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Snowdonia tour: Llanberis & Beddgelert<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Snowdonia national park, created in 1950, was the first welsh national park, and covers approximately 820 square miles of North West Wales.<\/p>\n

To fully appreciate all the park has to offer you\u2019ll need to spend a few days, if not a week, but I\u2019ll try and give you some highlights tours that will focus on the main sites to visit. The idea is to create a circular itinerary you can follow, starting and finishing anywhere along the route, and assumes you are driving.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tour 1: Llanberis & Beddgelert.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For convenience this route starts in the town of Porthmadog and concentrates on the Western side of the park, the bit where the mountain is: \u2018What mountain?\u2019 I hear you ask. Well the park is home to the highest mountain in Wales and England which is called (Mount) Snowdon (1,085m), a cautionary note: when you\u2019re chatting with locals or other visitors you\u2019ll look a little silly if you mix up Snowdon with Snowdonia, as in \u2018I just walked up Snowdonia\u2019 so think before you speak!<\/span><\/p>\n

So back to the tour: If I\u2019m meeting a group we\u2019ll normally rendezvous at Tesco, for those who don\u2019t know Tesco is a large supermarket which is easy to find in Porthmadog, and is just 2 minutes walk from the train station and main bus stops. It\u2019s a good place to grab a sandwich for lunch which will save you time later.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the first 20-30 minutes we\u2019ll stick to the main A487 heading towards Caernarfon, so turn Left out of Tesco and follow the signs. It\u2019s a good road, but not much to see, we\u2019re just travelling to our first destination: Llanberis. <\/span><\/p>\n

After following the A487 for around 18 miles you\u2019ll come to the village of Bontnewydd, this is where we\u2019ll pick up the road for Llanberis, so watch out for the sign (turning right) following this road for around 5 miles will bring you to Llyn Padarn (Lake). The lake is approximately 2 miles long and at it\u2019s deepest point around 30m, making it one of the biggest natural lakes in Wales. <\/span><\/p>\n

Keeping the lake to your left you\u2019ll soon arrive in Llanberis itself. Keep driving past the parking areas and the first large building you see on your left, this building is the Electric Mountain visitors centre, more on this later. <\/span><\/p>\n

Just after the Electric mountain building you\u2019ll see a sign for \u2018Padarn Country Park\u2019, \u2018Lake Railway\u2019, \u2018High Ropes Course\u2019, \u2018Welsh Slate Museum\u2019 in fact a lot of little signs bunched together pointing to the left, essentially you\u2019re going to the other side of the lake where you\u2019ll find a large parking area (not the first small car parks you pass, follow the signs for the museum) this will be our base for a while so find a good parking spot and get a ticket.<\/span><\/p>\n

The large \u2018old\u2019 looking building is the Welsh Slate Museum, a must visit attraction, besides it\u2019s free, has a good cafe and clean loo\u2019s! Spend time exploring this area, perhaps follow some of the hiking trails (info on large notice boards) or stroll along the lake to the Victorian Quarry Workers Hospital, another must do.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you fancy a train ride up Snowdon the station is back on the main road near the signs where you turned left, it\u2019s normally busy and only runs in the summer months, but do go and have a look around even if you don\u2019t want to go up the mountain, you could always walk up, but it does take most of a day!<\/span><\/p>\n

Electric mountain;<\/strong> the visitors centre you passed on your way in, gives information and a tour of the Dinorwig pumped storage power station, basically the mountain on the far side of the lake is hollow and houses an enormous hydro-power station, you really need to visit the information centre to fully appreciate what you can\u2019t actually see!<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s completely up to you how long you stay in llanberis, there\u2019s actually enough to keep you going all day, but when you want to carry on with the tour just drive back to the main road and turn left following the road past the Snowdon Mountain Railway station. <\/span><\/p>\n

This road is the Llanberis pass with the mountain on your right being Snowdon (Snowdon Massif) and on your left the Glyder mountain range. There are little parking spots where you can pull over a search for climbers picking their way up the mountains, the area is very popular with climbers due to it\u2019s easy access and wide range of difficulties. The area is also popular with free climbers, this is where the climber doesn\u2019t use ropes or pegs etc, you\u2019ll often see them using the large rocks on the side of the road to practice on, it\u2019s very skilled and dangerous, so practising on low, short-fall routes is a good idea!<\/span><\/p>\n

The top of the pass is call Pen Y Pass, welsh for the head of the pass, there\u2019s a parking area, but it\u2019s normally full, but no worries if it is, just keep going \u2026. now down hill, and oh what a hill. At the junction turn right and you\u2019ll soon come to a parking area on your right, pull in for a photo session. The views are stunning, but are of course weather dependant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Carry on down the hill, through stunning mountain scenery, past lakes, rivers and through hamlets, stop whenever you like for photos or to explore, eventually arriving at the village of Beddgelert. Follow the road left over the bridge and just past the ice cream shop (on your right) watch out for the car park sign.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beddgelert is a stunning little village with lots to offer, but it\u2019s better for you to explore and find its secrets for yourself, but hints to get you going: Learn the story of Gellert, find out how many movies have been filmed around here and test out the claim that it\u2019s the best ice cream in the \u2018world\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

To continue on, from the car park turn right past the Royal Goat hotel, following the road towards Porthmadog, if you see a parking spot pull in, perhaps to dip your toes in the crystal clear river waters, or to grab a photo of a steam train as it winds its way along the river’s edge; remember it\u2019s your trip.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following the signs for Porthmadog will bring you back to our starting point, this is where I\u2019ll say \u2018Hwyl Fawr am rhwan\u2019 that\u2019s welsh for Goodbye \u2026.. For now!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Snowdonia tour: Llanberis & Beddgelert The Snowdonia national park, created in 1950, was the first welsh national park, and covers approximately 820 square \n [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oct_exclude_from_cache":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,4,1,3],"tags":[15,8,14,7,6,10],"yoast_head":"\nSnowdonia Tours: Llanberis & Beddgelert - Sandals N Socks<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sandalsnsocks.com\/2017\/09\/03\/snowdonia-tours-llanberis-beddgelert\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Snowdonia Tours: Llanberis & Beddgelert - Sandals N Socks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Snowdonia tour: Llanberis & Beddgelert The Snowdonia national park, created in 1950, was the first welsh national park, and covers approximately 820 square\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.sandalsnsocks.com\/2017\/09\/03\/snowdonia-tours-llanberis-beddgelert\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sandals N Socks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-03T08:01:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-25T20:32:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.sandalsnsocks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_5947.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"3456\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2304\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"willis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"willis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.sandalsnsocks.com\/2017\/09\/03\/snowdonia-tours-llanberis-beddgelert\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.sandalsnsocks.com\/2017\/09\/03\/snowdonia-tours-llanberis-beddgelert\/\",\"name\":\"Snowdonia Tours: Llanberis & Beddgelert - 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