US Vice-President JD Vance has revealed that a 2013 visit to Caernarfon Castle in north Wales left him profoundly moved, describing it in a new memoir as "the coolest thing I've ever seen and it's not particularly close". The disclosure comes in an excerpt from his book, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, published in The Sunday Times, in which he links the trip to a broader shift in his outlook on life and marriage.

Vance visited the 13th-century UNESCO World Heritage site with his wife, Usha, who studied at Cambridge, drawn partly by its history as the location of King Charles's investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969. He writes that the castle's age, far older than any building in his native Cincinnati, gave him a striking sense of "the scale of time" and human insignificance within it. The couple also breakfasted at a local pub, visited Conwy Castle, and met Welsh utility workers who turned out to be fans of his conservative writing, an encounter he called "hilarious". Vance says the trip established a lasting habit for the couple of seeking out authentic, off-the-beaten-path experiences when travelling.