A trip to the Gower Peninsula

A big fan of Wales – and especially the Welsh coast – I’ve spent a lot of time exploring Pembrokeshire National Park over several visits and the North Wales coast around Snowdonia National Park but despite numerous recommendations from friends and colleagues over the years, my only experience of the Gower Peninsula in South Wales near Swansea was a disappointingly soggy family day trip there way back in the late 90s while on a summer vacation staying on the southern fringes of (where else!) Pembrokeshire.

A walk on Port Eynon Beach, looking towards Horton Bay

Then, in the absence of the internet at our finger tips, we had used a giant road map along with good, old-fashioned road signs, to navigate our way to the Mumbles, right on the edge of the Gower coast line only to find no beach with it being high tide and getting caught in an almighty downpour walking from the town to the pier. In search of one of the ‘stunning’ beaches we had heard about but having done no research before our spur-of-the-moment day out, we had later stopped off at another nearby bay, my only recollection of it being small, by a hill and quite old-fashioned with beach huts lining the walkway at the back – not a lot to go on!

So, after continuously hearing good things about the Gower coastline in the many years since, we finally decided to return and this time, for longer than a few hours, deciding to book a week away in the area. Finding a holiday cottage in the small village of Scurlage, I set about researching where to visit in the area.

Arriving from work late on a Friday evening, we were up and ready to be out the next morning. We decided to make our first port of call the closest bay to where we were based, Port Eynon beach, just over a mile away through the small, pretty village of the same name. With it being low tide mid-morning, there was plenty of beach available to explore in the pretty bay and we walked the stretch of the sands to Horton Bay at the opposite end before returning to the car park for lunch. If we hadn’t brought a picnic with us, we would have been fine as there were a few takeaways and cafes offering fish and chips and other snacks and meals for anyone looking to eat out. After another walk, this time in the other direction where the old Port Eynon Salt House ruins sit above the bay, we returned to the cafes to grab a well-deserved ice cream.

The next morning we decided to head to Oxwich Bay, a larger stretch of sand which we had read was a popular destination for families in the summer months.

Lily investigates a lobster pot on Oxwich Beach

The main access to the beach here is owned privately by the Penrice Estate and unless you want to hike in, you have no choice but to pay to park on the large car park they own. With it being mid-March rather than the height of summer, the parking charge for the day was £5 rather than the £7/£8 we had expected from our research. As well as a large car park, there were toilets, cafes and restaurants on site behind the large expanse of sand.

Again, the tide was way out and after a walk to the southern end of the bay for a better view of St Illtyd’s Church, hidden in the trees of the cliffside, we returned to the car park for our picnic lunch before walking in the opposite direction towards Three Cliffs Bay in the distance.

It was certainly a beautiful beach with the dunes backing it and clear, shallow waters. For those who want it, there’s also walkways through the dunes to Nicholaston Wood and Burrows.

As we left the beach later that day, we called in at the Dunes Cafe across the road from the car park for ice creams. From here it was also possible to access a board walk across Oxwich Marsh, a nature reserve popular with bird watchers.

After two mainly sunny days, we awoke to heavy rain the next day and decided to have a ride out a bit further along the southern coast, aiming for Langland Bay just west of the Mumbles. Walking from the car park to the beach, I immediately recognised it as the beach-hut-lined bay we had stopped off at all those years ago on our day trip here!

With the tide out this time, there was more beach to explore than on our last visit with lots of rock pools revealed along the sea front.

Low tide reveals sea caves at Caswell Bay

After lunch, we drove the short distance to the next bay along, Caswell Bay.

If we had had more time, we could have walked along the coast path between the two bays but after having trouble working out the car park’s pay and display meter, we’d found ourselves with a ticket for just one hour which had already flew by so instead, we drove between the two.

Pretty scenery and rick formations at Caswell Bay

Despite Caswell Bay appearing to be the smaller of the two beaches, with it being low tide (and having finally worked out the parking metres!), we spent a lot more time here marvelling at the rock formations revealed under the cliff and it was our favourite of our two stops that day.

Above, looking down on Rhoselli Bay from the Worms Head coast path, and below, a walk along the coast path towards Worms Head

We awoke to glorious sunshine again the next morning and decided to drive to one of the Gower’s more famous beaches, Rhoselli. From the National Trust car park here, it is possible to access both the long stretch of beach (via a rather steep coast path) and the coast path to Worms Head, an island you can actually walk out to at low tide when the causeway is visible.

The Worms Head Causeway revealed by low tide

We decided to begin the day with a walk towards Worm’s Head (which gets its name from the Viking word ‘wurm’ meaning dragon after Viking invaders thought it resembled a sea serpent). There were beautiful views of Rhosilli Beach from the coast path and we even saw wild ponies grazing along the way.

A wild pony sleeps on the cliff top as we walk back from the Worms Head viewpoint

We made it as far as the old coastguard station from where there were clear views of Worms Head out in front but despite there still being a couple of hours during which the causeway would be accessible, decided not to tackle the walk out there and instead retraced our steps back to the car park. With my father finding the path down to the beach a bit too steep for him to manage, we decided to try and access the beach further up from a more accessible route later on in the week and instead stayed on the cliff top to enjoy the views from the coast path.

With a day of sunshine and showers forecast the next day, we decided to go for another ride out, this time to the Mumbles right on the edge of the Gower Peninsula. Parking in a bay along the sea front, we walked in the direction of the pier. With the sea on its way out, we detoured down to the beach – although I use this word loosely, it was more like mud flats and we found our boots sinking into the sand on a few occasions! Making our way back up to the esplanade, we reached the busy pier area with its arcade and cafes. The pier itself was partly closed off allowing us to only walk as far as its old-fashioned clock tower.

With the tide drifting further and further out, a small bay had been revealed on the far side of the pier overlooking Mumbles Lighthouse so we clambered down the steps for a walk along the bay. Some visitors were taking the opportunity to walk out to the lighthouse but we decided to admire it from where we were.

A rainbow over Swansea Bay following a heavy downpour

The tide was not quite out far enough yet to walk around the corner to the next bay, Bracelet Bay and the coast path from the pier was quite steep so instead, we returned to the car right as a heavy shower began to rain down on us.

The sun was still shining though and we were lucky enough to see a beautiful double rainbow shine brightly across the bay as we ate our lunch from the cover of the car.

Driving the short distance around the headland to Bracelet Bay we arrived in its large car park overlooking the bay. The rain had stopped and the sun was once again shining and there were beautiful views of the pretty beach and the other side of the Mumbles Lighthouse in the distance. We tried to walk down to the bay but only made it so far as the steps down to the beach disappeared, leading out to steeps, slippy rocks which my elderly parents (and I still suffering slightly from my Achilles tendon injury) found too difficult to navigate down.

Taking a walk along the Welsh coastal path at Cwm Ivy

Instead, once back in the car park, we walked to the other end of the car park where the low tide had revealed another bay, Limeslade, which was more accessible so we made our way down and had a wander along the pebbles and down to the water’s edge here before heading back to Scurlage for the evening.

With one full day left of our trip, and more sunshine and showers forecast, we still had a lot of the coast to explore. We decided to begin our day with a walk to Whiteford Beach, a beach recommended by our hosts in the information pack left in our cottage accommodation.

This beach was a bit harder to access than many of the others we had visited this trip, requiring us to park up in a farmers field just outside of the village of Cwm Ivy (payment via an honesty box!) and walk through National Trust land down a coastal path, through woodlands and across a marshy nature reserve. It was a pretty walk but but the rain was falling heavier and heavier and the path was getting increasingly hard to navigate as it flooded with us having to try and find ways around the often quite deep water.

Stormy weather walking across the sand dunes at Broughton Bay, Worms Head in the distance

A walk through the dunes to the beach at Hill End

Unfortunately, when we came out of the wooded area and into the marshland which backs the beach, there was no way around the water and with the rain still bouncing down around us, we made the decision to turn around and walk back having not quite made it out to the beach itself.

With three car parks marked on the north-west coast of the Gower map at our cottage, we decided to drive to the next one down at Broughton Bay. The rain had briefly stopped and the sun was once again shining so here, we took a walk across the sweeping sand dunes offering beautiful views over Rhossili Bay.

The long stretch of sand at Rhoselli Bay accessed from the Hill End car park

Driving down to the next car park marked on the map, our final stop was at Hill End where a board walk through the dunes gave easy access to the northern end of Rhossili Bay.

Unfortunately, as we started to walk along the long stretch of sand and stones, heavy rain started to fall once again and this coupled with the strong wind out on the exposed bay caused us to turn around and head back to change our clothes and dry off. As we returned to the car park, we spotted yet another beautiful rainbow, this time shining over the sand dunes.

A final stroll on the beach – back at Port Eynon

Up early the next morning to check out of our holiday accommodation, we decided to make the most of the early morning sunshine before the forecast showers moved in and headed back to the nearby Port Eynon bay for a last stroll on the beach before we grabbed a delicious freshly cooked breakfast from the local Granary Cafe back in Scurlage and making our way home.

The Gower Peninsula had turned out to be every bit as beautiful and people and told us it was and we all agreed that we would love to return to the area to revisit the beautiful bays we had discovered on this trip and explore the areas we had not had chance to see yet!

Winter Sun in Tenerife

It’s always nice to have something to look forward to when January once again ticks around. And especially if that something is a bit of warm sunshine to break up the cold, winter days. So my friends and I had been thinking about a short getaway to the Canaries for some winter sun for a while. When some of our favourite 90s pop acts announced a gig at one of Tenerife’s Hard Rock venues, our decision of which island to visit was made for us and 5 nights in Playa de las Americas at a hotel just a short walk from the venue was booked.

The view from our balcony in Playa de las Americas

Just days after booking our Jet2 Holidays package, the gig was unceremoniously cancelled before we’d even had chance to purchase our tickets. But we weren’t too disappointed as in 6 short weeks, we’d still be getting our 5 days in the sunshine and having previously visited both Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, I was looking forward to seeing a different Canary Island.

Once Christmas was out of the way, we started to do some research on how to spend those days – plenty of relaxing around the pool/on the beach but we also wanted to see something of the island. A trip to Teide National Park was a definite and maybe a boat trip. Knowing the boat trips can be tide and weather dependent, we decided to wait til we arrived and to book that on the day we decided to do it as there seemed to be enough companies around the resort offering them that we were sure there’d be availability somewhere.

As for the National Park trip, we really wanted to get the cable car up Mount Teide but were either struggling to find companies offering this as an add on to the basic park visit excursion or were seeing negative reviews from people who had thought they’d pre-booked this only to then be told they’d booked the wrong thing on the day. We looked into booking the excursion through our travel operator Jet2 but the information on the website informed us that if we wanted to add on the cable car, we’d have to book in person with our in-resort rep. So again, we decided not to book in advance and to chance booking once we’d arrived in Tenerife.

With an early flight out of Birmingham, we decided to book an airport hotel plumping for the Hilton Garden Inn, across the road from the terminal but surprisingly reasonable splitting the price three ways for our triple room. Packing an overnight bag for hand luggage with pyjamas and a few basic toiletries, we made use of Jet2’s twilight check-in, allowing us to check in our hold luggage the evening before our morning flight in order to save a bit of time at the airport the next day.

Up early, we stepped out into a bitterly cold February morning and crossed the road to the airport looking forward to sunshine forecast to greet us in Tenerife later that day. Queues for airport security were thankfully way down on my last few visits to this airport and we were soon though and in the surprisingly busy departure lounge where we had the traditional Wetherspoons’ breakfast and grabbed a few last minute essentials from Boots before boarding our flight.

Above, views of Playa del Camison as we begun our walkalong the coast path to Los Cristianos, and below, looking out across the ocean from near Los Cristianos harbour

Despite not paying extra to pick our seats, we’d been seated together on our outward flight (but in three different rows returning!). Boarding was later than planned and we departed almost an hour late, the pilot explaining in detail the technicalities of defrosting the plane’s wings which was apparently the cause! We managed to make up some of the time though, arriving at Tenerife South Airport just half an hour later than scheduled. Stepping off the plane into the warm sunshine felt amazing and luckily it didn’t take long to navigate passport control and be reunited with our luggage.

Transfers were included in our package and there were plenty of Jet2 reps around to guide us to the coach that would take us to our hotel. It was just a short 15-20 minute ride to our resort and after a couple of drop offs in the neighbouring Los Cristianos, we were one of the first drop offs in our resort of Playa de las Americas.

The hotel we had booked, Parque Santiago III/IV was split across two buildings, one either side of the road. We had read reviews saying building IV had recently been renovated whereas III was in badly in need of updating and had put in a request to be allocated a room in IV but having read that these were mainly allocated to those who had booked direct rather than through package operators, we were not surprised to be told we’d be in building III. We were at least excited to find our room was ready despite it being almost 3 hours before check in time.

It took us a while to find the block our room was in – it wasn’t accessed through the reception as you’d normally expect but instead we had to walk down the main road and through the outdoor seating area of a pizza restaurant to get to the gates leading to our room!

Above, and below, on board the yacht enjoying our sailing trip

Entering our apartment, we saw exactly what the reviews we’d read meant. The room looked like it had been furnished in the 70s and not updated since and as we opened cupboards and drawers in the kitchen to see what utensils we had available, knobs came off in our hand and drawers came off their runners sending cutlery crashing to the floor. The position of the room was on the corner and partly facing out onto the main road and this, along with a low overhang from the balcony above, meant it got very little sun and the apartment was very dark.

Slightly disappointed at the lack of a sunny balcony, we knew we wouldn’t be spending a huge amount of time in the apartment anyway and would be able to make do so we wasted no time in changing into our swimwear and summer clothes and headed straight out to make the most of the remaining warm sunshine.

It was just a short walk to the pretty Playa del Camison beach and after grabbing an ice cream along the way, we settled down on the golden sands. Despite the warm sunshine, it was also very windy and after a while, we couldn’t take being whipped by sand flying around any longer and decided to see if the pool area would be more sheltered. Directly accessible from a gate off the coast path behind the beach, as soon as the gate was shut behind us, the wind dropped and we found a spot in the sunshine to relax out of the wind.

We’d read that the pool at our hotel wasn’t heated (our wristbands did give us access to the facilities at the neighbouring hotel where the pool was heated though). Deciding to give it a try anyway, we found it was indeed absolutely freezing but after a lot of shivering, we eventually got in and got used to it for a quick dip.

Once the sun started to go down and lose it’s strength, we headed back to our apartment for a quick change before venturing out to a nearby supermarket to do a shop which we hoped would last us most, if not all, of our stay.

Arriving back at the marina just at sun set

Tired from the early start and travelling, we had decided to stay in that night. After quickly whipping up some pasta, we were sat out on the balcony relaxing when suddenly loud music started blaring out. It was so loud we had to move off the balcony as we were struggling to hear each other over it and the walls and windows of the bedroom were shaking. It seemed to be coming from a DJ in an outdoor seating area at the neighbouring hotel across the road. Worrying that this was going to go on into the early hours, we had to eventually ring through to reception who assured us that even though this would be a nightly occurrence, it wouldn’t go on past 11pm. While this meant we’d not quite be getting the quiet, relaxing evenings sat out on the balcony we’d planned (we’d actually emailed the hotel before our trip requesting a quiet room!), we were at least relieved it wouldn’t be going on too late into the night!

The next morning, the hotel that kept on giving had another surprise in store for us when we tried to make toast and the fuse tripped every time we tried to use the toaster! Luckily the fuse box was in an obvious place and we were able to get the electricity back on again. Using the grill instead, we made our first port of call that morning the hotel reception to request a new toaster and see if there was a quieter room to move to. We were assured the toaster would be replaces ASAP but were told it would be the following day at the earliest before another room was available and as we were only staying 5 nights, it seemed more hassle to move at that point than to stay put and put up with the music.

Above, a visit to the Hard Rock Cafe, and below, watching the dancing fountains

That morning, the weather was beautiful and we decided it might be a good day to do a boat trip. Knowing that a lot of the trips went from the neighbouring resort of Los Cristianos, we decided to take the 20 minute walk along the coast path to the harbour there and see what was available. It was a nice walk with pretty views and small coved along the way. Along the front there were also plenty of stands offering excursions so we stopped to discuss the boat options with a few along the way.

Once in Los Cristianos, we spent some time on the beach, had some lunch and even ventured into the ocean (which was warmer than the pool back at the hotel!) before walking back to Playa de las Americas. While on the beach we had decided we’d like to take a sunset sail that evening on a small sail boat rather than on one of the larger, cheaper but busier boats and stopped along the way to book this with one of the vendors we had previously spoken too, haggling for a deal on the price.

Views from the coach on our excursion to Teide National Park

The cruise departed from the port at Costa Adeje, a 40 minute walk along the coast from us in the other direction and being short on time at this point, we caught a taxi there from our hotel. Although we’d been told the boat trip took up to 15 passengers, we were pleased to find just one other group of 4 on board with us and as they stayed at the stern and we sat up front, it felt like we were having a private cruise!

Above, views from our first stop, and below, exploring Roques de Garcia with its famous Roque Cinchado

The weather was perfect, not at all too chilly for the time of year and although we failed to spot any dolphins along the way, we did see a couple of pilot whales. The cruise included unlimited drinks and there were also sandwiches to snack on.

Posing in front of Mount Teide in Roques de Garcia

The next morning, we awoke to cloudy weather so decided to catch the land train around the resort. We had hoped there’d be some kind of commentary along the way or at least something interesting to see but it literally just went up and down the strip and past some hotels stopping at a couple of other different points within the resort for anyone who wanted to get off an explore. As the sun was starting to come out – and we also wanted to meet with the Jet2 rep at our resort – we decided not to hop off and just to return to the stop by our hotel and, after meeting with our rep and booking onto an excursion to Teide National Park the next day, we spent the rest of the day relaxing by the pool.

That evening, we ate out at the Hard Rock Cafe before having drinks at a bar at the Safari Shopping Centre and watching the dancing fountains – it was hardly Vegas or Dubai but passed a few minutes!!

Above, and below, catching the cable car up Mt Teide

We were up early the next morning to take an excursion to Teide National Park. After a rather unnecessary stop at Vilaflore for coffee (queues for what appeared to be the only cafe in the tiny village were huge and there was seemingly nothing else to do and nowhere else to go if you didn’t want to buy anything), we drove into the National Park stopping at a viewpoint of Mount Teide for photos.

The next stop was at Roques de Garcia to see a variety of interesting volcanic rock formations including the famous Roque Cinchado. The circular walk past the various rocks also offered more views of Mount Teide in the distance.

Above, closer to the summit of Mt Teide, and below, volcanic scenery hiking to the viewpoint

As we had opted to catch the cable car to the top of Mount Teide, we were then dropped at the cable car station. The other passenger would continue their tour of the park while we were exploring at the summit.

We managed to get by the window in the cable car so we could enjoy the views on the way up.

Permits are needed to hike to the very top of the volcano once you reach the station at the summit but if you haven’t applied for this (as we hadn’t) you can take a hike to a viewpoint instead or just enjoy the views.

The hike to the viewpoint wasn’t the easiest with the uneven volcanic rocks underfoot which sometimes had to be scrambled over but it was worth it to get close enough to the top of the volcano to see the fumeroles as well as for the stunning views over Tenerife.

Catching the cable car back down was not much fun as the car was packed to capacity and we were squashed right in the middle with very little room and nothing to hold on to and we were all glad the journey was relatively short. Once back at the cable car station at the bottom of the volcano, there was a small museum about the legends surround Mount Teide to visit and a cafe to get snacks from before we met our coach again to return us to our resort.

Back in Playa de las Americas beginning my walk towards Costa Adeje

Above, and below, walking along the coast path between Playa de las Americas and Costa Adeje

Our last full day on the island and we again awoke to overcast skies breaking up to sunny spells. While my friends decided to head to the pool anyway, I decided to take a walk along the coast path towards Costa Adeje. There were some pretty views along the way and plenty of beach cafe bars to stop for refreshments or ice creams.

By the time I returned it was lunch time and time to finish off the remaining food in our apartment. With the sun still not completely breaking through, we decided to try the heated pool at the hotel across the road. Finding the hotel grounds here a lot quieter, we settled down on sun loungers before taking a dip. The difference in temperatures was huge and we wondered why we hadn’t just come here to start with!

Above, a final night pizza and below, the hotel grounds lit up in the evening

That evening we ended our holiday with a meal out at the pizzeria we had had to walk through to get to our apartment each day before returning to our apartment to pack. With a midday flight the next day, we had a morning pick up but decided to get up early to grab half an hour by the pool in the sunshine the next day before vacating the premises to head home.

It had been a fun few days and had definitely brightened up the long winter!

Journey to North Dakota

Planning a US road trip to tick off state 49!

Our route across the US taking us through North Dakota

Seeing as my plans for my latest trip to the USA have had to be put on hold, I thought it might be a good time to reminisce about my last US road trip back in 2019, pre-Covid, when the aim was to tick off the so-far elusive state of North Dakota which would be the last of the mainland ‘Great 48’ states for me to visit and state 49 overall.

I had come close to venturing into North Dakota before, cutting just below it as we drove through South Dakota on the Trek America trip I’d taken through the Northern US states a few years before and then again on my first self-planned road trip through the midwest states a couple of years later where our initial plans again included clipping the south-east corner of the state as we travelled from Minnesota into South Dakota but time constraints meant we changed the itinerary to miss the Dakotas altogether and the state remained out of reach.

Above, Santa Monica, and below, a day at Disneyland

Right in the centre of the northernmost mainland states, bordered by Canada to the north and surrounded by states I’d already visited to the west, south and east, with no main cities or tourist attractions we were desperate to visit made this a difficult one to reach so we decided to plan a 5-week road trip in which we would revisit some of our favourite places from previous trips and see more of states we had only skimmed through before as well as trying to tick off a few more National Parks along the way.

After much discussion and playing around with various itineraries and ideas, we finally settled on an itinerary which would see us flying into LA, travelling up the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco then cutting east to revisit Yosemite National Park, Lake Tahoe and Yellowstone National Park, spending a bit more time in the state of Idaho along the way having only made a quick stop at an Applebys and a visitor centre before and also in Montana to visit Glacier National Park before finally reaching North Dakota. After driving across the state west to east, we would revisit Minnesota and Wisconsin before flying out of one of our favourite cities, Chicago.

With the main points of our trip drafted, we set to work as always investigating fun activities to do along the way and random roadside stops to make. Noticing a few National Parks we were unaware of along the route in California, we made plans to stop at both Channel Islands National Park and Pinnacles National Park.

Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho also made the cut and we were also keen to spend a bit longer visiting Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming having spent just a couple of hours there as we exited Yellowstone National Park on a previous trip.

Driving America’s “Loneliest Road” through Nevada

Exploring caves at Great Basin National Park

A visit to Theodore Rooselvelt National Park was the main stop on our list for when we finally reached North Dakota but we soon found other reasons for driving through the state including a long-running summer musical extravaganza and a series of bizarre roadside sculptures that looked like fun photo opportunities.

Volcanic landscape at Craters of the Moon, Idaho

These, and other roadside stops, we mainly found visiting our usual Roadside Attractions website and using its map feature to see what we could find along our proposed route or making slight detours.

As well as road side attractions, we had our usual list of activities we wanted to try and fit in including ziplining, horse riding and segwaying so we investigated the best places to fit these in along the way.

A US tour announcement by my favourites the Backstreet Boys lead to another revision to the plan as we added an overnight stop in San Jose, California so we could see them in concert.

Above, hiking at Glacier National Park, and below, finally reaching North Dakota to visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park

We booked road side motels for the majority of our accommodation even booking the Motel 6 in Hollywood to keep costs down. Struggling to find anything around Yellowstone National Park, we decided to stay on site booking a night in one of their basic lodges. A stop in Reno, Nevada also caused us problems when we realised we’d inadvertently planned our stay during a popular old cars event there meaning central hotels had hiked up their prices and there was limited availability anywhere but we eventually settled for a motel a bit further out but still in walking distance.

Above, revisiting an old friend – the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota! – and below, a stop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Starting our trip with a few days in LA and a trip to Disneyland, we opted to use public transport here and arrange to pick up a car in Anaheim as we departed, returning it to Chicago O’Hare right before flying back.

Our late night flights out of Chicago meant, traffic depending, we’d have a few hours to spend in the city that afternoon so we researched stations on the outskirts where we could park up our hire car for a bit and catch a train into the centre before returning to the car and driving back to the airport in time for our flight home.

By the time our trip rolled around, we felt we had a pretty good itinerary planned and were excited to see how it worked out in reality over the next 5 weeks!

Best Laid Plans…

As regular readers might know, I’ve spent a lot of time over the last 10 years travelling in the USA and, while this was no means any preconceived original goal, have therefore been ticking off the States until now, just one remains.

Finally reaching North Dakota, my 49th State, in 2019

After finally visiting North Dakota in 2019, the last of the ‘Great 48’ mainland USA states I needed to visit and my 49th state visited overall, only Hawaii remained. Wanting to do it properly and island-hopping rather than just a flying visit to Waikiki, my travel buddy and I decided we needed an extra year to save so made plans for a less expensive road trip to some of the National Parks of the Western US in 2020. Of course, this ended up being cancelled with the onset of Covid restrictions and we ended up swapping a month touring the US National Parks for 2 weeks visiting Northern England National Parks.

Rather than moving our US National Parks trip forward a year, we made the decision to postpone it indefinitely and make Hawaii our 2021 trip as we had originally mapped out so immediately started thinking about what that trip might look like, researching things to do and making tentative notes. We soon realised though that there was no way the trip could happen that year as the pandemic continued to cause disruption around the World and travel restrictions meant that the USA was still out of bounds. It was, therefore, another UK staycation, this time spending a couple of trips on a road trip in Wales visiting its three National Parks.

Some of our planned activities in Hawaii…
(Photo by Jake Houglum on Pexels.com)

Meanwhile, research for Hawaii continued to sporadically happen in the hope that 2022 would finally be the year. As things started to improve towards the end of 2021 with concerts finally making a comeback and some countries finally reopening to international travellers, we began to plan more seriously, looking at each Hawaiian island we might visit and, using ideas from guided group travel companies, various travel blogs and vlogs and official Hawaiian islands site Go Hawaii, coming up with a tentative itinerary for each one. Our plans were still in the very early stages – we had so many ideas listed, we’d have probably needed about 3 months island-hopping to for them all in! – but it was a start.

But, with it being such a big trip, we knew we would need to start booking things quite early into 2022 and when it came to that point, the USA was still closed to international visitors. Although it was hoping to open up that summer, there was no guarantee and as Hawaii had its own entry requirements – as each state could – it was possible that even if the US was open there’d be extra hoops to jump through to holiday in Hawaii.

So again, we put our plans on hold and instead booked an island-hopping trip closer to home in Greece, a country I’d never travelled to before and a trip I thoroughly enjoyed.

By the time we returned from that trip, the USA was fully open for business without restrictions and after this reopening of the World continued over the next few months, we once again started to discuss ticking off that last elusive state!

Early this year, we went back to our initial notes/itinerary for Hawaii aiming to cut it down to 4 islands in 3 weeks. This wasn’t easy but after starting with the must dos – Pearl Harbour, Volcanoes National Park…, we looked at what we could realistically fit in around those things and eventually came up with a workable plan.

We decided that since we’d be flying through LA, we’d have a 2-night stopover there and go to Disneyland seeing as this was in our abandoned 2020 West coast itinerary and I still hadn’t made it to the California Adventure Park there and then we use flight comparison flights to work out which order to visit the islands in. This wasn’t as straightforward as it sounded with flights between some islands only operating certain days or times, we had to change proposed travel dates in our itinerary to fit, eventually settling on flying Maui-Big Island-Kauai-Oahu.

With our itinerary reaching just over 3 weeks, we thought it’d be a shame to waste the other 3 weeks of the school summer holiday so decided to look for somewhere on the US mainland to explore in more detail. We toyed with the idea of a streamlined version of our abandoned 2020 trip and visiting some of the Utah National Parks but we’d sight so much time planning that trip before Covid put an end to it that we thought it would be a shame not to go back to it in it’s entirety at some point in the future. So we eventually settled on a Texan road trip, Texas being a state that we had both spent days travelling through on our Trek America Southern BLT tour years earlier without ever actually feeling like we’d seen anything of it.

We knew we wanted to visit Dallas for the Sixth Floor Museum, Houston to go to its Space Centre and San Antonio for the Alamo. Austin was one of the few places we did feel we’d seen on our Trek trip and weren’t fussed about returning to but we decided to add in visits to the two National Parks, Big Bend and Guadeloupe Mountains and a ranch stay. To fill out the itinerary a bit more, we decided to cross the border into New Mexico where we’d visit Whitesands National Park and return to Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

We made our itinerary circular so we could pick up and drop off a hire car to the same city and this also gave us flexibility with our starting point depending on how we’d get from Hawaii to Texas state.

Map of our planned roadtrip around Texas and dipping into New Mexico.

After abandoning the idea of flying back to LA, hiring a car and driving to Texas from there (it’d take too long), we started looking at direct flights from Oahu. There were a few options of cities we could fly into but most of the flights left Hawaii late and landed in Texas the next day. With neither of us being good at sleeping on a plane, we felt we would have to have a day to recover before picking up a car and driving anywhere far once we got to Texas which meant a wasted day. We did find one flight that left Hawaii early and just about landed in Texas the same day but it was to Austin, a city we didn’t plan on visiting, and only ran 2 days a week. After some hasty rearranging of our Hawaii itinerary, we decided to depart the UK a day earlier and therefore shift everything forward a day (we’d not booked anything yet, it was all just on paper), then we would manage to make it work to catch that flight. As we’d be in Austin the same day we flew out of Hawaii, we could stay over that night in an airport hotel and pick up the car and drive to our first destination the next day rather than spending that day recovering from an overnight flight!

Some of the stops along the way on our planned Texas/New Mexico (Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com)

The next thing I happened to notice was the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas was closed certain days of the week – and, of course, our schedule had us in Dallas to visit that museum on one of those days. That lead to more rearranging to do, shifting our circular journey to an anti-clockwise direction and extending our overnight in Dallas to 2 nights so we could be in Dallas on a day the museum opened.

With that problem solved, we finally had an itinerary to lock in and it was time to book flights. I’d be extending my stay in the US with a week in New Jersey to visit a friend who had recently moved there so booked open-jaw tickets flying with Delta Airlines out of London Heathrow then we booked the various flights in, across and out of Hawaii with a variety of airlines depending on which flight times and prices suited best.

The next few months we spent starting to book car hire, hotels and activities for our trip. Finding Hawaiian resorts to be even more expensive than we expected, we had to compromise and book airbnbs, guesthouses and hostels with private rooms slightly outside of the main towns to make our trip affordable. Just before we looked at booking our Oahu accommodation, we had an email from Hawaiian Airlines about a schedule change. The flight to Austin which we had rearranged our whole trip in order to catch had been changed from a morning flight landing in Austin that evening to an evening flight landing in Austin the following day!

Relieved that we hadn’t booked our Oahu accommodation or any Texas accommodation, we then had to re-evaluate our schedule again as there was no way, that after virtually no sleep, we would be able to pick up a hire car straight after landing, drive 3 hours to Houston and be at the Space Center there in time to get the most out of that visit. Effectively, we had gained a day in Oahu seeing as we wouldn’t need to be at the airport til late on our last day there now, but lost a day on the Texas leg of our trip. We would need to shift our Texas plan forward a day (luckily still being in Dallas on a day the museum was open!) and decided we would have to cut out our proposed visit to Padre Island National Seashore on the penultimate day of our trip and drive towards Austin to make our outbound flights instead.

Everything ran smoothly as we continued to plan and book things for our trip over the next few months other than the odd shift in take off times by minutes rather than hours and soon we were just weeks away from flying.

And that’s when it happened. While dancing around to a song I was listening to, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of my calf like someone had kicked me, hard. Thinking I’d pulled a muscle, I didn’t worry too much at first. But walking was difficult so I googled the sensation I had felt when it happened and alongside the suggestion of calf strains was the possibility of an Achilles tendon tear. Getting myself straight to A&E, hours later, I found myself facing the possibility of having to cancel my entire summer.

My fears abated slightly when the doctor who examined me said he was pretty certain it was just a strain or small rupture rather than a full tear to my Achilles meaning I would be ok to continue with the trip just spending the fist week of it in the medical boot I would be put into. An ultrasound scan would reveal the full extent of the damage but with it being a Sunday, the department I needed to go to to get the scan and the boot were closed so instead, I was put in a cast for what I was told would be a week and have no bearing on the time it would take to heal and was then sent on my way.

Of course, they then couldn’t get me an appointment to have the cast off for almost 2 weeks. When it did come off, the consultant examined me again and agreed with the initial diagnosis of it being a partial tear. Finally in the medical boot, I had to wait a few more days to finally get the ultrasound scan to confirm that this was the case and I would still be fit for my trip, now just over 3 weeks away.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Unfortunately, the scan revealed that the doctors were wrong and it was a full tear although I was told the ends of the tendon were relatively close together and there was a lot more movement in my foot than there would usually be for such an injury. With it looking more and more likely that the trip would have to be called off, I still had to wait another 5 days to see the consultant to confirm exactly what this diagnosis meant for my proposed recovery time.

Sure enough, the worst was confirmed at that next appointment. Rather than being in the boot another 3 weeks, it’d be another 6 weeks at least and full recovery could take me up to 6 months. For the next few months there would be no hiking (or walking at all other than a few metres here and there!), swimming, driving etc – all of the things our trip entailed from day one. With my movement being stunted and my foot locked in a tightfitting boot to keep it at an angle, the doctor wasn’t keen on me flying even if I could still get about a bit as this made my risk of DVT much higher.

So that’s were I am now, a few days on from that last appointment and 2 weeks to the day before I was due to fly out on the trip of a lifetime. I’ve spent the last few days on the phone to my holiday insurance company and various airlines as just as it was a complicated trip to put together, it’s a complicated trip to take apart again!

Thankfully, many of our hotels, airbnbs and activities were cancellable and fully refundable right until the last minute, as was car hire – one of our biggest expenses. But it’s the flights that are currently causing us problems. Our insurance needs proof we won’t take the holiday – confirmation we have cancelled the flights and not been refunded for them but despite many of our original bookings stating the fare was non-refundable, a lot of the US airlines we’ve spoken to have said we’ll automatically be awarded airline credit equal to the fare we paid minus a cancellation fee if we cancel. As we don’t know if/when we’ll be able to rebook the trip – being teachers, it’ll be for next summer at the earliest, and the credit has a limited shelf life, it is not of much use to us. Maybe we’d be able to use credit with an international airline like United if we fly elsewhere in the next 12 months but it’s highly unlikely we’d get the opportunity to spend credit awarded to us for cancelled Hawaiian Airline flights. So it’s a bit of a conumdrum what to do about that and we’re probably going to end up losing money on it. But things could be a lot worse. At least that’s what I keep telling myself!

My last stop on what should have been an epic 6-week trip – New York City to visit a friend
(Photo by Lukas Kloeppel on Pexels.com)

It’ll be a strange summer not being able to really do much or go far, and I feel especially bad for ruining my friend’s plans, but we have a Hawaiian itinerary ready to go so fingers crossed next year we’ll make it there and I can finally tick off my last state. Obviously this year, it just wasn’t meant to be!

A summer island-hopping adventure in Greece

My ‘big’ summer trip this year was supposed to be stateside to finally tick my final state of Hawaii off but it was something that needed to be planned and booked well in advance and when that point in time came, things were still very uncertain in the World as the pandemic continued to rumble on. Hawaii seemed a very big gamble when coming all the way from the UK – long haul flights, internal flights, car hire on multiple islands, hotels and condos all to book and while we could have gone through a specialist such as Trailfinders or Flight Centre to organise it all for us as a package giving us a bit more peace of mind should we have to cancel, we weren’t sure we’d get exactly what we wanted this way being so used to planning everything just how we liked it independently. It was a lot of money to lose should it all go wrong again.

So we begrudgingly made the decision to put off the trip another year and swapped Hawaiian island-hopping for Greek island-hopping. We knew we wanted to get out of the UK this summer as much as we’d enjoyed our UK National Park trips of the last two summers and Europe felt less of a risk than the US, somewhere we could easily return from mid-trip if needed, somewhere we didn’t need to test to enter even at our point of booking quite early into the year.

Wanting to island hop meant we still couldn’t book as a package trip. With flying in and out of different islands, we’d even need to book our main flights as separate bookings as the (mainly) package holiday carriers that flew there didn’t allow for open jaw bookings but we decided to go for it and hope for the best.

Having never been to Greece before, it was hard to know where to start. Who knew there were so many islands to choose from?! My friend who had been many years ago suggested Santorini and with this being an island in the Cyclades, we decided to concentrate on this area. After some googling, we saw lots of suggestions of mixing Santorini with a less ‘touristy’, more traditional island. Milos, Paros, Naxos and a few other islands I’d never heard of before all came up as recommended in various searches and we eventually settled on the much-praised Naxos island.

With those two islands only taking up a week of our 2-3 weeks available, my friends suggested looking into going to the ‘Mamma Mia’ island. She was a big fan of the film and wanted to visit some of the locations if we could. A bit more research lead us to find out this was filmed in Skopelos, one of the Sporades Islands and not really anywhere near the Cyclades! However, the neighbouring Sporades island of Skiathos was somewhere you could fly to directly from the UK and from here it was possible to do a ‘Mamma Mia’ boat trip to Skopelos. To get to the Cyclades from here, we’d have to fly via Athens and as neither of us had visited Greece’s capital city before, it seemed silly not to add a stop here into the mix!

Our trip was finally coming together – we’d fly to Skiathos for a few nights, fly to Athens and spend a few days there and then on to Naxos and Santorini by either plane or ferry – whichever worked out cheapest/least time-consuming.

With a few days still to fill, we looked at adding one more island. Wanting somewhere with plenty to do and some history behind it, I suggested the largest of the Greek islands, Crete. Being the most southerly of the Cyclades, it fitted perfectly into our into our itinerary as our last stop and with it being a popular package holiday destination from the UK, there was plenty of direct flights back to regional airports in the UK available, even one direct to Norwich, the closest airport to my friend!

Researching what we wanted to do at each of our stops, we carefully worked out how much time we’d need at each destination settling on a 2 night stop in Skiathos (just enough time to use our full day there on the Mamma Mia tour), 4 nights in Athens, 3 in Naxos, 3 in Santorini and 4 nights in Crete – a 16 night stay in total. After booking our main flights, we debated internal flights over ferries deciding by the time we added in time to get to the airport, checking in, collecting luggage after landing etc etc, a 4 hour ferry ride would be just as quick as a flight. For the most part, the ferries were cheaper too especially as we didn’t have to pay to take our luggage on board and it seemed like a more authentic option if we were island-hopping!

So, other than Skiathos-Athens where a flight was really the only viable option, we opted for ferries between the islands.

Accommodation-wise, we tried to stick with budget options, mainly using guesthouses or, with Athens, hotels in less touristy and therefore cheaper areas. Other than that, free cancellation was our non-negotiable and where possible, we tried to get some kind of breakfast included. Santorini was the main challenge here with many places being either already booked up for the summer or super expensive meaning we had to go above our £100 per night budget despite staying a 15 minute walk out of Fira town centre but we did at least have a hotel with a pool for that and we managed to save elsewhere.

Flights, ferries and accommodation sorted, we moved on to activities. With it being the height of summer, we knew Greece would be busy and wanted to save time by pre-booking tickets to museums and archaeological sites allowing us to skip the lines. We both decided that driving Greece would not be something we’d be confident with, especially with the language barrier, so instead we booked some organised tours on the various islands so we could still see as much of them as possible making sure, like we had with our hotel choices, that everything was cancellable until the last minute just in case.

In the run up to our trip, we began to wonder if we’d done the right thing booking such a short stay in Skiathos, mainly because of the airport disruption with airline delays and cancellations constantly in the news. Our flight already arrived relatively late into Skiathos, just after 7pm, and with just one full day there followed by a very early morning flight out to Athens the following day, any delays or worse, cancellations, would make our stay there pointless and possibly have a knock on effect on our transfer to Athens from there.

As it turned out, we were worrying over nothing. Flying out of the relatively small and quiet East Midlands Airport and with Jet2, possibly the least disrupted UK airlines this summer, was a good decision. Everything ran smoothly with our departure and before we knew it, we were arriving into Skiathos ready to begin our summer island-hopping adventure in Greece!

A day in Monaco…

… and an evening in Antibes

Having won a 5* trip to Cannes in the South of France, it wouldn’t be complete without a trip to one of the most luxurious and expensive places in the World – the Principality of Monaco. Sandwiched between the French resorts of Cap d’Ail and Roquebrune-Cap-Martin on the French Riviera, Monaco is actually its own country.

Leaving our Cannes’ hotel bright and early after another delicious breakfast, we walked to the station and caught a train along the same line as we had to reach the city of Nice the day before. This time we continued a few stops further on until we reached the sprawling Monaco station.

Views while walking to the Princes Palace

From here we followed signposts pointing in the direction of the Prince’s Palace, stopping along the way to gawp in the windows of the various airplane, super-yacht and mansion-selling stores along the street – prices all on request, of course, because if you need to ask, you probably can’t afford it!

We soon reached a pretty and rather bustling square with a range of cafes where we crossed the busy road to the bottom of the hill leading up to the palace. As we made our way up the hill, we stopped to catch our breath and enjoy the picturesque views over Monaco’s waterfront, the built up city rising up into the hills behind it.

Crowds gathering for the Changing of the Guard

Along the way we passed the statue of the late Prince Rainier III, who famously married Hollywood star Grace Kelly before the path opened out into the courtyard. We arrived just in time to witness the changing of the guard, a daily ceremony held in the palace courtyard although with just 15 minutes to go til this began, it was difficult to find a place to stand from where we could get a clear view.

Above, watching the Changing of the Guard ceremony, and below, enjoying the views from the Palace grounds

After watching the guards march and change places, the crowds started to disperse and we spent a bit of time in the courtyard from where there were more pretty views over the country. Leading off the courtyard were a series of narrow roads leading into Monaco-Ville, Monaco’s Old Town. The streets were lined with souvenir stores, cafes and restaurants – it was a shame we were still full from our breakfast as this would have been a perfect place to grab something to eat and drink, especially as the prices here seemed quite reasonable.

After weaving through some of the old streets, we followed signposts to Monaco Cathedral which stands across from the interesting building of the Palace of Justice. Although it was a Sunday, we arrived at a time when there were no services on so were able to have a look around the inside of the Cathedral.

The Palace of Justice and Monaco Cathedral either side of Rue d’Eglise

The Cathedral faced out towards the sea so from here we crossed the road to the clifftop path and followed it in the direction of Monte Carlo, leaving the path to enter Jardins de Sant-Martin, a clifftop park with pretty views over the Mediterranean Sea, sculptures, ponds and fountains which lead out to the popular Monaco Museum of Oceanography.

Above, Monaco Cathedral, and below, wandering through Jardins de Sant-Martin

Unfortunately, we did not have time to pay the museum a visit and instead continued to follow the path back down to sea level and the Monaco marina.

With our visit being just a few weeks before the Monaco Grand Prix, preparations were already being made for that and the preceding E-Prix with many roads cordoned off to vehicles and bleachers already set up for fans to watch from.

This meant we were able to walk along part of the Grand Prix track as we made our way down to the marina area.

Juan Manuel Fangio statue near the Monte Carlo race track

Above, and below, super yachts and views at the Monaco marina

The walk along the seafront was most notable for the abundance of super yachts docked in the marina. We thought the boats docked in Cannes looked expensive but they were tiny compared to some of the mansion-sized boats we saw docked here!!

From the marina, we found our way into the city of Monte Carlo where the streets were lined with designer stores.

After a bit of window-shopping, we found our way to the famous Casino of Monte Carlo, the setting of many a Hollywood film including a couple of James Bond films.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have our passports with us, a requirement of entry into the main casino, so instead we had to settle with a look round its grand foyer.

The infamous Fairmont Hairpin bend of the Monaco Grand Prix race track

With my friend’s husband being a big Formula 1 fan, he had requested photos of the infamous hairpin bend on the Monte Carlo racetrack. The bend was just a short walk from the casino and it was fun to watch cars carefully wind their way around the sharp turn.

Hungry by this point, we failed to find anything affordable restaurants in the area or any cafes at all so, not wanting to walk all the way back to the old town, we instead headed back to the station, grabbing some snacks from a store there to tide us over.

The city gates, part of the city ramparts

Instead of going straight back to Cannes, we decided to stop off at the town of Antibes, just a few stops before. From the train station, we wandered until we reached the Old Town where we found more narrow cafe and boutique store-lined streets opening out onto busy squares. Finding ourselves at Place Nationale, and hungrier by the minute, we decided to take a seat in the sunshine at one of the restaurants spilling into the square for drinks and pizza before walking down to the seafront.

While the restaurants here were squarely aimed at the tourists, there was a good atmosphere as everyone sat out enjoying their Sunday evening.

Dinner eaten, we continued our look around the Old Town stopping to browse in the stores and for ice cream along the way.

Walking along the city ramparts – view of Plage de la Gravette

Eventually, we found ourselves at the old city walls and walked through the city gate out towards the marina where more expensive (but slightly more modest than what Monaco had to offer) looking boats were docked. We followed a pathway along the front and up onto the city ramparts where we found ourselves overlooking the pretty beach Plage de la Gravette, still busy despite the sun starting to disappear.

Above, the Picasso Museum, and below, Antibes Cathedral

Continuing to walk along the city walls, we reached the former Chateau Grimaldi, which now houses the town’s Picasso Museum, and Antibes Cathedral.

As it was starting to get dark, we decided we should probably return to the station and make our way back to our Cannes’ hotel but we both wished we had had more time to spend in Antibes.

The next morning, due to another British Airways cancellation leaving us on an earlier flight than originally planned, we were up early for one last 5* hotel breakfast before being met by our private car driver returning us to Nice Airport. Here, our business class flights once again gave us access to the lounge before our flight was called for boarding and despite it not being long since breakfast, we certainly made the most of the buffet food on offer! It had certainly been an experience getting the 5-star experience on our trip and the attentive service, super-comfy beds, business class flights and delicious food was something I could definitely get used too.

Snowdonia National Park

Following on from visits to Brecon Beacons National Park and the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, we travelled north to the third and final Welsh National Park of our summer road trip, Snowdonia. Like the Pembrokeshire park, this was a park I was somewhat familiar with having vacationed near Barmouth at the southern end of the park a few times with my family and dog in the past! I had not ventured any further than the beaches close by to here though in all the times I had visited so was looking forward to explore the park more.

Pretty views as we enter Snowdonia National Park

After a pleasant drive following the coast road from the northern end of Pembrokeshire up and through Aberystwyth and other Welsh seaside towns, we crossed into Snowdonia National Park early afternoon, driving through a mountain pass and up through a very busy Barmouth.

Continuing on, we stopped in the town of Harlech, famous for its castle. We were here to see another sight which had put this town on the map though – the World’s Steepest Street. Or at least, at this point in time, the World’s former Steepest Street as the accolade had recently been given back to the city of Dunedin in New Zealand.

On the (formerly) World’s steepest street

A sign still stood proudly at the top of Ffordd Pen Llech, as if the challenge from the New Zealand street had never happened and tourists were queuing up to take photos with it. Few of them though, were taking on the challenge of walking down the street and, of course, back up again.

Bravely, or stupidly, though, this is exactly what we did. The initial gradient of the street was deceivingly a comfortable decline but as the road turned around a corner, we began to feel it on our knees and knew the climb back up was not going to be a breeze after all. Making it to the end of the street, we turned around and began our walk back up. Reaching the steepest section, we were glad of a breather as we stood to the side to let a brave driver slowly weave down past us, then it was onwards and upwards, still out of breath from the climb. Making it to the top, we were proud of our achievement but worried for our chances of reaching the top of Mount Snowdon if we’d found even this a challenge!!

Back at the top of Ffordd Pen Llech and in the centre of Harlech town, we took photos of the castle ruins before rewarding ourselves with an ice cream at the busy parlour across the road. Then we drove to our guesthouse accommodation, in a farmhouse not far from Portmaddog.

The following morning we were up early for breakfast before driving the short distance to the town of Llanberis, home of Mount Snowdon. Unsure about what the weather would be like – not to mention our levels of fitness! – we had prebooked seats on the Snowdon Mountain Railway. Usually, the train runs to and from the summit of Mount Snowdon but with Covid regulations in force, its final stop was currently three quarters of the way up the mountain at Clogwyn. We had bought a return journey ticket but, as long as the weather conditions were ok, planned to walk to the summit from this point and then the whole way down Snowdon.

With the weather at the base of Snowdon blue skies with the odd cloud, we were hopeful we would be able to hike to the summit. Arriving at Clogwyn though, we were met mainly by thick cloud. Still, it was dry and there were no forecasts of storms so after explaining to the train driver that we’d be walking rather than using our return train ticket, we set off following the other hikers up the Llanberis Path.

The Llanberis Path is the easiest, but longest way to the summit of Snowdon. Just before the summit, it meets with the rest of the paths with everyone following the same final stretch. Before embarking on our hike, we were warned by the train driver to pay careful attention at the point the paths met so we knew exactly which trail to follow back down the mountain and didn’t end up on a more treacherous or difficult path. We were told that alternatively, we could just follow the rail track down from the summit back to Clogwyn as this wasn’t currently being used by the trains.

Above, at the summit of Mount Snowden, and below, views descending the mountain

Even just walking the last quarter of the Llanberis path to the summit was not easy. The path was often steep and loose rocks and shale made it trickier to navigate. I’d bought walking poles with me especially for this hike and was glad I had them to support me. The cloud thickened the further we went and we soon found ourselves dripping wet from walking through it despite it not actually raining.

As we neared the summit, there was a queue of people waiting to have their photos taken with the Cairn at the highest point while others decided to push their way straight to the top, climbing up the rocks rather than waiting in the line. It took us about 20 minutes to reach the top. There was no view but we took photos with the cairn as proof we’d made it. Unfortunately, we didn’t feel we got to savour the moment as we felt under pressure to get our photos and get out of the way to make room for the next group in the queue, some of whom were already climbing up next to us.

Carefully making our way down from the summit back to the path, we decided to take the train driver’s advice and follow the train tracks back down to Clogwyn rather than the much steeper path. Many other hikers had decided to do the same so we were able to just follow other groups of hikers. Back at Clogwyn, we found somewhere to sit for lunch before following the path all the way back to Llanberis town.

As we made our way down the mountain, the cloud started to clear again revealing pretty views of glacial lakes. For the most part, the descent was easier than our climb up the final quarter of the path to the summit although the final section into the town was so steep we wondered how we would ever have succeeded walking the whole way up – we’d have been exhausted just a fraction of the way in to our climb!!

We were relieved to make it back into town and after a quick look around the gift shop for a souvenir or two, we walked back to our car (wishing that we’d parked a bit closer than we had!) and drove back to our hotel via a stop in Caenarfon for dinner.

The Italian Riviera-style village of Portmieion

We awoke the next day to aching legs but made it up and out in time to make our reserved ticket slot to visit Portmeirion village. This was one of those places I had passed many times on visits to North Wales and often had my parents tell me how pretty it was and that I should visit so I was excited to finally make it there.

Despite being in Wales, Portmeirion was built in the style of a village in the Italian Riviera. An entrance fee has to be paid to gain access unless you are staying in one of the on site hotels or have a meal or afternoon tea booked at one of the restaurants there. As part of its Covid restrictions, advance bookings were recommended which meant we were left to hope it would be nice weather on the day we had picked. Unfortunately, we arrived to dark clouds which soon became heavy rain.

Following a path through the woodlands in Portmeirion

As we’d arrived early, we were able to stroll around and explore the village before it got too busy. It didn’t take long to look around and if the weather had been better, it would have been nice to take our time a bit more and stop to have tea and cake at one of the cafes there. With its Italian-based design though, a lot of the cafes and restaurants in the village had mainly outdoor seating and with the heavy rain, the parasols and small marquees erected to cover these areas were not able to keep them very dry.

Looking down at the coast from a Portmeirion viewpoint

Instead, we walked along the village’s coast path, enjoying the views over the estuary then followed the path up and into the woodlands. After seeing the Japanese Garden, Dog Cemetery and Dancing Tree, we decided to call our visit day and move on.

Having expected our visit to Portmeirion to take up most of the day but finding it wasn’t even midday yet, we were at a bit of a loss for what to do with our afternoon. After consulting the map, we decided to drive to the village of Beddgelert where the National Park Visitors Centre was to try and get some ideas.

Parking up in the village, we walked to the Visitors Centre to find it closed for lunch! The town looked pretty though so we decided to grab an ice cream and take a walk down by the river.

Above, and below, following the riverside path from Beddgelert

A map by the river showed a variety of circular walks of different lengths that could be taken in the area. We decided to do a loop down one side of the river, across a bridge and back up the other side however, upon reaching the bridge, we didn’t feel we’d gone very far at all so instead decided to continue along the riverside path a bit further.

As we continued, the flat, wide path narrowed and became stonier until at points we found ourselves having to scramble up rocks and edge our way along narrow riverside ledges to continue along it.

Unsure where we were actually heading, we got talking to some other people who were following the path who told us it eventually came out at a National Trust car park with toilets at which point you could either retrace your steps back to Bedgelert or pick up another longer trail.

It was certainly an adventure getting there and we’d enjoyed the river walk with its waterfalls along the way. Eventually arriving at the car park, we decided to turn back and follow the path back to Beddgelert. Arriving back, we found the Visitor Centre now open so after a quick look around and more souvenir buying, we drove back up to Bangor where we’d be checking into the last hotel of our trip.

Above, and below, a river walk in Betws-y-Coed

The following day we drove back into the National Park to Conwy Falls Park, just outside of the popular town of Betws-y-Coed. After parking up, we grabbed breakfast (and some change) from the cafe overlooking the carpark before paying the small admission fee to go through the turnstile gate into the park.

Here, we followed the one-way path down to a viewpoint of Conwy Falls before trekking back up to the car park and driving into Betws-y-Coed itself.

Sapper Suspension Bridge crossing the River Conwy

Parking by the river, we took a stroll through the riverside path and up into the woods following a well-marked circular path before sitting on one of the many picnic benches in the wood to eat lunch.

Then we followed signposts through the town towards Sapper Suspension Bridge, a bridge built across the Conwy River in the 1930s. After tentatively bouncing our way across and back again, we explored the town a bit more stopping to grab some delicious cakes from a local bakery.

With the sun shining, we decided to leave the National Park for the afternoon and drive up to the coast. We arrived in Llandudno early afternoon and enjoyed a leisurely hour or so strolling along the promenade and along the pier before eating fish and chips overlooking the sea.

That evening, after an early dinner, we drove the short distance to Penrhyn Quarry, site of one of Wales’ multiple Zip World attractions and home of Velocity 2 – the fastest (and formerly longest) zipline in the World.

This was something we’d wanted to experience for a while and had been disappointed to find it sold out for the entirety of our North Wales stay when we went to book. Luckily, after regularly checking the website, we eventually managed to get some cancellation tickets a few days before.

After checking in, all the riders in our times lot were decked out in safety gear – overalls, harnesses and a helmet – ready to fly; and after a safety talk and instructions on how to ride (arms lodged behind our back), we were taken to a practise zip which was pretty exciting in itself and a lot of fun. Then we clambered aboard a 4-wheel drive van and were driven along the long, winding road to the top of quarry.

Above, views from the top, and below, preparing to ride Velocity 2

It was a sunny, blue-skied evening and the views from the top over the quarry and across Snowdonia were so beautiful that we deliberately hung back in the queue for our go on the zipline so that we could spend more time admiring them.

When it was our turn, I was more excited than nervous as we were clipped into place. Then, following a countdown in Welsh, we were released to fly down, head-first, over the quarry. It was an exhilarating experience, it definitely felt as fast as it was and the ride was long enough that I felt I did have time to take it all in.

This was the most expensive experience on our trip but absolutely worth it and it was something I’d love to do again someday!

The next day, the penultimate day of our trip, we took a day off from Snowdonia National Park and instead, headed across the Menai Strait to spend the day on the Isle of Anglesey (post coming soon).

The following day, it was time to wave goodbye to Wales for a while but not before a couple of more stops. First up, a stop just outside the National Park – the town of Conwy where we admired its well-preserved castle and passed by Britain’s Smallest House.

Then, as we headed back to England and the Midlands, it was time for our last stop in Snowdonia National Park, Bala Lake. Parking up in Bala town, we followed signposts out of the car park along a country lane and along a public footpath down to the lake.

Enjoying the pretty views across the large expanse of water, we followed the lakeside path down to the busy watersports centre where families sat picnicking on the lakeshore, children splashed in the shallows and kayakers paddled out into the distance.

Then we walked back into town and began our drive back to England along the Milltir Cerrig, a mountain pass road with amazing views.

It had been a fun few weeks seeing a bit more of Wales and its stunning National Parks and I knew it wouldn’t be long before I returned.

Revisiting Pembrokeshire Coast National Park – Part 1

Having been holidaying in Tenby, a popular seaside resort in the south end of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park since I was a child, I know that area of the park at least pretty well so when we decided to include this park in South West Wales in our Welsh National Parks Road Trip itinerary, I knew I wanted to make sure we included some places and activities there I’d either not done before, or hadn’t done since I was much younger while still revisiting what I consider to be some of the park’s highlights for my friend who had not been before to see.

Views walking along the sea wall from Wisemans Bridge to Saundersfoot

With this in mind, we planned a 5 night stay in the area. With many of the hotels in the park itself sold out or way too pricey by the time we got around to booking and many holiday parks only offering the standard Sat-Sat, Mon-Fri or Fri-Sun stays which didn’t suit our itinerary, we eventually decided on a roadside motel in the small village of Llandissilo, a few miles north of market town Narberth and, while quite a way outside of the park, a pretty central location to reach all parts of the park from with pretty much everywhere being within a 20-40 minute drive!

Arriving early on a Saturday afternoon wasn’t what we had planned – we’d expected to spend most of the day still in the Brecon Beacons but the weather had had other ideas – so we made a hasty decision to stop off at Wisemans Bridge at the southern end of the park and the closest point of the park to our motel. When we had to queue along the a-road out of Carmarthen into the park, I should have realised how busy everywhere would be on a Saturday afternoon and we arrived to find all the spaces in the free car parks at Wisemans Bridge completely full. Continuing on, we came to the car park for Coppets Hall, a small bay lying between Wiseman’s Bridge and the popular seaside town of Saundersfoot. Although busy, the car park had an attendant who directed us to park along a grass verge despite there not being an actual marked space there. It didn’t cost much for a couple of hours parking so all paid up, we picked up the coast path and headed through the old railway tunnels and on to the sea wall path back towards Wisemans Bridge.

The Wiseman’s Bridge to Saundersfoot walk is one of the easiest walks along the Pembrokeshire Coast Path being along flat and wide paved footpaths so it didn’t take long to reach the pebbly beach at the other end. We spent a bit of time wondering along the beach looking in the rockpools revealed at low tide before retracing our footsteps back to Coppets Hall and walked in the opposite direction to the bustling town of Saundersfoot where we treated ourselves to an ice cream and wandered around the harbour.

After returning to Coppets Hall, we drove to our motel to check in deciding to have dinner in the restaurant on site realising it was unlikely we’d find anywhere with space for us to eat out at that evening!

For our first full day in the park, we had booked tickets to visit Skomer Island. Worried about things getting booked out, we had done this quite a bit in advance which meant we couldn’t check the weather first.

Walking along the coast path near Martin’s Haven

Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side that day. Arriving in Martin’s Haven to check in for our boat trip an hour before it left, we were met by high winds and heavy rain. After checking in and looking around the small gift store,we found the rain had eased a bit so I decided to go for a walk along the coast path while we waited for our boarding time. The views were stunning as I watched the waves crash up against the rocks.

Once it was time to board, we walked down to the small bay and onto the awaiting boat. Just as we set off, the rain started to pour once again making for a rather uncomfortable crossing only cheered up by a seagull deciding to hitch a lift on the corner of the boat to save him the flight across!

Arriving at Skomer, we climbed a set of steps up to a ranger station where we were met by an island ranger who explained a bit about the island, what we might see and the rules for our visit.

Above, and below, exploring Skomer Island

Because of Covid restrictions, the paths around the outskirts of the island had been made one-way in an anti-clockwise direction from the visitor centre and picnic area at the centre of the island. We had 4 hours until we needed to be back at the ranger station and were told that that should be more than enough time to walk the perimeter and be back with time to spare.

As we set off along the path to the centre of the island, the rain finally stopped and we made it about half way around the perimeter path before it started up again. The path around the island lead to many beautiful viewpoints from the cliff tops but wildlife wise, being slightly too late for ‘puffin season’, we instead had to make do with spotting a seal frolicking in the waves crashing against the rocks below.

The pouring rain and strong winds made the last section of our walk slightly more uncomfortable than we’d have liked and with not stopping as long as we otherwise would have to enjoy the views and speeding up our pace a bit to get out of the rain, we ended up back at the centre of the island quite a bit sooner than we had expected to.

The rain sets in again as we walk the coast path on Skomer Island

Luckily, we managed to find an empty bench in the covered picnic area so spent the last hour on the island having a leisurely picnic lunch and looking around the small visitor’s centre before making our way back to catch our boat back to the mainland. Just as we were about to depart, we spotted another seal playing in the surf then scrambling up onto the rocks just off the island.

The rain had stopped again making for a much drier and more pleasant boat trip back to the mainland. Arriving back late afternoon, we drove back to our motel and change into some drier clothes before going for dinner there.

Above, and below, taking Reggie the Alpaca for a walk

The next day, we were pleased to wake up to a much drier day and a forecast of some sunny spells! We had booked an alpaca trek for that morning and tickets to Heatherton World of Adventures for that afternoon so after breakfast, drove out to a farm near Manorbier to meet our furry friends for the morning. Having never walked an alpaca before, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect but it turned out to be a really fun activity even if we were technically just walking around a field.

My alpaca, Reggie, was pretty obliging, trotting alongside me and posing for photos when we reached the halfway point in return for a few handfuls of food.

After returning Reggie to his pen and saying our goodbyes, we drove on to Heatherton, an activity centre just outside of Tenby. This was a place I’d always go on a cloudy day with my family when I was younger. Back then, it was a much smaller affair and billed as a ‘country sports’ and golfing centre. We’d spend our morning on the pitch ‘n’ putt course and our afternoons trying out archery, pistol shooting, laser clay pigeon shooting, croquet, boules, and, of course, take a few trips round on the bumper boats. Now the park has extended to occupy a site across the road from when the original activities are still housed and the list of activities on offer has more than doubled to include baseball, ropes courses, slides, a hedge maze and many many more. I mainly just wanted to revisit all my old favourites for nostalgic reasons so we bought an 8-credit pass which we calculated to be enough to spend on all these with a couple left over for anything else that took our fancy.

Upon arriving, we couldn’t quite believe how busy the centre was, especially as passes had to be pre-booked due to ongoing Covid restrictions and were supposedly limited each day. We struggled to even find a parking space in the overflow but once we had, went to pick up our passes from the main reception. Seeing that there were long queues for everything, we went with the one that currently seemed to be the shortest/moving the quickest and that was the bumper boats. Within 10 minutes we were sat in the boats – which didn’t seem to have been updated at all in the slightest since my original visits in the late ’90s – racing (well, more like crawling) around the small course trying to bump into the other boats. Great fun!

Having forgot to take our lunch with us that day, we grabbed sandwiches from the on-site cafe before our next activity. We went with pistol shooting next. Although we were the next group to take part when we joined the queue, there was a loong, tedious wait as the group before us had their safety talk then slowly worked their way through their 20 pellets but once it was our turn, it was a fun activity to try out and when I collected my target after our session finished, I hadn’t done too badly!

It was another long queue next, this time to try out laser clay pigeon shooting. This was always my favourite when I was younger as I was always pretty good at it but not today, as I failed to hit all but 2 clays as they flew through the air! At this point, having only averaged one activity an hour since our arrival and with still over half of our credit to use up, we were slightly worried we wouldn’t get through everything but as we headed across the road to try out the park’s new Dragon Slide – where you sit in a giant rubber ring, a bit like a water park slide but without the water! – we found a much shorter queue time and were on and off in 5 minutes. The slide was so much fun that we decided to use another credit up to ride it again!

Crossing back under the tunnel to the other side of the road again, we found the crowds had started to empty out a bit. We had 3 credits each left to use, 2 of which we knew we wanted to spend on the still extremely busy Adventure Golf, the other, we originally planned to use on archery but seeing there was still quite a queue for this and no queue at all for the bumper boats next to it, we decided to jump on these again instead!

Having left Adventure Golf to the last hoping the crowds would clear, we decided it was now or never and went to get our clubs and golf balls and were warned that we’d have to queue to play each hole. As it turned out, it wasn’t too bad with just one group in front of us to wait for each time. Seeing how busy the park had been put us off booking to go to Oakwood, a nearby theme park, over the next few days as we worried we’d just be spending the whole day queuing so instead we decided to use the day we would have spent there exploring the coast a bit more.

It had been a fun start to our time in Pembrokeshire and we still had a few more full days left to explore the park as well as the morning before we left for Snowdonia. With the weather forecast not looking too bad, we were looking forward to spending a bit more time out on the coast.

Brecon Beacons National Park

After a few weeks of planning, we were starting a 2-week tour of Wales concentrating our time mainly on the country’s three National Parks. First up was the Brecon Beacons, situated in the middle of South Wales. The park was one I’d driven along the outskirts of many a time, bypassing it on an A-road at least once a year for the last 25 years as we headed on family holidays to South West Wales and I’d visited the town of Brecon as a ‘halfway to our destination’ stopping off point many times over. But I had never crossed that busy A-road to see what lay on the other side!

We arrived at our motel for the next three nights early evening on a Wednesday. We were staying in the town of Merthyr Tydfil just outside the southern end of the park as prices were a lot cheaper here than to stay in the National Park itself but in just a 5 minute drive, we were across the park boundaries.

After settling in to our room, we went out in search of dinner thinking that we’d have no problem getting a table anywhere on a Wednesday evening.

As restaurant after restaurant told us they were full though, we began to realise we were once again going to have to plan ahead for our meals this trip, pre-booking and making sure we were back in time rather than seeing where the day took us and grabbing something wherever we ended up. Finally finding a Pizza place that could squeeze us in, we had dinner a little later than we’d hoped but still found time to fit in a walk around town after our meal.

Our itinerary for our stay in the park was more a list of ideas and suggestions than a definite plan. A walk up Pen-y-Fan, the highest mountain in Southern Britain, was top of that list and we were keeping an eye on the weather to decide which day was looking best for it. The weather looking to be ok and expecting the National Park to be pretty full with the August summer holidays in full swing, we were up early for our included breakfast at our motel the next day, aiming to be at the car park for the main path to the top of Pen-y-Fan by 9am to beat the crowds.

While the car park was by no means empty when we arrives, we did comfortably find a space and when we returned later to find cars parked everywhere in the main car park, along the road and in lay-bys within a mile or so either way, were glad we made the effort for an early-ish start.

Made it to the top while there’s still a bit of a view!

The weather was pretty clear for the most part, the sun shining as we set out. The path was easy to follow and the instructions I’d downloaded from a National Trust circular walking route helped us work out which of the two peak we were aiming for when the path split – and it’s a good job it did, We reached a very windy peak of Pen-y-Fan just as the cloud started to move in, some kind of view still visible to us from the top but just minutes later, we made our way across to the peak of Corn Du, the second peak to find ourselves completely immersed in fog and cloud and unable to see Pen-y-Fan, or anything else, anymore!

From Corn Du, we retraced our steps back down the path we had walked up rather than taking the circular route down an alternative path to the road. Exhausted, but feeling a sense of accomplishment, we collapsed into the car feeling grateful that we had a space so close to the path entrance so that we didn’t have to walk any further, and treated ourselves to our packed lunch and a nice hot cup of tea from a flask!

Lunch over, we drove north and seeing the National Park Visitor Centre signposted, decided to use the facilities, get some more park information and buy some souvenirs. There were a number of walks signposted from the visitor centre of varying lengths and difficulties but deciding we’d done enough walking for the time being, we moved on to do a circular scenic drive through the east side of the park.

Driving up towards Brecon, we turned off back into the park and followed an extremely narrow, steeps, twisting and turning track which, judging from the grass growing up the middle of the road, is rarely used. Thankfully, we didn’t meet any oncoming traffic and just as we were wondering where the sat nav was taking us, the road opened out to reveal Gospel Pass, the road we were aiming for, in front of us.

This mountain pass is seen as a ‘must-do’ drive in the Brecon Beacons for it’s stunning views and we made our way along it past pretty countryside and wild horses roaming the hills. We pulled up at Hay Bluff, a parking area from where we could admire the views.

After taking in the scenery, we continued along gospel pass, the road again narrowing and heading through woodland. Eventually, we reached Llanthony Abbey. The abbey ruins are free to visit and there was a cafe on site run by neighbouring Llanthony Priory Hotel for refreshments.

From here the road continued to a main A-road which we then followed west back to our Merthyr Tydfil Hotel giving us a few hours to relax and freshen up before our dinner reservation in town that evening.

The next day we were once again up early, this time to drive out to the car park at the start of the Four Waterfalls walk. As the name suggests, here there is a circular path with paths leading off it at various intervals to see four waterfalls!

Above, and below, on the Four Waterfalls walk

Finding the car park almost empty at around 9am, we chatted to the car park attendant who explained to us that none of the waterfalls are visible from the main circular trail and that the paths leading down to each of the falls were quite strenuous. He recommended we did the loop in reverse to see the most impressive waterfall first so if we were to decide we’d had enough at that point, we could just retrace our steps back still having seen a pretty good waterfall!

Although we were pretty sure we’d not give up after one waterfall, we decided to take his advice so we could at least get the waterfall with the most steps up and down out of the way first!

The main path to the waterfall exit was easy but we could straight away see why we were warned over the path to the waterfall itself. The steps down were often uneven, made of slippy blue stone and way too deep for our short legs to manage easily without grabbing onto something for support as we lowered ourselves down – and often there was nothing to grab on to! But it was worth it once the waterfall was revealed. It was possible to scramble across some rocks to go behind the waterfall but seeing as we’d had a tough time just getting down to that point, we stayed to admire it from the base of the steps before climbing back up to the path again – surprisingly, it was easier going up than down!

We continued along the path which narrowed, had frequent unpaved sections and rocky sections and was in itself, not an easy walk anymore, until we reached the next branch off to another waterfall. Again, we found a steep path with loose gravel sections, muddy areas and even a few boulder sections! It certainly made the walk more interesting though. It took us about 3 hours to complete the full walk with stops for a bite to eat along the way and taking our time across trickier sections of the path and we made it back onto the main paved section of the path back to the (now packed) car park just as it started to rain, grateful that it hadn’t rained while we were scrambling over already slippery rocks to see the falls!

Pretty views from the lay-by opposite Crai Reservoir

After a lay-by late lunch stop, we looked at a map and consulted our list of itinerary ideas deciding to loop around to the centre of the park and visit one of the park’s many reservoirs. We decided on Crai Reservoir which would put us back on a road heading towards Merthyr Tydfil again rather than taking us out of the way. We had read that there was a path you could walk there towards the reservoir dam with great views across but upon pulling up at the car park across from the reservoir, we couldn’t actually find this path!

There was a bridge across a valley stream leading off from the car park which offered a pretty view of the hills and some footpaths signposted up into the hills but across the road, we walked along the grass verge alongside where we could barely even see the reservoir peeping out from behind dense hedgerow, never mind find a path to access it.

Giving up and returning back in the other direction, we walked a bit further south of the car park to a driveway down to a house where there was a public footpath sign which seemed to be pointing along the side of the house’s grounds but a path was barely visible and overgrown with nettles to the point that we weren’t completely sure if it was even there or if the sign was pointing along the road we had just walked along instead.

Not wanting to end up walking across private property, we instead returned to the car and, as it was now nearing 3pm anyway, took a scenic way back to the southern end of the park looping background to our Merthyr Tydfil motel.

With no rush to get to our Pembrokeshire National Park destination the next day, we had planned to spend the majority of the day still in the Brecon Beacons but checking the weather, we saw there was heavy rain forecast the next morning. We checked to see if there was any availability at the Dan yr Ogof Welsh National Showcaves but fond all the timed slots already sold out so decided to see what the weather was like the next day and take it from there.

We did indeed wake up to heavy rain and cloud and decided our original loose plans to hill walk to a view of a glacial lake Llyn y Fan Fach or to drive along Black Mountain Pass at the west side of the park were probably not worth it as the views wold be obscured by cloud.

Instead, we decided to begin our drive to Pembrokeshire making a stop at Carreg Cennan Castle on the edge of the Brecon Beacons along the way.We had downloaded instructions for a circular walk around the castle providing views it without having to pay to go in but once there, the weather still not great, we decided to pay the small fee to visit the ruins instead. Luckily, the weather started to clear just as we were about to leave so we got to see a bit more of a view from the top!

It was great to finally see what lay on the other side of the busy A-road bypassing Brecon that I’d driven down so many times in the past and as it turned out, our 3 nights in the Beacons was nowhere near enough time to see anywhere near all the park has to offer but it was a start. I was glad I had the chance to visit and definitely plan to return sometime!

A Wales National Parks Road Trip

Who’d have thought when our US National Parks Road Trip planned for last summer had to be cancelled that we’d be unable to reschedule it for 2021 either?! But with Covid still dominating new headlines around the World, the US still not allowing UK visitors and strict rules on entering and exiting the UK still in force over a year on, we realised pretty early into the year that making any plans to travel out of the UK was not a good idea. Despite some travel being allowed out of the UK to the few ‘green/amber list’ countries who will have us, with all the uncertainties over how long countries will remain on these lists for and all the complicated – not to mention expensive – testing rules to travel, we decided we were best to make summer travel plans a bit closer to home again.

We had a few early discussions about possibly travelling to Ireland, a country I’ve seen very little of, for a road trip around the coast but not being sure if we’d both be fully vaccinated in time to go there, that idea was soon put hold for the future and our thoughts returned to the UK National Parks.

After a successful 2-week trip to the National Parks of Northern England last summer, we narrowed this year’s options down to the parks in Southern England, a trip up to Scotland for a mixture of National Parks, isles, highlands and cities or heading west into Wales. We eventually settled on visiting the 3 National Parks of Wales, a country I am very familiar with having holidayed there at least once a year for the last 27 years. In fact, my annual family holiday is usually taken in Tenby, a seaside town in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park but as this is mainly spent as a beach holiday with the occasional trip out to other nearby beaches, there was plenty of the National Park I’d not seen as well as some activities and attractions I’d not visited since going as a teenager which I wanted the opportunity to relive. I figured I could then play tour guide on the day we planned to spend in the southern end of the park which I know and love.

Regularly visiting Snowdonia National Park too with a friend having a holiday home at the southern end of it as well as often taking out of season trips there with the dog meant I was somewhat familiar with this area too although once we started looking into what to do there, I soon realised I’d actually seen very little away from the southernmost tip where the seaside town of Barmouth is located.

One of the many waterfalls in the Brecon Beacons

The Brecon Beacons was a National Park I was totally unfamiliar with outside of the town of Brecon itself where my family would often make a pitstop at en route to Tenby so I decided to concentrate my initial research here.

Looking at a range of websites, blogs etc on each of the parks, we eventually came up with a plan to split our time with 3 nights un the Brecon Beacons and 5 nights at Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and Snowdonia National Park respectively during which time we’d tackle some of the big hikes including Pen-y-Fan and the Four Waterfalls Walk in the Brecon Beacons and, of course, Mount Snowdon in Snowdonia National Park.

On Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire National Park

Despite pretty much having our trip all planned out, we put off booking longer than we usually would as we waited to see what restrictions would or wouldn’t be eased. Then, just as we were starting to think about booking hotels for our stay, our plans had to be briefly put on hold as my friend suffered an injury which could have put an end to any hiking and long days driving followed by a death in the family.

When we finally came to book some places to stay we found very limited availability and extremely high prices, especially as we’d decided to book fully cancellable options just in case things changed before we went.

We eventually settled for a pub/motel room in the town of Merthyr Tydfil, a few miles south of the Brecon Beacons National Park and just a short drive from some of the walks we planned to do. The motel was within our budget and included breakfast and its location was also convenient for eating out in the evenings as there were plenty of cheap and cheerful chain restaurants just a short drive from the town centre.

For Pembrokeshire National Park we had to stay quite a way out of the park in a roadside motel near the town of Narberth. The motel cost us a lot more than we’d wanted to pay but was still the cheapest place we could find. It did include breakfast though and although being a bit out of the park, was at least pretty centrally located meaning we never had more than a 40 minute drive to the north or south end of the National Park from there.

Snowdonia proved to be the most difficult and expensive park to find accommodation for and we ended up having to split our stay between 2 places, choosing a small farm guesthouse just outside the south-west end of the park for the first 2 nights and a chain motel in Bangor, a seaside town north of the park for the final 3 nights.

With our accommodation finally sorted, we moved on to the activities. Whereas many of the activities and attractions in the park are usually turn up and go, many of them currently had pre-book only rules which can be difficult when you’re going somewhere with very unpredictable weather! We had the National Welsh Showcaves at Dan-yr-Ogof pencilled in as a rainy day activity for the day we left the Brecon Beacons in case it was too wet to hike but decided to hold off booking in case the weather did turn out to be ok.

As soon as we realised it was almost certainly going to pour down that morning, we went to book only to find we were too late and it had sold out. That wasn’t our only booking failure – we also left booking activities at the popular ZipWorld attractions in Snowdonia way too late, finding the Velocity 2 zipline and the mountain coaster we really wanted to do both sold out until the autumn (we did eventually manage to get a cancellation slot on the ziplines at a later date!)

We did manage to pre-book a boat trip to Skomer Island in Pembrokeshire National Park – something I’d wanted to do for years – but pre-booking weeks in advance meant it was pot luck with the weather and, of course (spoiler alert!), it ended up absolutely pouring down that day.

About to zipline over an old quarry in Snowdonia

We were luckier with the date we picked to walk Alpacas or that would have been miserable too. Other activities such as visits to Heatherton World of Activities and Oakwood Theme Park both in Pembrokeshire, we decided to leave til the last minute and check on the weather and luckily, when we did decide to attend Heatherton, there were plenty of tickets left booking the day before we attended.

Despite everyone staycationing leading to accommodation prices shooting up and activities selling out way in advance, our trip was, overall, a success and while it still wasn’t quite up there with our US adventures, we were grateful to be able to get away at all and had a pretty great time.

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Planning a US road trip to tick off state 49!

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… and an evening in Antibes

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