No trip to North Wales would be complete without a trip to the seaside. There are a whole host of wonderfully kitsch holiday hotspots that will sate your appetite for low-brow entertainment. Travel to Llandudno, Rhyl or Conwy Bay and you will quite happily be able to drown in delicious ice creams from themed parlours, indulge in rounds of adventure golf and thrill the senses with extreme sports. However, if you’re looking for something a little more classy and a little less Victorian staycation, then these three destinations could be right up your alley.
Dine fine and cross the streams at Menai Bridge
A truly gorgeous and relatively unspoilt town, Menai Bridge may largely subsist off tourist money but it does a great job of not showing it. With a small population of under four thousand, the town busies up during the summer months giving it a lovely bustling feel. With a charmingly weird, meandering road system – its not the easiest place to get around, but if you leave the car parked it can be good fun just to get lost in this funny little town.
Walking along the southern edge of the town will grant you a view of the little group of islands and rivers that make up ‘The Swellies’, whilst you’re on this side you can take a look at Church Island too. Accessible by a causeway and taking up 2.7 acres of land, the island is devoted entirely to St. Tsyllio’s church and its churchyard. Although a touch gloomy for a holiday destination, the highest point of the island (home to a memorial for those who died in World War II) affords the best views of the river as well as the two bridges that cross it.
For food, there’s a high concentration of quality cafés and restaurants. The absolute pinnacle of local cuisine has to be Sosban & The Old Butchers. Opened in the place of a traditional butchers shop, ‘sosban’ is Welsh for saucepan, and they probably have a few of them in the kitchen where high end tasting menus are prepared to meticulous detail. With a fixed menu and only sixteen covers, the waiting list is long but most definitely worth the wait. Prospective diners can look forward to a surprisingly relaxed service, considering the price and style, full of local charm and charisma.
Explore an ancient town and wake up to the sea at Caernarfon
With one of the largest 13th century castles in Wales, Caernarfon runs the danger of giving away its best all at once. The monster of a building towers over the water and the rest of the town, with the kind of presence that is hard to forget. Colour coded towers, all of differing size, give it an organic appearance and the surrounding town has not modernised so much as to make it look quaint. For those looking for the standard High Street fare, there are plenty of opportunities to do some conventional shopping, but if you do you’ll find yourself wandering in to the blander parts of this otherwise stunning town.
Although there are plenty of hotels to stay at, a guest house or B&B would be the best way to experience Caernarfon. There are some wonderful, well looked after homesteads that the town’s hosts are more than happy to open the doors to. A couple of nights spent in one of these quaint rooms, with just the sound of the water lapping against the shore line, will put you in a dream like state of relaxedness that you will not be able to obtain in a busy, multi-storey hotel complex. The Victoria House B&B is one of the best rated of its kind on Trip Advisor, and if you can’t trust a litany of happily satisfied foreign tourists, then I don’t know if there’s a single opinion you can trust.
No trip to a coastal town is complete without at least one trip to the local Fish ‘n’ Chip shop. Its always worth giving your chosen destination a little Google before you hit it up though, as the quality of these shops can vary massively. A cursory search of Caernarfon’s local shop reaps decent rewards; with 309 Trip Advisor reviewers (out of a possible 385) rating it ‘Excellent’, Ainsworth’s Traditional Fish & Chips will be sure to wow you with their delicately fried fish and classic fat-cut chips. If you fancy something a little more upmarket then Blas will be for you. Serving traditional English and Welsh fare with big city flair, reviews are similarly bombastic. You can look forward to enjoying ‘beautifully presented food’ and ‘attentive service’ at this smart restaurant, at much better value than you’d think.
Be awestruck by the beauty of Port Meirion
For those with the most to spend, and who want their seaside town resort to be exactly what it says it is, then look no further than Port Meirion. Designed and built by eccentric architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis – this is a tourist trap in every sense of the word. Built between 1925 and 1975, the village’s wide and varied selection of nostalgically designed buildings recall that of a picture perfect Italian coastal town. With a gorgeous piazza at the centre of the town, this place might be incredibly over designed and not very Welsh but, on a sunny day, its simply jaw dropping to behold.
Now run as a charitable trust, the buildings, streets and the rare collection of Rhododendrons that cover the village are all protected indefinitely. As a result you will have to pay the (reasonable) admission price of £11 (its a quid cheaper if you book ahead online) for the privilege of wandering around this architectural marvel. If you’re looking to stay in ‘The Village’ of The Prisoner fame, you’ll need to fork out a lot more money than in other parts of North Wales. Have the cash, and the forethought, to book ahead then by all means do. During the evenings and nights the village ejects its day visitors, leaving the cobbled streets and beautiful houses to be enjoyed by those fortunate enough to be staying there.