If anything can sum up a town succinctly, it is the plaque at LLANDRINDOD WELLS station, commemorating the 1990 "Revictorianisation of Llandrindod railway station". The town, fifteen miles northeast of Llanwrtyd, has not been slow to follow suit, peddling itself furiously as Wales' most upmarket Victorian inland resort, despite its one-time reputation for licentiousness. It was the railway that made Llandrindod, bringing carriages full of well-to-do Victorians to the fledgling spa from 1864 onwards. The town blossomed, new hotels were built, neat parks were laid out and it came to rival many of the more fashionable spas and resorts over the border. Even now, Llandrindod can seem like a breath of fresh air, with its finer buildings swabbed and sandblasted, its ornate cast-iron railings restored, and the spa brought back to some kind of life.

Llandrindod's Victorian opulence is still very much in evidence in the town's grandiose public buildings, especially the lavishly restored spa pump room in the pleasant Rock Park , with its trickling streams and well-manicured glens. EU regulations sanction the use of only one of Llandrindod's spa taps in the café inside: a tiny - but more than ample - glass costs 10p, or you can step outside for a free gulp from the chalybeate fountain outside. The architecture around the park entrance is Llandrindod at its most confidently Victorian, with elaborately carved terracotta frontages and expansive gabling.

The High Street, running from here to the centre, contains antique, junk and book shops. The tourist office, on Temple Street, behind, houses the small Radnorshire Museum (Tues-Thurs 10am-1pm & 2-5pm, Fri 10am-1pm & 2-4.30pm, Sat & Sun 11am-5pm; £1), which is largely dedicated to excavated remains from the Roman fort at Castellcollen, a mile northwest of Llandrindod. Kitsch Victoriana makes up the bulk of the rest of the collection, although there's also one of the better red-kite galleries, including a video with stunning footage. The National Cycle Collection , on the corner of Temple Street and Spa Road (March-Oct daily 10am-4pm; call 01597/825531 for winter hours; £2.50), is a nostalgic collection of over 250 bikes, from a reproduction 1818 Hobbyhorse to relatively modern folding bikes and choppers, including styles that look far too uncomfortable to have been a success.