Coed Cwm-lletty

The forest floor here is proper soft underfoot - damp earth and generations of pine needles that muffle your footsteps entirely. Coed Cwm-lletty sits just inland from Aberystwyth, tucked into the rolling terrain of mid-Ceredigion where the land starts to fold upward toward the Cambrian Mountains. It's a working woodland as much as it is a walk, with commercial forestry mixed in alongside the older, quieter sections where you can actually hear yourself think.

What you get is straightforward: tree-lined paths that wind through conifers and broadleaf woodland, the kind of place where the light filters green through the canopy. There's nothing flashy about it. No visitor centre, no marked trails with laminated signs - just forest doing what forest does. Walkers will find it worthwhile, especially those after a proper forest walk without the crowds that the bigger reserves attract. Families with young legs will manage the easier routes fine, though it's not a playground sort of spot; kids need to actually want to walk. Allow anything from 45 minutes for a gentle meander to two hours if you're exploring properly.

It works well as a counterpoint to a seaside holiday at one of the nearby parks - Aberystwyth Holiday Village, Clarach Bay, or Aber Bay are all within a few miles - giving you the option to swap the beach for the treeline on a dodgy weather day. Admission is free and there's rarely a queue. Go early morning if you want solitude.