Culture

The Welsh museum crowned one of the best visitor attractions in the UK

20 Sep 2026 4 minute read

Big Pit. Picture by fromthevalleys (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Nation.Cymru staff

It consistently rates as one of the most popular visitor attractions in Wales – and now a survey has confirmed that Blaenavon’s Big Pit National Coal Museum is one of the best visitor attractions in the whole of the UK.

Choosing where to go for a day out can be surprisingly difficult. The UK isn’t exactly short of options, and once you start comparing ticket prices, travel time and what other visitors have said, the list can get long very quickly.

Reviews often end up being the deciding factor. A famous name might get somebody’s attention, but thousands of visitors saying they genuinely enjoyed themselves can be much more convincing.

With this in mind, media agency One Day Agency analysed Tripadvisor reviews for 472 attractions across the UK to find which ones visitors have responded to most positively. The research considered both the percentage of five-star reviews and the total number of reviews received, with arenas and stadiums excluded from the ranking.

Wales makes its first appearance on the UK’s best visitor attractions list in tenth place through Big Pit. The former coal mine and museum scores 74.65, with almost nine in ten of its 3,078 Tripadvisor reviewers giving it a glowing five stars.

The attraction where visitors can learn about the country’s coal mining history during their trip to the UNESCO World Heritage site is a regular on lists of the favourite attractions in the UK.

The former working mine is a perfect museum to visit with kids, offering an educational and interactive experience that can be both enjoyable and informative for children. In another recent poll the attraction was rated the best free museum to visit in the UK.

Ever imagined what life was like for the men, women and children who worked deep underground? Big Pit was once a working mine, and today the museum has former miners on hand to share their stories and history.

Big Pit (Credit: Lacu Schienred, WikiCommons)

A working coal mine from 1880 to 1980, it was opened to the public in 1983 as a charitable trust called the Big Pit (Blaenavon) Trust. By 1 February 2001 Big Pit Coal Museum was incorporated into the National Museums and Galleries of Wales as the National Mining Museum of Wales.

Visitors can experience what it was like working on the coal face and travel 90m in a ‘cage’ to the pit bottom with a guide. There’s more to see above ground in a multi-media tour of a modern coal mine with a virtual miner, historic colliery buildings and exhibitions to explore in the Pithead Baths.

You can also take part in workshops, where the Big Pit’s Learning Team will guide you through 300 million years of Welsh history.

Alexandra Gonçalves, Paid Media Manager at One Day Agency, said: “Smaller, specialist attractions can have an advantage because the experience often feels more personal. At this type of venue, visitors may spend more time speaking to knowledgeable staff, get closer to the subject and see the enthusiasm of the people running it. Those details tend to stick with people when they leave a review.

“There is usually a very clear promise as well. Somebody booking a bird of prey experience or visiting a museum dedicated to one part of history knows roughly what they’re going there for. If the attraction delivers that experience well, there is less room for disappointment than there might be at a major landmark expected to offer something for everybody.

“It’s also striking that Big Pit, a former working coal mine, places tenth ahead of The National Gallery in 19th. Visitors aren’t necessarily judging an attraction by its fame or cultural importance. They’re judging how the day actually felt, whether the staff added something to the experience and whether they came away feeling that the visit was worth their time.”

Find out more HERE

Rankings of the visitor attractions in Wales on the list of the UK’s 100 best attractions

10. Big Pit Museum
11. Folly Farm, Pembrokeshire.
34. Gower Peninsula
38. Pembroke Castle
42. Rhossili Bay
46. Bodnant Garden
52. St Fagans National Museum of History
59. Great Orme
68. Manorafon Farm Park

Methodology and sources

The study analysed Tripadvisor review data for visitor attractions across the UK.

The original dataset contained 480 qualifying attractions, with 40 from each region. Eight venues categorised as arenas or stadiums were removed, leaving 472 attractions.

Each attraction needed at least 100 Tripadvisor reviews to qualify.

The Attraction Score is based on the percentage of reviews awarding an attraction five stars, adjusted according to the total number of reviews. This reduces the advantage given to attractions with a very high five-star percentage but a comparatively small review base.

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