What’s it about?

Wales’ capital is a magnet for party people. Packed with pubs and nightclubs, the city at the foot of the valleys combines cheap drinks with the very low bar of not being in England.

Visitors sometimes ask if there is a different currency, and the answer is yes: the currency of violence. Whether there’s a game of international rugby or just the usual aggro in clubs, visitors are almost guaranteed to see a scrap. Croeso i Gaerdydd! (That’s Welsh for ‘Welcome to Cardiff’. No one will ever say that.)

Any good points?

Cardiff has beautiful public gardens, with green lawns and abundant flora. This is because it’s the wettest city in the UK, which makes walking around gardens very unpleasant. The city’s botanicals are best viewed through the condensation in the window of a bus going elsewhere.

There’s a buoyant media industry in the Welsh capital, and you can frequently watch the filming of Doctor Who or one of its spin-offs. Which, depending on whether you are in your 40s and live with your parents, may or may not be a selling point.

Wonderful landscapes?

The view from the top of the castle is stunning. Visitors can see across the city and out over the Bristol Channel. And from the top terraces of the Principality (formerly Millennium) Stadium you can just see Europe. They’re doing a reunion tour and it’s safer to get tickets for that than the football.

Hang out at…

Cardiff’s suburban pubs with equally flat roofs, beer and noses. Go for the sense of adventure, stay because it’s pissing with rain outside, again.

St Mary Street is the centre of the nightlife. It’s like the Vegas strip, if the casinos were chain pubs and the restaurants were chain pubs. For those still standing at the end of the evening, ‘Chippy Alley’ is where you can get chips. But does anything good ever happen in an alley?

There are things to do in the daytime, too. Roath Park has a lighthouse in the lake. You know, one of those things that warns you not to go there. And outside the city there’s a genuine medieval village not too far away. It’s called Swansea.

Where to buy?

Splott. It’s a real place. You’ll be laughing at that for weeks if you’re easily amused. But it’s cheap.

For the la-di-da homebuyer there are suburbs like Llandaff, Penarth and Radyr. A good rule of thumb is the further away you get from Cardiff, the more expensive.

From the streets:

Ryan Whittaker, aged 40: “Cardiff is definitely a cultural hub now. Some people call it The Paris of Wales, although that’s because of all the dog shit.”

Lucy Parry, aged 23: “I love living in Cardiff. Mainly because it’s not Swansea.”