Summer Vacation to North Wales


(For some reason the video above doesn't seem to show up on Ipad's so if you cannot see it try this link)

We spent a week up in North Wales for summer vacation this year.  We rented a cottage on the Lleyn peninsula near the village of Cricceith (pronounced Crick-eth) in the Snowdonia Region that we used as our home base.  While the distance from our house to the vacation spot was only about 165 miles, it was about a 4.5 hour trip as there is no real direct high speed road to get to this area.

North Wales is a beautiful region of the UK.  It suprises us how few people from South Wales have ever been up there considering how close it is.  We had a great week visiting villages, beaches, mountains and castles.  Some highlights that you will see in the video.

  • We travelled 4 miles by steam engine on the only rack and pinion railway in Britian, to the top of the highest peak in Wales - Mt Snowdon at 1085M (3560ft).  The train must use rack and pinion due to the steepness of the tracks!  
  • We visted the village and castle of Beaumaris on the Island of Anglesey.  (We also got drenched here in a sudden downpour that caught us off guard:)
  • We visited the village and castle of Caernarfon.  One of Edward I mightiest castles.  This is also where the original 'Prince of Wales' was born hence the start of a standing tradition where the eldest son of the king/queen is given this title (currently held by Prince Charles).
  • We visited the north coast resort village of Llandudno with its victorian inspired downtown, spectacular waterfront, and the Great Orme Peninsula - a massive headland that overlooks the village and gives great views of the snowdonia mountains.  
  • We visited the walled village and castle of Conwy - another great castle built by Edward I to keep wales under control. 
  • While most days were not perfect beach weather we were able to spend some time at the beach in Llandudno as well as the beach below our cottage at Black Rock Sands, which is one of the few places that allow you to drive your car right onto the beach!

The Gower Peninsula: Port Eynon Bay

The Gower Peninsula is about 70 Sq miles in size and sticks out from South Wales into the Bristol channel.  It is classified as an 'Area of Outstanding National Beauty' within the UK and in fact was the first area to receive this designation in 1956.  The weather took a turn for the better this past week and with a 'Proper British Summer' in swing (at least for a few days) we decided to take trip to the Gower. 

As is often the case, I overplanned and had too many 'options' identified for the day - at least too many for a family with 4 young kids in a car on the first nice weekend in a while that also co-incided with the first weekend off school. (everyone was out and there was a lot of traffic)    I am also not as adept as Kelly in planning car rides (snacks, in car entertainment) so unfortunately while the weather started off great, the atmosphere inside the car was stormy. 

We drove through Swansea, and then toured through a small seaside village called Mumbles.  From there we drove further down the peninsula and settled on going to a beach at Port Eynon Bay.  It is one of 4 Blue Flag beaches (rating for quality beaches) on the Gower. We spent a good amount of time here having lunch, playing in the sand and water at very low tide. (see pictures below).  A very good beach for kids as the car park is only about a minute walk to the beach. 

 

Here is a video.  Excuse my miss-pronouciation of 'Port EYnon (as in Eye). 

From here, I wanted to go down and check out what many consider to be the crown Jewel beach of the Gower - Rhossili Bay.  We found it, but due to the lateness of the day, and drive home we decided to skip actually going down to the beach on this trip.  I definitely want to come back to this place again at some point.

Picture below is the view of Rhossili Bay.  The second picture is the church that sits just above the bay, and overlooks it.