The Brecon Beacons is a mountain range in South Wales with plenty of opportunities to keep everyone entertained on family holidays in Wales.

Country pursuits have the extra blessing of heather-clad mountains to enjoy as you horse ride, hike and cycle in South Wales.

With its four distinct mountain ranges and landscape carved out in the Ice Age, 268 scheduled ancient monuments and well over 3000 miles of hedgerow, there are some prize experiences to enjoy in the area that many visitors travel for explicitly. Walking up Pen y Fan for example, or the depths of the caves at Cribyn, there are also moorlands, trails and towns to discover, while at night simply take in the spectacular skies with their sea of stars. The area is famed as the home of the highest mountains in southern Britain, where Welsh mountain ponies are the chief gardeners, keeping vegetation in check.

After all that activity, there is a swathe of characterful villages to head to with both pubs and Michelin star restaurants to head to afterwards. Many of the hotels themselves include superb food. Intimate pubs with rooms such as The Felin Fach Griffin, for example, owned by the Inkin brothers. In a hamlet between the Brecon Beacons and the Black mountains, it offers a shabby-chic dining room and short daily menus in a region blessed with a wealth of superb local produce.

A visit to this scenic part of the world however is also an opportunity for quiet contemplation. Visit The Bear at Hay-on-Wye for example for an urbane B&B in a former 16th-century coaching house, with a sitting room that’s littered with books and all in a town known for its literary history.