Hay-on-Wye Itineraries
Half a day or a full weekend. Here are the best ways to spend your time in Hay-on-Wye, planned step by step.
Whether you have a few hours or a full weekend to explore, these itineraries give you a local’s route through Hay-on-Wye. Each one links directly to the restaurants and activities along the way.
Half a day: the bookshops and the castle
The short version, for a morning in town on the way somewhere else. Everything here is within five minutes' walk of the Clock Tower, so park once on Oxford Road and leave the car. Do it on a Thursday if you can, when the market fills the middle of town, but come early: the car park is busiest on market day.
- 109:30·10 minutes
Park on Oxford Road and start at the Clock Tower
The long-stay car park opposite the castle charges £5 for more than four hours on the council's tariff from August 2025, and two to four hours is £3.50. Walk down to the Clock Tower at the bottom of Lion Street and Broad Street.
- 209:40·45 minutes
Richard Booth's Bookshop
Three floors in the 1886 agricultural stores on Lion Street, open from 9.30am Monday to Saturday. Literature and science upstairs, new fiction and children's books on the ground floor, comics and romance in the basement.
- 310:30·45 minutes
Lion Street: Addyman Books and Murder and Mayhem
Two of the Addyman shops face each other: the main shop's warren of rooms at number 39, and the crime specialist with the painted shopfront across the road. Hours are not printed on their own sites, so if one is shut, move on and come back.
- 411:15·1 hour
Hay Castle
Up the drive opposite the car park. £7.50 for an adult and the ticket lasts a year, under-18s free; the Great Hall and shop are free. Volunteer tours run at 11am and 2pm when volunteers are available, at £12.50 including a year's entry; otherwise go up the keep for the view over the roofs; otherwise go up the keep for the view over the roofs.
View Hay Castle - 512:15·1 hour
Lunch at the castle cafe or the Granary
The castle cafe serves lunch from noon in the room over the lawn; the Granary on Broad Street by the Clock Tower serves until 3pm with no booking. Either way you are back by the car park in five minutes.
View The Granary
A full day: the town, the hill and dinner
The day that shows why people stay. Morning on foot up the Offa's Dyke Path to the top of Hay Bluff, straight out of town with no car, back for a late lunch and an afternoon in the shops, then dinner. It needs a clear forecast for the hill and decent boots. If the cloud is down on the Black Mountains, swap the morning for the canoe trip downstream instead.
- 109:00·45 minutes
Breakfast at the Granary
It opens at 9am every day; a full Welsh breakfast sets you up for the climb. If you are staying at Rest for the Tired on Broad Street, breakfast is in the house.
View The Granary - 209:45·Allow 5 to 6 hours there and back
Walk the Offa's Dyke Path to Hay Bluff
From Oxford Road by the castle the National Trail heads south over the Dulas Brook, briefly through Cusop Dingle in Herefordshire, past Tack Wood and up the escarpment: about 6.2km each way on the OpenStreetMap line, to a ridge near the 677m trig point. Take a map and a layer.
View Offa's Dyke Path to Hay Bluff - 315:00·1 hour
Late lunch at the Three Tuns
Open from noon every day on the corner of Broad Street and Bridge Street. Pizza, pasta and a charcuterie board with Hay Charcuterie on it, and dogs are welcome throughout if one came up the hill with you.
View The Three Tuns - 416:00·1 hour 30 minutes
The specialist shops
Science fiction at Bookshop 451 in High Town, the old picture house on Castle Street with its outdoor bargain shelves, and Green Ink's small chosen stock. C. Arden on Forest Road is the natural history shop but closes at 5pm on weekdays and at noon on Saturday.
- 518:15·2 hours
Dinner
Book well ahead for FIR's surprise tasting menu on Lion Street, Wednesday to Saturday with arrival at 18:15 to 18:30, or eat at the Swan at Hay on Church Street, which serves dinner from 5.30pm to 8.30pm every day.
View The Swan at Hay
Ready to plan your visit?
Check the weather forecast before you head out.