Snowdonia, North Wales – January 2020

Our first trip of 2020, and we stayed a little bit closer to home for this one. We had both had a rather full-on time at uni, with exams and placements looming between us, so what better way to have a break from everything than head up into North of Wales?!

Snowdonia is a National Park and contain Snowdon, the highest peak in the UK (besides Scotland). We didn’t get round to climbing it this time (we said we wanted a relaxing break!), but David has done it before and it’s definitely something I want to achieve in my lifetime.

Instead, we had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ride the world’s longest zipline across a vast quarry, as well as trying out my new bike properly for the first time. The weather was a bit drizzly, but its Wales and it didn’t stop us from having a great time.

What we did

Becis Brenin – Coed y Brenin

Situated within the Coed Y Brenin forest in North Wales, Becis Brenin is a vast system of Mountain Biking and Walking trails centred around a large and modern visitor centre and attached bike shop.

The visitor centre houses an information desk with details on all surrounding walking and riding trails, the Forest Café (which is lovely but can be busy at peak times) and a trail running shop. The attached bike shop stocks quality brands and components, as well as running a hire fleet of a wide range of bikes including electrically assisted mountain bikes making the trails at Becis Brenin truly accessible to all.

With trails ranging from Green to black (See our post: “UK trail centres – An introduction” for more information on types of trails) Becis Brenin can cater for all abilities, but we opted for the more gentle/family route the MinorTaur, This blue trail provided us with spectacular views of waterfalls, a disused gold mine and Gunpowder works along the way.

Llyn Ogwen

This place wasn’t actually on our radar of places to visit, but we instead passed the lake when we were driving to Penrhyn Quarry for another activity. It is along the A5 road and there are a couple of small car parks to pull into, and a pavement next to the lake – so well-geared up for people to stop and have a look.

There is a moderate ability circular walk around the lake which is says takes 1-2 hours, we didn’t do this (we didn’t realise this was there at the time) but that’s another draw and it probably would have been really nice.

We didn’t know this at the time, but this is actually the famous lake from the legend of Excalibur – Legends say that Bedwyr Bedrynant, a knight of King Arthur cast the famous sword Excalibur into the lake at Llyn Ogwen, where it remains to this day…

Portmeirion Village

the Village of Portmerion was created by Welsh architect named Clough Williams-Ellis, and completed in 1976. He designed the village in a Mediterranean style, transporting buildings from all over the world to be rebuilt and decorated in bright colours here in the North of Wales.

It is a very unusual place to be, one minute you’re driving through the Welsh countryside and the next you find yourself in a fantasy land. There are a few independent shops in the village that were nice to have a wander around, and there is also a spa, restaurant and accommodation however we did not go to at any of these.

There is definitely more going on in the summer months (from Easter time), such as the land train and guided tours, but it was still worth it just to have a wander around. There is a nice walk around the village and surrounding area, which is where we found the vantage point to take this wonderful photo.

Zip World, Penrhyn Quarry

As soon as we agreed on Snowdonia, we both agreed that we wanted to ride on the worlds fastest zip line, located at Penrhyn Quarry. Whilst the experience wasn’t exactly cheap, we agreed that this experience could be our birthday presents to each other this year.

After going through all the safety briefings, they take you up to the first zip line for a taste of what it’s like. In most places, this would be the main attraction, you felt like you were going so fast and it was so exhilarating – we loved it. Once the whole group had come down, they loaded us into a van and took us to what they called Velocity 2 – a 1555 m zip line that you can ride down at over 100 mph… Not for the faint-hearted that’s for sure.

The whole experience probably took around 2 hours from start to finish, and all the guys there were really nice and helpful. We got there about 45 minutes earlier than our allotted time and the people on the front desk gave us complimentary hot drinks in the restaurant upstairs whilst we waited which was a nice touch. The only disappointing thing was that, for obvious reasons you couldn’t record with your own devices, but they were charging £15 for a video camera to be strapped to your head. We just felt that the experience was expensive enough as it is without adding the cost of the camera on top. But regardless, we had a blast.

Where we ate

Y Stablau

Located in the centre of Betws y Coed, this bar / restaurant was a lovely place to spend a couple of hours after a long day of exploring. They use local suppliers for their food which is always good, and the prices were actually really reasonable.

It it worth bearing in mind that they operate a no-booking policy, so you just walk in and grab a seat. We managed to find somewhere pretty easily on a Saturday evening in January, but I can imagine it would get a lot busier in the summer months. But you should definitely check this place out because there are meals to suit everyone and it was a very relaxed and cosy atmosphere.

I had the Green Thai Chicken Curry with chips and rice (I couldn’t decide which one I wanted so I got both) which was so fresh tasting. David opted for the Peking Pizza which was unlike anything either of us had experienced before, but it was good. the Pizza dough was almost like a duck pancake and the base sauce was infused with hoi sin.

They also do a lunch menu between 12 and 5 pm which looks yummy too.

Where we stayed 

Moelwyn view cottage

This place was a lovely 5 bed house (just for the 2 of us!) with full kitchen and living room. It was a little bit bigger and fancier than we’d normally go for but, as this was a spur-of-the-moment trip, it was the best value place we could get. The house was great, with heating and air conditioning and super comfy beds which was nice after a day of exploring. There was plenty of space to securely store our bikes which was great, and our own parking space which was great as parking was a bit of an issue around the house.

A little way down the road there was a Co-op food store where we got all our essentials for cooking and packed lunches, which was handy.

Its doesn’ seem to be listed on Airbnb currently, possibly due to the coronavirus situation hence the lack of a weblink 🙂

Although we didn’t pack as much in to this break as we have in the past (European city breaks are always jam-packed with sightseeing!), we had a wonderful time and it was really nice to just get away from the city and spend some quality time together.

Where have you been in the UK that you loved? Who knows, maybe well use your inspiration to plan our next trip!

Happy travelling,

Zoe and David x

Written by the both of us