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3 nights in Wales - where to spend it?

Posted by on

Hi everyone,
I've had a lot of helpful advice on this forum in the past, so thank you! Now I'm stuck and double guessing the last part I need to book in of my 2 week road trip in the UK. The question marks are where I have not booked anything in yet,
I would LOVE to see some castles and some pretty villages as we don't get those in Australia!
Seeing Snowdonia would be amazing but I probably won't do the entire walk - the railway looks AMAZING though!
As a kid of 7 I absolutely loved Hay on Wye but I don't remember it much (it was 30 years ago!) and it just seems a good stopover between Lynton and North Wales.

Tuesday 22nd July - Lynton
Wednesday 23rd July - Was thinking Hay on Wye??
Thursday 24th July - Was torn between Aberystwyth, Llamberis or Betws-y-Coed?
Friday 25th July - Second night in Snowdonia?

Saturday 26th July - Liverpool - this is not booked but I'd love at least one night in Liverpool
Sunday 27th July - Ambleside
Monday 28th July - Ambleside

Yes I know a lot of driving and the traffic will be busy. I am definitely going to be starting my days early. Not a relaxing holiday person (Maybe I will need a relaxing holiday after this one though!)

Thanks all for your help and suggestions.

Posted by
2731 posts

On the Thursday & Friday, I would select one central base for Snowdonia - perhaps Porthmadog area? (If in this area, the Italianate village of Portmeirion is worth seeing).

Thursday - I would not bother going to Aberystwyth. Go N from Hay using A470 via Rhayader. (You might like to detour into Llanidloes to se the old market hall in the centre of town). Anyway, head N to Dolgellau and take coast road to Barmouth (worth a look) and then to Harlech to see the castle.

When going to Liverpool - suggest you make a detour to see the city of Chester.

Posted by
9298 posts

One thing to be aware -Pen-y- Pass car park have in Snowdonia has just introduced a £20 per day, book ahead only charge.
The latest much needed anti motorist salvo.

Posted by
31 posts

I would drive straight from Hay-on-Wye to Snowdonia too and have two nights there. Stay central eg. Betws-y-Coed / Trefriw / Llanrwst and then you are only 45-60 mins max from the main sights eg. Conwy with its castle is just 10 miles north.

If you have two nights in Snowdonia on your full day you can do a nice loop through the mountains west and back along the North Wales coast - we call it 'the greatest hits' and you will tick off scenery, castles, cute towns (eg. Conwy) etc.

If you want to do Snowdonia (the mountain) itself then the hike would take 5-6 hours and the train about half of that. Pre-booking is essential for the train but if you went for an early / late train it would give you the rest of the day to explore. Personally if you only have two nights here I would leave it and just enjoy the scenery around it more.

Cute villages: Betws-y-Coed, Beddgelert, Trefriw - all doable in a day and nice stops if you did the loop.

Then to get to Liverpool (well worth it - we go often) you can just zip along the A55 and be there in less than two hours. Liverpool is fab and you can easily walk around it in an afternoon / evening - it is a very compact city centre.

Posted by
7623 posts

I can’t speak to your plan, but we found Aberystwyth to be rather dull and not someplace we’d want to spend 3 days unless we were taking day trip from it and only using it as a place to sleep. There are probably more interesting and scenic location that would be a better option.

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