landscape as the real ‘Star of the Show’.
There are a number of World Heritage Sites and ‘Only in Wales’ products and experiences – from a canal boat ride over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (or crossing the Ironbridge), to nearby Llangollen; the Heart of Wales line - included in the Lonely planet’s ‘top 10 most beautiful railway journeys’ - a scenic, slower way to take in stunning views and a step back in time, recently described as an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ journey. On the England side you can explore the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site with Blists Hill Victorian town, or the Mappa Mundi (the largest medieval map still known to exist in Hereford Cathedral).
Transport for Wales has recently digitised their Explore Wales pass – giving visitors the ability to explore their cross-border network via a cost-friendly visitor pass. Take a look at the Explore Wales pass map.
Already there are plenty of trade-friendly products and accommodation to work with, but this year destinations on both sides of the border are working together to create interesting and compelling trade-ready itineraries. For example, Wrexham and Chester are working with Liverpool on their music and sport themed ‘8 days in a week’ itinerary, further south Abergavenny, Ludlow and Hereford have the opportunity to present a ‘Tastes of Wales and England’ – giving visitors unique local tastes from Cider to Caws (Cheese)’.
Your guests can choose a trip that takes in the full length of the border from Chester to Cardiff and experience for themselves why it is a such a special place with castles and stately homes, or choose a ready-made itinerary that explores a section of it. Operators will have the support of both Visit Wales and VisitEngland together.
So instead of considering Wales and England separately, we want to encourage you to visit both in one trip with an emotive and beautiful train journey which takes you back and forth across the border – it is something a little bit different! We are looking for tour operators who want to road test these new itinerary ideas and help us introduce ‘Exploring the border’ to your clients.
Are you already offering cross border holidays to your clients? We’d love to hear from you – get in touch.
Find out how to Explore Wales by train.
