Travel in North Wales

TRAVEL around North Wales

A map always comes in handy. There are many sources on the Net but I have found some awful errors with maps having no relationship to reality. One site which offers excellent UK maps is streetmap.co.uk
British Tourist Authority-accomodation, events, travel, news.

Our holidays in 1998, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008 were in Llandudno, and there are a lot of things to see and do, with plenty to explore. Unfortunately most of the relevant web sites fail to offer text navigation, relying on image only or even flash or javascript.
Therefore, the pages below may fall below the standards I set for the other pages I link to, and will not be checked for dead links regularly. This page is more or less "as is" to help you investigate North Wales before you visit.
Helpful note- it is best to ignore the Welsh Tourist Board star gradings for accommodation- they have little resemblance to the comfort and quality you are likely to find. It looks as if they use a standard tick box form (fridge- tick) and an oddly balanced way of adding them all up. I disagree strongly with their ideas of welcome, comfort and quality!

Travel by bus is easy and economic- in 2002 it cost just GBP 4.80 to travel all day on the buses (using a Red Rover) in Ynys Mon, Gwynedd, and Conwy (but no farther East than Llandudno). Not bad value. (by 2006 it was GBP 4.95). If you only travel by the Arriva buses, a weekly ticket for 14 pounds (1996 price) covers all Wales and North West England.
Gwynedd buses | Yns Mon busses | Fflint busses | Great Orme Copper Mines | Alice in Llandudno | Theatre in Llandudno
Conwy and Llandudno

Places to visit:
Snowdon- weather and web cam from Electric Mountain, Llanberis | Conwy Valley Railway
Welsh Highland Railway Ffestiniog Railway.
Llanberis is a lovely place but has a totally unuseable web site (insist on javascript the arrogant ***), even within the laxer parameters for this page. Zero out of 1000 Llanberis for your web site!

We also had a short stay in one of the nicest bestest guest houses we have stayed in. Again I disagree with the Welsh Tourist Board gradings - this one, The Melbourne, Rhyl deserves five stars.
Whilst at Rhyl (Sun Centre- closed. Sky Tower- Closed. Land Train- not running. and so on...) we enjoyed a brief visit to the lovely St Asaph with its friendly St Asaph Cathedral. We enjoyed walking around Denbigh with its splendid castle.
Rhyl is mostly very run down, apart from the sea front, which has in the last decade been badly redeveloped (underground paddling pool?) with the sea invisible from the marine road, and not easy to get to from the marine walk, which is reached with difficulty due to a long prison like concrete wall... but we did not find Rhyl quite the ghetto that some web comments indicate. We did find a very nice Welsh shop, with Welsh books and music - Siop y Morfa, where we learned about a pleasant local walk...
We had a pleasant walk along the River Clwyd from Rhyl to Rhuddlan, where the church was closed, and the castle was closed. We did however climb the motte - Twthill Motte.

CADW, Welsh Heritage (Castles etc) | Wales National Museums || Lovely walking around Trefriw, some of the paths are rugged! || Trefriw Wells Spa home of an iron rich supplement (highly recommended- better than pills) The product is more useable than their web site... images REQUIRED.

Bodelwyddan Castle Denbighshire. | | Beaumaris || Try a side trip to England- a train to Shrewsbury then to Ludlow, a splendid market town full of ancient buildings, you can climb the Church Tower and the Castle Keep. The castle is in private ownership but usually open - as is a neary secret place, Castle Lodge - you won't find it in the tourist guide but it seems to be mostly open, has excellent panelled walls, and the owner may cionsider a worthwhile offer if you like it that much!

Data Wales for lots of Welsh info. | The Mabinogion is THE classic ancient Welsh collection of stories. 585k text file from Gutenberg.
BBC Radio Cymru- real player stream in Welsh. || Radio Acen.fm Streaming mp3 Welsh radio.

Links to UK preserved railway lines are at UK Heritage Railways

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