page_title: Swansea
section_title: Leisure and tourism
hierarchical_section_title: Swansea / Leisure and tourism
caption_attribution_description: English: Exhibition Hall, National Waterfront Museum - Swansea An impressive building with this gallery, one of several, concentrating on engineering and featuring early Welsh inventions. Elsewhere commentators have expressed disappointment with the museum and in particular the current trait of concentrating on electronic information displays at the expense of items on display. I have to say I agree as apart from three other adults this hall with few visual aids was almost empty. In an upper gallery children dashed from control unit to control unit and screen to screen without appearing to absorb anything they were looking at. Though alternative efforts to draw the public into them museums are to be applauded it would seem that they have been turned into amusement arcades.
context_page_description: Swansea is a coastal city and county, officially known as the City and County of Swansea in Wales. The county area includes Swansea Bay and the Gower Peninsula. Swansea's position on the southwest coast of Wales is within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan and the ancient Welsh commote of Gŵyr. Swansea is the second largest city in Wales and the twenty-fifth largest city in the United Kingdom. Swansea had a population of 241,300 in 2014; the second most populous local authority area in Wales after Cardiff. Together with Neath and Port Talbot, Swansea formed a wider Urban Area of 300,352 in 2011.
  During the 19th-century industrial heyday, Swansea was the key centre of the copper-smelting industry, earning the nickname Copperopolis.
context_section_description: A number of beaches around Swansea Bay are promoted to visitors. Surfing is possible at Langland Bay, Caswell Bay and Llangennith, with the latter winning accolades from two national newspapers for the quality of its waves. The five-mile promenade from the Marina to Mumbles offers views across Swansea Bay. The seaside village of Mumbles has a Victorian pier, small, independent shops and boutiques, restaurants and cafes. The south coast of Gower is the chief magnet for walkers, with a path stretching from Mumbles Head across the cliff tops, beaches and coastal woodland to Rhossili.
  On the Waterfront, Swansea Bay has a five-mile (8 km) sweep of coastline which features a beach, promenade, children's lido, leisure pool, marina and maritime quarter featuring the museums the National Waterfront Museum and Swansea Museum, the oldest museum in Wales. Also situated in the maritime quarter is the Dylan Thomas Centre, which celebrates the life and work of the author with its permanent exhibition 'Dylan Thomas – Man and Myth', and Mission Gallery, a unique art gallery also in the heart of the Maritime Quarter which hosts a range of exhibitions from various art disciplines; it also host a craft space, with ranging works from local and international artists. The Dylan Thomas Centre is the focal point for the annual Dylan Thomas Festival (27 October – 9 November). There is a permanent exhibition at the Dylan Thomas Birthplace and Home for 23 years in Uplands which has been restored to its condition as a new house when bought by the Thomas family in 1914 a few months before Dylan was born in the front bedroom. The SA1 Waterfront area is the latest development for living, dining and leisure.
  Swansea Bay, Mumbles and Gower are home to various parks and gardens and almost 20 nature reserves. Clyne Gardens is home to a collection of plants set in parkland and host to 'Clyne in Bloom' in May. Singleton Park has acres of parkland, a botanical garden, a boating lake with pedal boats, and crazy golf. Plantasia is a tropical hothouse pyramid featuring three climatic zones, housing a variety of unusual plants, including several species which are extinct in the wild, and monkeys, reptiles, fish and a butterfly house. Other parks include Cwmdonkin Park, where Dylan Thomas played as a child, and Victoria Park which is close to the promenade on the seafront.
  Oxwich Bay on the Gower Peninsula was named the most beautiful beach in Britain by travel writers who visited more than 1,000 beaches around the world in search of the perfect sands (2007). The Travel Magazine praised Oxwich for "magnificent and unspoilt" scenery and as a "great place for adults and children to explore". It has over three miles (5 km) of sand and The Guardian named it one of Britain's blue-riband top 10 category beaches (2007). The Independent newspaper hailed Rhossili Bay as "the British supermodel of beaches" (2006) and the best beach in Britain for breathtaking cliffs (2007), whilst The Sunday Times listed it as one of the 25 best beaches in the world (2006). Thanks to its clear air and lovely golden sand, this romantic stretch of sand was voted the best place in the UK to watch the sun set (Country Living magazine 2005) and one of the top romantic spots in the country (The Guardian 2007).
  Llangennith Beach, with its soft sands, consistent beach break and great facilities, was listed as the best place to learn how to surf in Britain by The Observer (2006) and one of the 10 'classic surfing beaches by The Guardian (2007). Gower also claims Britain's Best Beach, Three Cliffs Bay. The Gower landmark topped the BBC Holiday Hit Squad nationwide competition (2006) and was voted Britain's best camping beach by The Independent thanks to its superb setting and quiet location (2007). Three Cliffs Bay also made the final of the ITV series Britain's Favourite View – the only nomination in Wales and backed by singer Katherine Jenkins. Nearby Brandy Cove came sixth in an online poll to find the UK's top beach for the baby boomer generation (2006). Beaches which won 2006 Blue Flag Beach Awa
caption: The National Waterfront Museum
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