Recommendations for a trip to Northern Wales

[walkinwood]

We will be visiting Wales as part of a longer trip to the UK this May. The plan is to drive there from Cornwall (we have this part of the trip pretty well planned) with a night in Bath. We'll have a car.

We want to do some hiking in Snowdonia NP - possibly Snowdon if the weather cooperates, some coastal walks, see some churches & castles, old towns and maybe a steam train ride and a visit to a slate mine. We're pretty fit & active, but aren't fans of the go go go trips. We take our time at each place.

After that, I was thinking of a night somewhere along the Pembrokeshire coast or maybe in the Brecon Beacons N.P. After all, how different would the Pembrokeshire coast be from Cornwall?

Then onto Northern Wales for 4 nights. My top two candidates are Llandudno and Caernarfon because they have more accommodation/food choices and possibly something to do at night too. I've heard suggestions for Betwys-y-Coed and Llanberis, but I wonder if we'd get bored in those places after a couple of nights.

Any recommendations, tips on where we should base ourselves, accomodations, things to do etc.? I'm in the process of reading through travel guides on the area.

 

[DrRoy]

For castles, you must do Caernarfon and Conwy. You might do Harlech on the way there. Holyhead on Anglesey has some nice cliffs. We took the train up Snowdon to save time, and did a slate mine also. I would also consider Chester since you will be close.

 

[Nemo2]

For castles, you must do Caernarfon and Conwy. You might do Harlech on the way there. Holyhead on Anglesey has some nice cliffs. We took the train up Snowdon to save time, and did a slate mine also. I would also consider Chester since you will be close.

+1

Further south, and one of the great fortifications, (a dark ominous structure), not built by Edward I, is Caerphilly Castle, with a tower that Cromwell attempted to blow up.

 

[DrRoy]

Further south, and one of the great fortifications, (a dark ominous structure), not built by Edward I, is Caerphilly Castle, with a tower that Cromwell attempted to blow up.

In southern Wales, I have been to Caerphilly, Chepstow, Kidwelly, and Pembroke castles. All good.

 

[NameRedacted]

We were there in 2015 as part of a longer trip. We rented a car and based ourselves in Caernarfon the whole time we were in Wales.

We had a great time. I'll attach a couple of photos

We were planning to visit more castles but found that even though they are great, visiting a castle a day gets boring. Fortunately, there were plenty of other places to visit. We could have spent an extra week there.

These are the highlights. This is a pretty intensive schedule.

1. Caernarfon
   1. Caernarfon Castle - probably spent 3 hours here. We had a great time climbing up and down the battlements.
2. Llanberis
   1. Snowdon Mountain Railway - beautiful - the mountain was covered in clouds that kept opening up and giving us great views - Word of warning. Book in advance. There is extremely limited parking at the station. I ended up parking 300-400 yards away and almost had to jog back to the station to catch the train in time. Give yourself plenty of time.
   2. Electric Mountain - a power station inside a mountain.
   3. National Slate Museum - pretty interesting but we only had about an hour here and could have spent twice as long.
3. Llandudno - It was a cold windy, rainy day.
   1. War Museum - this is pretty small and covers the home front during WW2. It was interesting but we really only visited because it was pouring with rain.
   2. Great Orme Tramway - would have been much nicer if the weather had been better. The carriages have opening for windows which meant that the rain blows in.
   3. Bronze Age mines - This is part way up Great Orme. We really enjoyed this and since the weather was so bad pretty much had the place to ourselves.
4. Conwy - we didn't get to see everything we wanted here. The town is compact enough that you can walk everywhere.
   1. Conwy castle of course - the famous suspension and railways bridges are visible from inside the castle
   2. Smallest House in Great Britain - they only let two people in at a time
   3. Plas Mawr - An old Elizabethan house
   4. Town walls.
5. Ffestiniog railway - the Snowdon Mountain Railway was better in my opinion, but this will appeal to train enthusiasts.
6. Portmetrion - Absolutely amazing place. This is where they filmed the Prisoner TV series
7. Llanfair*pwllgwyngyll*gogery*chwyrn*drobwll*llan*tysilio*gogo*goch - not much to do here except take pictures of the signs with a wide-angle lens.
8. Beaumaris - we actually skipped the castle and visited
   1. The old couthouse
   2. Old town Gaol

 

[walkinwood]

Thanks you all so much for the recommendations.

 

[Koogie]

Aaah, land of my fathers... Croeso !

If you like industrial tours, the one at Llechwedd is great. Actually, the whole area near Blaenau Ffestiniog is interesting. Beddgelert and Betws-y-Coed are both cool little villages on opposite sides of the area.

Caernarfon is in my opinion probably the best preserved and presented castle in Wales, and there are a lot of contenders. The little port town surrounding the castle is interesting in and of itself.

If you happen to be driving through the Beacons and are interested in ruined castles with stunning views, Carreg Cennen is not to be missed. All my family lives in that area and I have spent many summers there.

If you like hiking Snowdonia is obviously the place to go. A lot of the coast paths are nice too. Llyn peninsula is often overlooked for that and it is right there as well. You could also visit Portmeirion while driving there.