Hay-on-Wye

Hay-on-Wye is a small market town on the Welsh-English border that declared itself the world's first 'book town' in the 1960s, and it's been synonymous with second-hand books ever since. The town has around 20 bookshops crammed into its narrow streets — from vast barns overflowing with cheap paperbacks to specialist dealers in antiquarian maps, poetry, and Welsh history. The annual Hay Festival in late May/early June has grown from a literary gathering into one of the most important cultural festivals in the world — Bill Clinton called it 'the Woodstock of the mind'. Authors, politicians, scientists, and thinkers from around the globe come to speak and debate. The town doubles in population and the atmosphere is electric. Outside festival time, Hay is quieter but no less charming. The town sits on the edge of the Brecon Beacons (now Bannau Brycheiniog) and the Black Mountains, making it a great base for walking. Hay Bluff and the Gospel Pass are spectacular. The Thursday market on the memorial square is good. Richard Booth's Bookshop (the one that started it all) is now a community-run shop with a café and cinema. Come for the books, stay for the mountains.