A good number of the guests who book Bungalow Ty Cwtch aren’t in Cardiff for the castle or the museums. They’re here for a Wales international, a football fixture, or one of the big concerts that Principality Stadium pulls in throughout the year, and they need somewhere to sleep that doesn’t cost a fortune on a night when every city-centre hotel has doubled its rates. That’s exactly the gap we fill.
Getting to the stadium
We’re on Cambridge Street, in the Grangetown and Riverside area just south of the city centre, close to Cardiff Bay. It’s a walk into town rather than a taxi ride, though we’d rather be straight with you than guess at an exact number of minutes for our own front door. What we can point to is this: Cardiff Central station is around a five-minute walk from Principality Stadium itself, and Riverside and Grangetown are generally reckoned to be about a ten-minute walk from Cardiff Central. Put those together and you’re looking at somewhere around fifteen to twenty-five minutes on foot from our street to the stadium, depending on your pace and exactly where on Cambridge Street you’re starting from. It’s flat, straightforward walking the whole way, following the river up towards the city centre, and plenty of guests prefer it to queuing for a taxi after the final whistle.
If you’d rather not walk, Cardiff Central is close enough that the train station does most of the work for you, and it’s well worth checking Transport for Wales’ advice for event days before you travel, since queuing systems go up at the station once a match or concert lets out.
What to expect on event days
Principality Stadium is a genuinely big venue, seating around 74,500 people, with a fully retractable roof, and it hosts everything from Wales rugby internationals and football fixtures to major concerts and the odd motorsport or boxing event. On the day of anything significant, expect road closures around the stadium itself, typically affecting Kingsway, High Street, Castle Street and St Mary Street from mid-afternoon into the evening, so factor that into any plans to drive into the centre. The stadium’s own guidance is to arrive early given how busy the M4 and the surrounding roads get, and to travel light. Bag policy is generally strict; last we checked, only small bags are allowed inside and there’s no storage on site, so it’s worth checking the current rules on the Principality Stadium website before you set off rather than turning up with more than you’re allowed to bring in. Payment policy has moved increasingly cashless in recent years too, so we’d suggest having a card on you regardless of what you’re expecting to spend.
On Wales international match days, the WRU has run an official fanzone at Cardiff Arms Park, right by the stadium, with music, food and drink from late morning, which is worth knowing about if you fancy building an afternoon around it before kick-off. Whether it runs for every fixture varies, so check closer to the date.
Why self-catering works well for a match weekend
A group heading to a game together doesn’t usually want four separate hotel rooms at inflated event-weekend prices, and they don’t want to be queuing for a hotel breakfast when they could be getting ready at their own pace. Ty Cwtch has one bedroom with a king-size bed, plus a comfortable double sofa bed in the living space, so it suits two couples travelling together, or a small group of friends who don’t mind sharing, comfortably sleeping up to four. You get a proper kitchen to put together something to eat before you head out, a living space to watch the pre-match build-up together, and the kind of base that makes a weekend feel like an occasion rather than a logistics exercise.
It also means you’re not paying city-centre hotel prices to be five minutes from the stadium. You’re a walk away instead, at a fraction of the cost, with more space than a hotel room and a kitchen that a hotel room will never give you.
Booking around a big event
Match days and major concerts sell out accommodation across Cardiff quickly, often months in advance for the biggest fixtures, so if you know you’ve got tickets, it’s worth booking your stay as soon as you can rather than leaving it to the week before. You can check availability and book directly through cardiffshorttermlet.co.uk, and if you’ve got any questions about the walk into town or what’s nearby, we’re always happy to help before you commit.
We hope to see you on Cambridge Street, whatever’s bringing you to Cardiff.