Photo Essay of our time in Wales – Castles, beaches, forests and Snowdonia National Park!

This post is a continuation of our wonderful travels in United Kingdom and why we are such a huge fan of the national parks and countryside here. Over the last 10 years our travels have taken us across Scotland, England and Wales and here I highlight why we are such a huge fan of Wales 🙂

We have been to Wales several times and did our first camping trip with 11 month old Shahaar in Aberystwyth. We did a long forest hike, saw lovely waterwalls and visited Aberystwyth Castle (we think this is the castle we went to, could be wrong)

First Camping trip!

We have been back many times, and still haven’t covered a third of all there is to do there! One of the times we went camping in Betws-y-Coed which is a lovely village in the Conwy valley. We visited the majestic Conwy Castle and drove the Great Orme Marine Drive from Llandudno North shore to west shore – Irish Sea on one side and the estuary of the River Conwy on the other, spectacular coastal views with plenty of places to stop and take pictures.

There are several lovely beaches in Wales, there was this one time when we went camping in Snowdonia and spent a family day by one of the green flag award beaches. I must say the weather in Wales is very erratic, can never guarantee a warm day, even in the summer and it rains a  lot! But we still made the best of our seaside time, even if we hardly got to swim here any of the times we have been!

Our most recent trip to Wales was earlier this year when we went to Snowdonia National Park with a large group of friends. We stayed in two lovely cottages in Llanberis, a small village just outside the National Park. We had the worst, and also the most erratic, weather ever! In three days we had severe thunderstorms, snow, as well as bright sunshine and clear skies on the last day. We didn’t get to climb Snowdon and our hiking was very short-lived as there were high chances of being blown away in such strong gales! It was good thing we had such a huge cottage and made the most of our time by feasting, drinking and playing board games.

A few snaps of the times we did get to go out and explore the nearby attractions, we could see Mount Snowdon which is the highest mountain in Wales, at an elevation of 1,085 metres above sea level, and the highest point in the British Isles outside the Scottish Highlands.  We went to visit Dolbadarn Castle, which was more in ruins than other castles we have been, but had stunning view of the lake and countryside nearby.

Dolbadarn Castle

snow capped Snowdon from a distance

The last day we had bright clear skies and beautiful sunshine. We went to Llandudno again, did the marine drive and enjoyed the sunshine by the coast. The funny thing was, we all left Llanberis same time, few of us heading north, enjoying the sunshine and beach. The rest were on their way back to London and they faced really bad weather, got caught in snowstorm!

Enjoying the warm sunshine on a cold February day

First time on the beach sitting on sand 🙂

This Snowdonia trip was the third one we did as a big group this year – First was in Lake District, Norwich and now in Wales. We had several others in Sheffield as well. We are excited about moving to New Zealand in 3 weeks time but we will definitely miss all our travels with friends and family here in the United Kingdom..Looking forward to new experiences, always remembering old wonderful ones!

Group Selfie!

This post is linked to #weeklypostcard hosted by Travel Notes and Beyond #SundayTraveler hosted by A Southern Gypsy  Mosaic Monday #weekendwanderlust hosted by  A Brit and a Southerner and Nature Notes hosted by Ramblingwoods