Visit Wales
Local Information
Swansea is a wonderful city located in an area of outstanding natural beauty. Swansea, Wales’ city by the sea, has Viking roots and a long, eventful history. Home to innovative visitor attractions and renowned for its awesome nightlife, it’s a vibrant cultural centre, and a regional shopping hub. Just a stone’s throw away, the charismatic seaside village of Mumbles offers galleries and boutiques, snug cafés and fine dining.
The Gower Peninsula extends west of Mumbles, in miles of unspoilt coastal panoramas, award-winning golden beaches, and lush, rolling countryside. And on the eastern edge of Swansea Bay, there’s the Waterfall Country of Afan and the Vale of Neath: a must-see for walkers and cyclists alike. These steep-sided, wooded valleys are home to world-class mountain-biking, stately country parks, and the UK’s second-largest forest south of the Scottish border.
For local transport and taxi service in Swansea the following website may be useful.
- Plan your journey, Web: http://www.traveline.info/
- Data Cabs – Tel: 01792-474747, Web: http://www.datacabs.com/
- Yellow Cabs – Tel: 01792-644446, Web: http://www.yellowcabswales.co.uk/
City Map
Further Travel Information
Swansea is 300km West of London on the South Wales coast. It is served by good rail and road links with easy access from:
- Cardiff Wales International Airport (1.5 hours)
- Bristol Airport (2.5 hours)
- Heathrow Airport (4 hours by Coach/Train), the main London airport
- Gatwick Airport (4 1/4 hours by Coach/Train)
- Stansted Airport (4,5 hours by Train; requires to use the tube in London)
- There are other airports like Birmingham airport.
- London Paddington (3 hours by Train)
- There are good train connections via Newport or Bristol to Birmingham with connections to the Midlands, northern England and Scotland.
- There is a ferry from Cork (Ireland) to Swansea
Most rail and coach connections pass through Cardiff city. Here is a summary of local connections.
Train Timetables and Buying Train Tickets
- It is generally cheaper to buy tickets in advance. However, be warned that the very cheapest tickets require you to commit yourself to a specific train.
- General timetable information and information about train tickets is provided by e.g. National Rail.
- Train tickets can be bought online at, among others, by First Great Western.
Buying Coach Tickets
- Timetables and Information on booking can be found at National Express. For airport connections choose Airports from the main GUI.
- There are online tickets available which you have to print out and then show to the driver.
- Note that there exist cheap “funfare” tickets (7 Pounds) from London Victoria station to Swansea.
Getting from the Train Station to the University or Hotels
- Walk to Campus: 45 mins.
- Taxi (about £7).
- It is possible to walk, but it will take about 45 minutes.
- Long Purple Bendy-Bus No.4, stops at Fulton House, inside campus. (every 12 minutes, journey time 30 mins)
- See the webpage of the bus company for a route network, and time table informations.
- You can plan your journey using Traveline-Cymru which includes all buses, trains in Wales and some from outside Wales. Use University of Wales Swansea as your destination.
Getting from the Bus Station to the University
- Bus: 2A, 3A (every 15-30 mins, journey time 13 mins), stops at Fulton House (inside campus)
- Bus: 2, 2C (every 15-30 mins, journey time 13 mins), stops on mumble road (outside campus, ask driver early to let you get off at the right stop).
- See the webpage of the bus company for a route network, map, and time table informations.
- You can plan your journey using Traveline-Cymru which includes all buses, trains in Wales and some from outside Wales. Use University of Wales Swansea as your destination.
Cardiff Wales International Airport
Cardiff airport combined with a 1 hour taxi ride to Swansea is the most convenient way to arrive from international destinations. Cardiff is a small airport with few flights. It is not very busy, and has very few or often no queues for check-in or security. The most likely incoming flights for international travellers over the Friday 4th to Monday 7th September are in the table below. These flights connect with Paris and Amsterdam hubs, and you are able to book through tickets on many services including Air France and KLM.
Since the taxi is quite expensive at around £70-£80 we suggest you try to arrange groups beforehand. We put Doodle links in the table below to help you to do this.
This was correct May 12th 2015.
| Friday 4th September | Saturday 5th September | Sunday 6th September | Monday 7th September | |
| Via Amsterdam AMS (KLM, Airfrance, Delta, etc.) | 09:30 | 09:30 | 09:30 | 09:30 |
| 16:40 | 16:40 | 16:40 | 16:40 | |
| 21:30 | 21:30 | 21:30 | ||
| Via Paris ORY (CityJet= KLM, Airfrance, etc.) | 15:25 | 16:20 | 17:15 | 15:25 |
| Via Paris CDG (Flybe) | 19:30 | 18:10 | 19:30 | 19:30 |
- The airport is served by
- KLM Cityhopper (connections to Amsterdam, from where you have connections to international and intercontinental connections),
- CityJet (connections to Paris Orly, from where you have connections to international and intercontinental connections),
- FlyBe (no frills airline),
- A few other cheap airlines (flying to Ireland, UK destinations),
- Some charter airlines flying to holiday destinations.
- There are three ways of getting from Cardiff airport to Swansea
- If you are arriving in a group, consider sharing a taxi to Swansea. The cost should be about £70 to £80, as compared to about £20 for taking the train or bus. Given it is much quicker and more convenient, you may want to consider this for groups of two or more.
- Checker Cars (Airport’s Official Taxi Operator) – Swansea University Campus
- £75 (up to 4 passengers), £90 (up to 5 passengers)
- It should be a fixed fare, but quote before you broad.
- Tel: 01446 711747
- Email: cardiff@checkercars.com
- There are five car hire companies that operate at Cardiff airport. The drive is about 43 miles and 1 hour (according to Google map). You can check their most updated opening time and price from their individual websites. (SAT NAV TO UNIVERSITY: SA2 8PP)
- There is a train service from Rhoose Cardiff Airport to Bridgend, where you can connect with the London trains to Swansea. There is a free shuttle service from Cardiff airport to this railway stations, which serves all trains at this station. It departs from the airport about 20 min before the train leaves.
- Traveline-Cymru allows you to plan your complete journey from the airport (including the Shuttle bus) to Swansea
- Unfortunately this train runs only every 2 hours on Sundays (otherwise it runs hourly).
- The alternative is to take the bus (X91 and some other lines) to Cardiff Central Station, from where you have frequent trains to Swansea.
- You can use Traveline-Cymru for planning your complete journey.
- You can find the timetable for the X91 service here.
- The train timetable for trains from Cardiff Central Station to Swansea can be found here and for the return journey here.
- The main bus station is next to the Central Railway Station.
Bristol International Airport
- The easiest way to reach Swansea from Bristol Airport is by train.
- There is a dedicated bus service (Bristol International Flyer, usually every 20 min) from the airport to Bristol Temple Meads station, from where there are relatively frequent services to and from Swansea.
- The airport bus service takes about 30 minutes, and operates every 20 minutes from 05.00 to 22.40.
- Please note that there are two main train stations in Bristol, Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway, where Bristol Parkway has many connections to Swansea. However, Bristol Parkway is quite far in the north from Bristol. It is not advisable to take a taxi or bus. Therefore it is recommended, when choosing railway connections from Bristol Temple Meads to Swansea (by using one of the timetables mentioned in information about trains to enter “Bristol Temple Meads” rather than “Bristol”.
Heathrow Airport
- General information on travel from Heathrow to Swansea can be found here.
- There are three ways to travel from Heathrow Airport to Swansea
- The more convenient way is to take the coach link from Heathrow to Reading and connect there with the trains from Reading to Swansea. You can obtain these connections by using one of the timetables mentioned above (just enter Heathrow airport).
- You can also take the tube (or Heathrow express) to central London, and then the train from London Paddington – this is a possibility if you want to visit London.
- There are as well frequent direct coach connections from Heathrow central bus station to Swansea. See the information about coaches above (Choose “Airports” from the web site of national express).
Gatwick airport
- There are trains from Gatwick to Reading, from which you can connect to London.
- There are direct coaches from Gatwick to Swansea (which go via Heathrow).
- If you want to visit London, you can as well take one of the many trains from Gatwick to central London.
Stansted Airport
Stansted airport is an airport dedicated to cheap airlines. Note however that it is about 20 – 30 £ more expensive to get from there to Swansea rather than from Heathrow airport. The journey takes as well much longer and is less convenient then the journey from Gatwick and Heathrow or the regional airports.
There are two main routes from Stansted Airport to Swansea.
- You can go by train from Stansted Airport to London Liverpool station, then take the “tube” (London Underground) to London Paddington, and finally the train to Swansea. The railway timetables (see above) will give you the complete connection.
- There are as well reliable coach connections using National Express (see information about coaches above) with change at Heathrow (6.5 hrs).