Aber to Cardiff eh,spoken like someone with local knowledge.
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I’m in the process of moving from Scotland to Caerphilly. What is Caerphilly like as a town? Do you have recommendations for restaurants/pubs to visit and those to avoid? I’ve only really ever driven through or around Caerphilly. Oh, and what is the train service like from Aber to Cardiff?
Aber to Cardiff eh,spoken like someone with local knowledge.
Aber to cardiff trains are one every 15 minutes peak time I think, about 20 minutes to the centre.
Restaurants I think there are some ok places, but nowhere I'd particularly go out of my way to visit
Town centre shops are a bit uninspiring.
It's fine really, but it could be so much better
Caerphilly is okay and as a commuter location into Cardiff the trains are fine (albeit sometimes crowded at peak times, although having spent hours of my life on the Tube I rarely complain). A couple of okay places to eat and drink, like RJK says it could be a lot better likewise it could be much worse. I live in the Energlyn part and it's nice and quiet but I can be at Energlyn / Churchill Park station in 15 minutes on foot and roughly 20 minutes into town from thereon in.
Trains are great for getting to the Stadium even on a Sunday since TFW took over. Commuting on the train can be a pain as they are often packed at peak times but this is scheduled to improve over the next few years. I wouldn't opt to take the car into Cardiff unless I needed to go to an out of town retail park.
There are a couple of very nice Italian Restaurants which are busy (pre-covid), Casa Mia did amazing Sunday Lunch deliveries during lockdown; it's a shame they stopped once they could reopen as there is clearly a market for it. Hopefully some other restaurateurs will notice there is a demand for nice restaurants in Caerphilly.
Shops wise it's you typical small UK town Centre with some larger chains (Boots and Argos in Caerphilly's case), coffee shops and phone shops and then vape and empty units. You can also find independent businesses online if you want fruit and veg and healthy meal deliveries; it not just Just Eat clients! Glanmor's is also very nice.
Given the population of Caerphilly (42000) it's badly lacking in retail outlets largely because it's so close to Cardiff. It's also got very few pubs for the size of the town but the Green Lady and the Pontygwindy are popular for food. The Red Kite farther away from the town centre is also popular.
However, apart from its disappointing shops it's not a bad place to live with pretty good transport links and a fair amount of pretty countryside surrounding it.
The newer housing up near the red kite is practically a suburb of cardiff as the vast majority of people there commute into cardiff and have little to do with the rest of caerphilly.
If the schools in Caerphilly were better - in line with the better cardiff ones then you'd see house prices rocket up n caerphilly probably.
Pontypridd is smaller (30k ish), but seems to have a better town centre shopping experience (albeit hammered by floods and coronavirus recently), possibly due to being a little further away from cardiff. I don't think the restaurants are much better though.
As with many valleys towns caerphilly suffers from having some legacy poor quality housing, and a couple of pretty deprived estates, but there are some nice parts too.
It's a bit of a dump in all honesty, the town centre is like a fat bastard on sticks convention. Some alright parts, although the people are a bit backward in certain areas, gets worse the further up the valley you go, and glanmors is just a shit Brutons, hope this helps
Thanks all. I’m moving to the estate by the Red Kite that was built around 2012. I work away much of the time and chose Caerphilly as you get more for your money than you do in Cardiff itself, and getting either to the airport or the M4 is pretty easy outside of peak times. I probably won’t use the local pubs often but it’s nice to know what is available. I hear that the India Gate does a good curry?!
The town appears to have more eateries than ever before
There is also a 1920s themed cocktail bar just opened up.
I live in Castle View est and can get to the m4 in7 mins and severn Bridge in half hour at the moment.
You get more for your buck with houses.
Basically we are in greater cardiff
Caerphilly is nice town easy transport links , regular trains and buses , great access to walks and travel in Wales , lots of the top retail units , banks one of the better or even best smaller towns outside of Cardiff .
I'd recommend the Court House pub /eatery overlooking the castle, hope you enjoy the move , get a City season ticket join the many Caerphilly fans who support the club
Castleview and over the road is a good area to be. Very quiet with a supermarket, smaller shops,lots of takeaways,cafe, doctors ,dentists, garage, nursery, playcentre, 2 pubs and a primary school all in a very close walking distance.
Trains from Aber to Cardiff used to get busy but it's not too bad a service if you are happy to stand for 20mins.
Volare in the centre is a damn good Italian and would be a lot more pricey if it was a few miles south.
Always thought its a bit daft how many Cardiffians think that Caerphilly is mile's away when it's 5 minutes over the mountain into Thornhill and Lisvane.
Weirdly depended on the day. Monday and Tuesday it was awful
Cutting through Tongwynlais would be a gamble also. Sometimes traffic down to the Lewis Arms, sometimes none.
Back to Caerphilly it’s a commuter/mover town. For such a big place it’s quite quiet. Not much going on, not much crime (especially in area you’re moving to) and not much community
I think Caerphilly is fine and weirdly seen as the valleys from Cardiff people. You might be a bit bored here but it’s not bad at all
It’s just a big hill that splits northern cardiff and Caerphilly really. I didn’t realise it was so big to be honest, bigger than ponty?
It does feel very different to cardiff though, it’s not really cosmopolitan is it, it feels more valleys like which considering the 2 mile gap is incredible.