I feel a fraud, with all your expectant comments our weekend trip might just be a bit underwhelming. On Friday morning at 8am, we got on a local minibus to Southampton, where we met a coach for our first coach trip. Its a good first trip as we were last on the minibus and met the coach at it's last pick up point, making ours the shortest journey time, some people had already been on for almost three hours, the coach journey started in Brighton.
After a long drive with a couple of stops we arrived at Llandudno, north Wales, we have visited here once before, a few years ago, once we sorted our room for the next two nights, it was late afternoon so we walked along the promenade, it was dry, but cool and blustery. It looked much as we remembered it, with The Grand hotel commanding the view, we stayed there before, but it's beauty had faded to the point we called it The not-so Grand.
Saturday was another early start, our trip included two different stops, firstly we took the scenic route through Snowdonia, which is so beautiful, all along the way the mist hugged the top of the mountains, much the way it has done every time we have visited. Just stunning views, we did not stop, so I'm not sure what the sword means, on checking Google, there are many interpretations of King Arthurs sword in the area.
We then had a trip on the train to the top of Snowdon, it took an hour to reach the summit, hubby took the photo below, it captured our journey, the mist hugged part of the route, here you can see down into the sunny valley below, there is the reflection of the carriage. At points the mist cleared and the views below were stunning.
Once we reached the summit we had 30 minutes to wander, as you can see it was all misty at the top, nothing to see. The views on the way up and down were worth the trip, we were lucky the summit was open, it had been closed earlier in the week. The area was full of walkers, all ages, loads of dogs, all happy to have reached the top, we enjoyed a hot chocolate drink, there was limited food and a small souvenir shop, which I did not attempt to get close to.
Saturday afternoon the coach took us to Betws-y-coed a beautiful small town/village, very touristy, full of places to eat and shop, it was close to Swallow falls, which we had visited before, but a bit far away to walk to, in the two hours visiting time, we did see a small waterfall in the town which because of all the recent rain was full and flowing. Neither hubby or I enjoyed the full two hours, it was too long for us, a fact reflected in so many others on the coach as there were loads coming back earlier.
Sunday morning we spent wandering around the town and beach area, there was a huge sporting event going on, much of the promenade was used, we watched loads of people doing a triathlon, cycling around great Orme twice, swimming in the sea and racing along the promenade, we witnessed the winner crossing the line, it was cold, windy but dry. The town centre is much nicer than many, they still have many branded shops along the long main street, with just a short walk to a newer area with loads of bigger modern stores. We never saw a drop of rain over the whole trip, how lucky are we.
All afternoon and into the evening was on the coach, we both spent most of our journey times reading, it was nice to arrive at our destinations not exhausted, giving all the stress of driving to someone else. The coach was not full, which probably made the journey not so loud, no children just people our age.
Would we do it again, it's a good question, we both have mixed feelings, our hotel was better than we expected, the food was good, with a few choices on each course, our room very clean and comfortable. Having the trip up Snowdon all pre-booked and not having to worry about parking was brilliant, all the carparks as we drove by were all full, but we did not enjoy the afternoon trip. I'm not sure I would want to do another, I would use a coach to get to distant locations, or if there was another excursion I was interested in, but I would check to ensure we did not spend hours on pick up stops, Southampton is a good location as it's at the bottom of the M3 which leads up through to loads of routes north and west.
