Visit North Wales

Have you been to North Wales before? Which part did you visit?

We have just got back from a few days away and wanted to share some of our top tips and places to visit. Including the most perfect beach (Talacre Beach) that was only a 2 hour and 5 minutes drive from ours (B43 postcode) and may possibly be where we head when we fancy a beach day in the future.

Talacre Beach

We started our trip away at Talacre Beach. Think light house, sand dunes, and a huge stretch of beach with little waves for the kids to jump up and down over. The car park may have been the cheapest one I’ve ever encountered at just 20p, for 2 hours! You could stay longer, but we were just having a couple of hours to explore whilst waiting for check-in at our hotel.

Rhyl

This is where we had booked a Premier Inn for our stay. I have to admit, it wasn’t for us. The accommodation was more basic than I expected. No fridge in the room and the beds all cramped up together like one large bed as the room was so small. The beds were not comfortable at all, even the girls complained of being achey but it acted as a good base for our trip away as everywhere that we wanted to visit was within an easy drive away and the breakfast buffet was enjoyable. Would we book a Premier Inn again though? No. They’re not Small House Big Trips recommended, at least not this one in Rhyl. Do let us know if you’ve found one that is of a good standard.

Rhyl has a large beach/promenade but it is mostly blocked off at the moment due to regeneration of the area including setting up some better flood defences. Which once done, I think will be amazing! The only thing the girls loved about the place, were the mass of arcades and really friendly staff within them. We played so many 2p machines and won lots of tokens to swap for prizes and the shops are mega cheap here.

Quite telling as to what I thought of the place, is my huge lack of photos… I took 3!

Our favourite place of all that we visited was…

Llandudno

Known to be a foodies heaven, this Victorian style seaside resort with a pier, pastel coloured hotels on the seafront, and traditional Punch and Judy has something for all ages.

We parked further down the promenade by the RNLI hut so that the girls could play on the playground before we took a gentle stroll into the town (as a bonus, it is free parking that far up the promenade too!). The beach over this side is full of stones. It looks like they have an outdoor children’s paddling pool, too, but they’re currently updating/maintaining it.

The girls had seen a leaflet for a chocolate museum, so that’s where we headed for our first stop.

Llandudno Chocolate Experience

Located down a small side street in the Town Centre (John Street Cocoa Works, John Street, Llandudno, LL30 2AB) just around the corner from Maises, the must visit chocolate shop in Llandudno where the chocolate made in the factory here on the ground floor of the chocolate experience, is transferred to, as well as all across Europe.

For a family of four, the experience is £15 which included a beaker full of chocolate samples to try as you walk around the self-led tour of the museum. Starting in a Mayan hut, we travelled through nine eras, exploring how chocolate has ingrained itself into our society. There’s also a window where you can peep at people making chocolate in the factory. They were making hot chocolate melting sticks when we peeped through.

I think the most exciting thing for me was seeing the old wrappers of chocolate bars and reading the history of how some came about, like the KitKat (spoiler alert: it was an employee’s idea, placed in an ideas box at work).

The girls loved the interactive opportunities around the museum.

The whole experience lasted us about 40 minutes, reading every sign and trying out all of the activities.

I should add as well that the museum is above the factory, with no lifts, so it isn’t one for those who may find stairs difficult and there’s nowhere to leave a pram if you have one.

Next, we headed to the best café ever.

Botanical Babe Plants

A plant shop entwined with a coffee shop, that’s dog friendly too! It is absolutely amazing. We all had so much love for this place, and if you head to Llandudno, you must visit (66 Mostyn St, Llandudno LL30 2SB).

We had a selection of water, juices, and tea and ordered two cakes to share between us.

The selections available were great, with all dietary requirements considered. The jaffa chocolate vegan cake looked so tempting.

Every town needs a Botanical Babe Plant store and cafe, and I hope to see this being the first of many created. If you’d like to purchase from the store, I spotted that they have an Etsy shop for the plants.

After a browse through some tourist shops we headed towards the pier.

Llandudno Pier stretches out into the Irish Sea by 700m and boasts being Wales longest pier (the 5th longest in the UK). You may have seen the pier on the ITV show, The Pier. It is a Victorian masterpiece and a must visit for the whole tourist experience. A fine memory of traditional childhood holidays with the fair rides, ferris wheel, fish and chips, sugary doughnuts and the arcade at the end of the pier.

The girls couldn’t resist trying out the ferris wheel with their Dad. I, however, kept my feet firmly on the floor, enjoying watching people get onto a boat tour.

The girls enjoyed an array of fair rides on the pier. Make sure you have some cash as the machine to turn your money into tokens is cash only and a few of the retail stores accepted cash only too. Brand new vinyls for ten pounds were brilliant value for money on the subject of retail stores.

Over the other side of the pier, you can see the cable cars that travel from the Happy Valley Gardens, 679 feet up the Great Orme. We didn’t give this a try this time but have vowed to head back next year and add this to our itinerary.

Back to the pier, have you watched the film Big? If you haven’t, it’s a must. If you have, you’ll remember the fortune telling Zoltar. Well, I couldn’t resist and had a go.

Llandudno Pier was great. You can apparently spot seals in the sea below, but we didn’t see any whilst there.

We headed off back into the town to find some fish and chips (have you even visited the coast if you haven’t had a bag of fish and chips?).

A quick Google gave us a recommendation for Barnacles (7 Mostyn St, Llandudno LL30 2NL) and what a super choice it was. Top tier fish and chips, probably the best ones I’ve had in years by the seaside. You can order food to takeaway or eat they have a restaurant where you can pay a little extra and eat indoors. We chose to eat inside the restaurant. For those of you who need gluten-free options, they have a whole gluten-free menu.

Suitably full, we decided to have a walk back along the promenade to the car.

We managed to drive up a long (steep) road to Llandudno Ski and Snowboarding Centre where we found the longest Cresta Toboggan run in Wales! It is 575m long and offers an exhilarating experience. Ages 4+ can ride with an adult. Over 8s ride alone. It wasn’t running when we arrived due to the rain, but we were so excited to see it and hear about it. Another to add to our itinerary for the next visit.

We decided to exit Llandudno with the scenic Marine Drive Toll Road. A 5 mile scenic one-way route with spectacular views over to Anglesey and Snowdonia. It was £4.50 for a car and it was worth the money. It would make the perfect place to park your car and sit and have a picnic on a warm summers day. Sadly for us, it was raining a bit, but we still enjoyed seeing the wildlife on the hill and views across the bay.

Next on our adventure was Conwy.

The medieval walled town of Conwy is picturesque and filled with history.

Home to one of the most magnificent medieval fortresses in Europe, Conwy Castle towers over the town.

Inside Conwy Castle, there’s stunning scenes both across Snowdonia and also down across the harbour, too.

To keep children entertained, they had a large entertainment programme of things to see and do. The girls loved playing archery and trying out their circus skills.

They even got to make their own caduceus in the tower. A caduceus is a wand for magic healing. I loved that it wasn’t a load of materials left on a table for children to do, but a really well thought out and planned activity with options of having an earth, fire or water wand with different pots for each choice, already sorted out for children.

My personal favourite was the comedy show. Which had the audience roaring with laughter.

The castle was fabulous for exploring and getting the best views across the town.

We headed down into the town after to explore the walled town. Conwy is the home of the Smallest House in Great Britain.

Which is situated opposite the harbour, where there’s also a stand serving tasty ice cream that Jemima and James decided to indulge in.

Up the road from here, we came across Tan Lan Bakery purveyors of artisan bread, fine patisserie and delicious cakes. I couldn’t resist a Ferrero Roche rich chocolate cake and Matilda decided on a heated Jamaican Curry Slice. Really recommend stopping here if you get the chance to.

We had a sit down, drink and a platter of picky food from Bank of Conwy. The quirky vault seating downstairs is a great idea.

There’s plenty of places to choose souvenirs from. We chose a few items from Conwy Visitor Centre, which also doubled up as an art gallery with some spectacular artwork for sale.

Finally, our last place to visit during this little break away was, Colwyn Bay.

Colwyn Bay Beach with its long sandy beach and clear sea (my pictures do not do it justice as we arrived late afternoon) made for the perfect beach time.

Jemima loved getting buried in the sand and sitting in the sea. It felt lovely and peaceful with only a handful of families on the beach.

And then we headed home.

Such a perfect break away. We can’t wait to return to North Wales again. Let us know your personal recommendations, too, so we can add those to our list of places to visit next time.