Swansea is laid out around a broad curve of bay, and the seafront is the best place to start. The Maritime Quarter has the National Waterfront Museum — excellent on Welsh industrial history — and a string of other small museums. From there, walk or cycle along Swansea Bay towards Mumbles, the Victorian seaside village five miles west. The bus-rapid-transit and cycle path along the promenade make this easy.
For Dylan Thomas pilgrims, the Dylan Thomas Centre in the Maritime Quarter is the main archive, and his birthplace at 5 Cwmdonkin Drive in the Uplands can be visited. Beyond the city, the Gower Peninsula — Britain's first designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty — is the real draw. Rhossili Bay, with its three miles of cliff-backed sand and the tidal causeway to Worm's Head, is half an hour's drive away.