Small Towns in Wales: Hay-on-Wye

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Calling all book lovers! Would you believe it if I told you there was a small Welsh town with less than 2,000 people but more than 20 bookstores? Believe it or not there is. This magical small town in Wales is called Hay-on-Wye. If you are heading to the UK and looking for the best places to visit in Wales or better yet some quaint small towns in Wales, make sure the town of Hay-on-Wye is added to your Wales itinerary!

Hay-on-Wye

Hay-on-Wye, often shortened to Hay, is located along the border between Wales and England. For such a small town it has a lot to do. In addition to shopping for books, you can visit the many antique stores and art galleries in the town. You can also spend some time at Hay Castle. The surrounding countryside is beautiful and perfect for outdoor pursuits. Hay borders Brecon Beacons National Park where you can hike and bike on miles and miles of paths. You can also do a variety of water activities and adrenaline sports.

But let’s get back to the real reason you are here…books! Despite its prime location for exploring and other small town charms, Hay is primarily known as “The Town of Books”.

Hay-on-Wye Bookshops

Hay-on-Wye has about 20 bookshops within the town and more in the surrounding area. These aren’t your typical commercial book stores. They are all independently owned and many have a specific focus. Others have a wide variety of speciality sections. Because you can find both new and used books throughout the town, you might encounter some rare, hard to find books.

In addition to the variety and the uniqueness of the bookshops, one of the things I liked best about them is that you can sit down and read in the stores. Often commercial bookstores try to discourage reading in the store through the lack of places to sit. Most of the Hay bookshops have comfy place to sit with a book.

There are so many bookstores in Hay and not enough time to visit them. Pick up a brochure in town or click here to see the full listing of bookshops, the addresses and hours.

The bookshops are located pretty close to each other so wandering around at your leisure is a great way to discover them too. Here were just a few of our favorites.

Richard Booth’s Bookshop, Cafe and Cinema

Richard Booth is known as the “King of Hay”, the man that turned Hay-on-Wye into the book paradise it is today. This is a large two story bookstore with both secondhand and new books. You can find current bestsellers along with a wide range of speciality books. While this store has a more orderly feel than many of the other ones, there are some comfy chairs on the 2nd floor to use.

If you are looking for a toilet in Hay-on-Wye, there is a free one here (pay toilets are near the Visitor Center and at the intersection of Broad St & Lion St).

Addyman Books

What I loved about Addyman Books was all the small themed rooms filled with books of a particular topic. Instead of typical book store classifications of fiction, non-fiction, mystery, romance, etc, there were unique genres. One of my favorite areas was the Antarctic Hut in a little alcove at the top of the store. There is also a steam-punk room, a bat-cave, a large section of books on mountaineering and other spaces dedicated to a particular topic or type of book.

Murder and Mayhem

If you are like my mom and love your stories with a bit of thrill, suspense or secrecy then don’t miss out on the Murder and Mayhem bookshop. As the name suggests you can find all your mystery, crime and horror books here. The decor in itself is worth a visit!

Hay Festival

Hay-on-Wye couldn’t be known as the town of books if it didn’t have a book festival, could it? Every May this Welsh town holds an annual book festival. In 2020 the festival will run from May 21st to May 31st. There is a smaller Hay Festival winter weekend coming up November 28th – December 1st. Other Hay festivals take place around the world at different times of the year.

The festival grounds are free for everyone. You only need to buy tickets to attend the author talks. We spent at least half the day at the festival without going to any paid events. My mom was really surprised how the festival was set up. There are carpeted boardwalks under tents that connect the whole grounds. It is accessible and easy to walk around. No need to worry about getting muddy shoes!

Books & Authors

How to Get to Hay-on-Wye

Small towns in Wales like Hay on Wye can be challenging to access by public transportation. It is definitely possible to get to Hay-on-Wye by public transport, you just need to plan ahead. As Hay-on-Wye does not have a train station you will most likely need to take a train to Hereford first. Search and buy train tickets through National Rail. My post on getting to England’s Lake District by public transportation gives more information about taking trains in England.

Direct from the Hereford train station take bus T14 (Stagecoach) to Hay-on-Wye. Buy your tickets on the bus and sit back and relax for the hour ride to Hay. You will want to time when you arrive at the train station with the bus times. The bus only makes this route about three or four times a day. Don’t book your return train ticket until you check the bus times. You will get off the bus at the Hay-on-Wye castle stop within the town.

For the book festival there are additional shuttle buses going between the Hereford train station and Hay-on-Wye.

Within Hay-on-Wye you can easily walk to all the bookstores. You can walk to the book festival outside of town or take shuttle buses from the visitor center in town. Note that the shuttle buses do not run every-day. We went to the festival on the first day and the shuttle buses did not start until the following day.

Where to Stay in Hay-on-Wye

Staying within the town of Hay-on-Wye is ideal because you can easily walk to all the bookstores and the festivals. Especially if you are arriving on public transportation you don’t want to have to worry about timing the buses to take you into town or the festival.

The Kilverts Inn and Hotel has the perfect location within the town. You can easily walk to the bus stop, the bookstores, visitor center and book festival. It is a historic family-run Inn with a pub downstairs. While our room was old-fashioned, we could tell that our private bathroom was updated with modern fixtures.

It was perfect to have a pub downstairs for evening meals and breakfast. When staying at the Inn a continental breakfast and hot made to order items off the menu are included. The downside of having a pub on the premises is that it could get a little loud at night. Personally I didn’t have a problem sleeping with the voices and laughter downstairs, but it took my mom awhile to fall asleep every night.

One of my favorite parts of the Inn was the resident dog who wanders around the pub. As Americans we initially found this strange, having a dog inside of a restaurant, but we soon realized this was very common in small towns around the UK. I soon started to refer to the dog fondly as my “doggy friend”.

If you are planning on visiting during the Hay Book Festival make sure to book your Hay on Wye accommodation early. Remember Hay is a small town and a lot of people visit the annual festival so places to stay in Hay get booked quickly.

My mom and I visited Hay-on-Wye after about a week of traveling around England and Wales. It was the perfect stop for us to relax with a good book at the Hay Festival and at all the bookstores. For any fellow book lovers out there, I think you will agree with me that it is one of the best small towns to visit in Wales! 

More Things to Do in Wales & England

Combine all these posts for a two week UK itinerary in England and wales.

• England: Getting to the Lake District
• England’s Lake District (Northern England): 5 Day Itinerary
• Llangollen (Northern Wales): Canoeing over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct
• Cardiff (Wales’ capital in the south): St Fagans Open Air Museum & more about Cardiff

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