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Help with Wales Itinerary
I’d like advice on whether we should start our tour clockwise or anti-clockwise. Also suggestions as to where we might stop in our travels thru Wales. I’d thought to begin in North Wales possibly staying in Conwy. From there we’d see Bodysgallen House, Llabdudno, and Snowdonia. Should we use Conwy as a base to tour Porthmadog, Anglesey, Bodnant Gardensand Beaumaris? Could we use Conwy as a base for touring Plas Newyd (Llangollin), Chirk Castle, Erdigg, and Powis? Would tConwy be a good locale for Harlech Castle and Portmerion? from there we’d like to go south to St. David’s and the Pembroke Coast. Would Tenby a good spot to stay after this drive, or is it too far? From there we’d drive to Cardiff, and on to the Brecons, Hay-on-Wye, Clyro, and Llandrindad Wells. I was thinking Hereford might be a good place to drop the car (which we’d picked up in Manchester) and then take the train to London. I’m healing from a broken foot so we won’t do any hiking or biking on this trip. We are NT members and enjoy their properties as well as small historic villages. I’ve already seen Chepstow, Caernarfon, and Blenaevon. I know our itinerary includes a lot of sites. We can usually manage two a day, sometimes three. How long do you estimate our trip would take? Is it practical to begin in Manchester and do N. Wales first? I think the stops in S Wales could be overnight. If we can see the North, from Conwy, how many nights will we require a hotel? I know these plans sound ambitious. I’d appreciate any suggestions. We can stay in Wales up to two and a half weeks. Is it practical to attempt our itinerary? If we’d need to drop a destination which one would you suggest? Many, many thanks for all help you can offer. |
Conwy is a long day trip from several of those places you want to day trip to - so another base needed. Conwy is great for Beaumarais- Snowdon - Caernarferon Castle and city and the Great Orme and its antique tramway that takes you up top - you can drive up there too - right opposite Conwy. Chester would be a possible day trip.
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Iron Bridge Gorge should be kind on way from south Wales to Hereford. Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution they claim - thus the first large-scale use of iron like in the original Iron Bridge - the gorge it is now in is a national park.
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Is there a reason you tagged the thread for Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia and Finland??
>>I’d like advice on whether we should start our tour clockwise or anti-clockwise. << Makes almost no difference. >>I was thinking Hereford might be a good place to drop the car<< You likely cannot collect a car in Manchester and drop it in Hereford. Unless 'maybe' you hire from Enterprise AFAIK there are no other national chains and I'm not sure that Enterprise location allows one way rentals. If you want a one way rental major you might have to go to Birmingham or Cardiff or Stratford upon Avon |
My family and I visited Wales last summer. It was after we dropped one of my daughters off in Liverpool. We stayed at incredible B&B...https://www.visitsnowdonia.info/bryniau-golau in Bala, Gwynedd. It was the perfect base for us. We did Snowdonia and visited a great botanical garden. We stopped in Chester on our way to Manchester for our flight home. I hope this helps.
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Thank you for your suggestions. I think we’re going to stick with the destinations I listed. I am concerned about Conwy being too far from many places we want to visit. It is hard for me to judge travel time. The distances/mileage don’t seem daunting to us because we are used to hopping in the car and driving for a hour. Having said that, I must confess that we are driving on US freeways or wide two lane roads. I based my calculations on distances and travel times provided by the Rome to Rio website. However, I don’t know how long it will take to drive these distances on Welsh roads. We were in Yorkshire 2 years ago and it took a very long time to travel short distances over narrow, twisting roads! If you have any estimates of driving times it would be much appreciated! Also, we could use suggestions as to what towns would be logical places to stay given our (hoped for) itinerary. Thank you again m |
Thank you for the suggestion. I think we’ll stick with our original destinations. It will be a challenge to see all of them.
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Thank you for your quick reply. The odd ball listings for far off ports of call are due to trying to enter info via my iPhone. I wasn’t able to scroll down to check just the U.K. box. I had to scroll past each country. A check mark appeared and I had to delete it before going to the next country. Sometimes the list would scroll back on its own to countries I’d already eliminated. Aaargh! It took forever to get to the U.K. and check the box. Apparently some other boxes remained checked or re-checked themselves along the way. I had no idea this had happened. Im sorry, but I have no idea how to rectify this mishap.
I asked the clockwise question to determine where we should begin our trip. I didn’t know what city offered direct flights from SFO, and was large enough to make car rental and drop off easy. I picked Manchester because it was close to N Wales and a big city. I hadn’t considered that rentals in some locales wouldn’t allow drop off in another location. I’m completely flummoxed as to where we should land and enter, and exit Wales. And I’m still flummoxed by what towns would offer good locations for day trips given our itinerary. *gently banging my head on the wall* Ive ordered some maps/books that show driving distances, but they’re coming from small vendors and won’t arrive at the end of May. I haven’t found anything online to calculate driving distance/time except for Rome to Rio. Their estimates may be too optimistic and based on driving times given if one is driving on a motorway versus roads in Wales. *taking a few moments to lay head on desk and sob in frustration* This trip hasn’t received my usual meticulous preparation. The opportunity to travel only came up last week. Hubby really wants to go to Wales as we’ve missed it on previous trips. I know a lot about ideal destinations, but am struggling with logistics. Perhaps I’ve lost my travel mojo-magic. I feel like I’m trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat without much success. We hope leave by June 1st so I’m feeling a wee bit anxious. |
Thank you. This Inn looks very pretty. I’ll keep the idea in my back pocket. I’m not sure if the location will be ideal for some sightseeing we want to do. But, perhaps we’d like a spot to rest amidst the travel madness.
Cheers. |
I haven’t used the Forum in quite a few years. The format is confusing to me now. When I read a reply to my questions, I scrolled to Quick Reply and entered my response. I did this with all 4 replies. When I checked that my replies were posted it showed them all bunched together, not directed to a particular person. Perhaps I have to enter your screen name to have my response appear as a reply to you? PalenQ the my first two replies were to your suggestions. The next was to Janis J. The last was to Miki2621. Thanks to all of you for your patience and help. |
It depends on how long you are planning to stay in Conwy whether all those trips are doable from there.
Plenty of people rent a cottage and use it as a base for most of North Wales. You could easily visit all of those North Wales places listed if you have enough time, and use Conwy as a base though prehaps somewhere further into Snowdonia, maybe around Beddgelert, would work better. I spent years holidaying in North Wales because we had family there. Our base was Bethesda, which I wouldn't recommend, but we would travel all over as far as Holyhead, covering a lot over Anglesey on the way, over to Llangollen, down to Harlech in our week or two there. |
OK- can't post much right now and haven't read all your latest posts . . . But if you want to fly out of SFO you will want to look at MAN and LHR. Re cars, it isn't so much one way rentals are allowed, it is tha small towns don't have major rental agencies at all. You'd need the majors - hertz, Avis, europcar, Budget, etc and the best/easiest places to pick up and drop off are at the airports . So you could fly in to MAN. And home from LHR or in / out of the same airport once you figure out your itinerary. Re drive times, rome2rio is pretty good but even with them you need to add between 25% and almost 100% to every calculation. ESPECIALLY in the rural bits. There is nothing similar to I-5 or even Hwy 50. LOTS of very twisty, very narrow roads. |
When I get home from lunch I'll read over your posts and see the new info . . . But just in general rural Wals doesn't really lend itself to hub and spoke touring. The drive times are just too much |
We spent nearly 4 weeks in Wales last June. We rented a car in Milford Haven from Enterprise and planned to return it at Llandudno Junction about 10 days later. Maybe you'll be fine, but we were so freaked out by driving in Wales that we ditched the car a week early in Bangor. The nice folks at the Enterprise location there said, "Oh, this happens all the time."
We had planned to use the car on Anglesey but were glad to be done with it and just scaled back our plans. Once again, you might do fine. Don't get me wrong, we had a wonderful trip and didn't want to come home. St. Davids was our favorite little town. |
This is likely to be a better site for drive times in the UK: https://www.theaa.com/route-planner/index.jsp Driving in Wales can be interesting... I based in Conwy without a car a couple of years back, but I didn't go up Snowden. I certainly wouldn't try to get to Portmerion from there as a day trip. See: https://mytimetotravel.wordpress.com...stle-and-more/ and: https://mytimetotravel.wordpress.com...he-great-orme/ |
It is about an hour from Conwy to Portmerion. Perfectly doable, main road all the way unless you choose the scenic route, which takes maybe half an hour longer.
However if you want to go on down to St. Davids you can do Portmerion on the way down, and maybe break the journey around Aberystwyth/Aberaeron for the night. |
It is about an hour from Conwy to Portmerion |
OP will have a car though, and the roads down to Portmerion from Conwy are good.
And it is Snowdon with an O. Snowden is in Kent. |
The OP may have a car. Some of the discussion addressed the issue of driving in Wales.
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Originally Posted by hetismij2
(Post 16916850)
It depends on how long you are planning to stay in Conwy whether all those trips are doable from there.
Plenty of people rent a cottage and use it as a base for most of North Wales. You could easily visit all of those North Wales places listed if you have enough time, and use Conwy as a base though prehaps somewhere further into Snowdonia, maybe around Beddgelert, would work better. I spent years holidaying in North Wales because we had family there. Our base was Bethesda, which I wouldn't recommend, but we would travel all over as far as Holyhead, covering a lot over Anglesey on the way, over to Llangollen, down to Harlech in our week or two there. |
Penrhyn Castle is not on your above list. Highly recommended and easy access from Conwy. The Enterprise car rental location is just down the road in case you decide to ditch the car. :)
Plas Mawr in Conwy is also worth a visit. Conwy was our second favorite town and made for an excellent base for us. Have a great trip. |
thursdaysd, Thank you for the link to the AA site. I think this will be very helpful. And thank you for the links to the travelogues. They were well written and gave good information, as well as personal impressions, for the destinations. |
Nelson, thank you for suggesting Penrhyn and Plas Mawr as places close by. It is useful to have some sheltered destinations as the forecast in Wales often includes rain. |
We’ve decided we will rent a car. Probably with Enterprise. Instead of doing traditional Mothers Day outings I’ve asked my husband to sit down and read the info I’ve gathered and to take a look at the map to plot out trips and draft an itinerary. An an article I read suggested using google earth to get a better sense of road conditions in areas that are off the main roads. I may give this a try for B roads and secondary A roads. At least this might give us a sense if the roadside is vegetation, stone walls, or a ditch. Hedgerows and bracken can be daunting, but the other two situations are hair raising and unforgiving. We probably won’t do the western coast road down the St. Davids. Instead, we’ll drop the car in Wrexham (after touring Llangollen, Erdigg, etc) and take the train to Swansea. From Swansea we’ll rent a.car, and drive to St. Davids, taking in sights along the way. We’ll then take the train to Swansea, drop off the car, and take the train to London. In this scenario we’ll miss going to Hay-on-Wye, but we can do this another time. Definitely still on the bucket list. We we have to firm up our itinerary and flights before we know if we’ll have time for Cardiff. We have to be back home for a wedding on June 22nd. Cardiff is an easy trip from London so we could see it (and drive to Hay-on-Wye) on our next trip. And there will Always be a next trip to England. I’ve been 12 times and know I’ll never get tired of trips to the British Isles. |
A day trip to Snowdonia is one part of our travel puzzle that I’m having trouble with. Snowdonia is obviously best enjoyed on foot. I think I mentioned I’m recovering from a broken foot and hiking isn’t in the cards for me. There are several entrances to the park, by car, tram, or train. Is there one that will give us the highlights of the park? The thought of a bumper to bumper crawl along the roads makes us wonder if we should try to book a bus tour for the day. I assume there are day tours by bus. We typically don’t favor these tours but it would be nice for my husband to see scenery instead of watching the road. I’ve also noticed that from the height of a bus you can see things you’d miss in a car. Any thoughts or suggestions on Snowdonia are appreciated. |
Although we ended up not doing it once we decided to ditch the car, we were going to visit Snowdonia via Llanbaris. Seemed to have easy access off the main (and easy to drive) roads between Conwy and Caernarfon. From there you can take the Snowdon Mountain Railway, visit Dolbadarn Castle or the National Slate Museum. Seemed like a decent option.
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Times I've been to Snowdonia (in the dim, distant, past) we've driven, and taken the train up Snowdon. |
We stayed at Bryn Guesthouse in Conwy on three visits. It is our favorite B&B ever. Bed and Breakfast (B&B), Conwy, North Wales, UK. We also enjoyed staying at Gwydir Castle - quite a unique experience! I hope you can visit Bodnant gardens. |
Help with Wales Itinerary
Thank you for your information about Snowdonia and Conwy. I think we will take the train to the top. Those trains are fun and they travel slowly enough to take pictures. We are going to Bodnant Gardens. I hope we’ll have dry weather. Fingers crossed. I’m getting a driver for a day trip to Snowdonia and Portmerion. I want my husband to see the scenery in Snowdonia, and not just the road. I’ve heard parking is terrible at Portmerion. If we have a driver we won’t have to deal with parking problems. The Itinerary is coming together. Fortunately a map I ordered arrived and I was able to find information and photos on our destinations online. My husband made plane reservations. I guess that means we’re heading across the pond! |
>> I’ve heard parking is terrible at Portmerion<<
That has not been my experience at all -- maybe on a bank holiday weekend . . . |
I don't know about parking in Portmerion but parking at Mt Snowdon (main trailheads/visitor centre) can be next to impossible. The relatively few spaces fill up very early. I see you have a driver so I suppose that's not an issue. I don't know about meeting places but every time I've been there, car traffic is very tightly controlled by parking staff (i.e. you cannot park and cars are 'moved along') and if it's busy, you may have to think carefully about where/how to meet. I've always taken the Sherpa bus, leaving the car near one of the bus stops or staying close to a bus stop. Again, not an issue if you have a driver but just contributing to our body of knowledge on this subject.
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Help with Wales Itinerary
Thank you for the info on parking problems in Snowdonia Natl. Park. It makes sense that parking would be limited. Using the bus seems like a good solution. There isn’t much specific info on Wales in the Fodors Forum. Every little bit helps! |
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