Coach Holidays to Wales, Snowdonia and the Coast
Wales fits a great deal into a small country: mountain passes and castle walls, a coast path that runs the whole way round, and gardens that come into their own in late spring. It is also a country where the driving takes more out of you than the mileage suggests, with narrow valley roads, tight town centres and car parks that fill by ten in the morning.
That is the argument for the coach. Our Welsh tours settle into one hotel for four nights and head out each day with a driver who knows the roads, so the scenery arrives through the window rather than over the steering wheel.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Coach Holidays to Wales Tours
The Welsh tours listed on this page all run five days, with four nights in one hotel. That gives three or four full excursion days, plus travelling days at each end. Staying put in a single hotel means you unpack once and the coach does the moving about. If you want a shorter or longer break in Wales, ask us what is coming up.
Several of these tours set aside a number of single rooms with no supplement, and the number varies by tour. The Llandrindod Wells and Llandudno holidays each include ten, while the Eryri and Pembrokeshire tours include six. They are allocated as bookings come in, so it is worth ringing early if you are travelling on your own. Ask us what is left on the departure you have in mind.
Breakfast and evening meals are included on all four Welsh tours, taken at your hotel. Lunches are not included, which suits the way the days run: you are usually out at a castle, a garden or a harbour town at midday, and most people prefer to choose their own. If you have particular dietary requirements, tell us when you book and we will pass them to the hotel.
No, but it helps on two of these itineraries. The Pembrokeshire tour and the Eryri tour both note that entrance to National Trust properties is covered if you are a member. Colby Woodland Garden, Stackpole and the Tudor Merchant's House in Tenby are all Trust properties. If you are not a member, ask us what the entrance costs are likely to be on the day so there are no surprises.
More than on a flat English cathedral tour, less than a walking holiday. Castle sites have steps and uneven cobbles, gardens have slopes and gravel paths, and towns like Tenby and Conwy are best seen on foot. You can usually sit out any part of a day and stay near the coach. For a realistic picture of a specific itinerary, ask us and we will talk it through honestly.
Yes. These tours run as private group departures as well as scheduled ones, and the quoted prices are based on a group of thirty passengers. Gardening clubs, U3A branches, church groups and groups of friends all travel this way with us. Dates, pick-up arrangements and the shape of the itinerary can usually be adjusted for a private group, so tell us what you have in mind and we will price it.
Where the Welsh tours are based
Each tour stays four nights in a single hotel, which means one unpack and no shuffling of suitcases at seven in the morning. The bases are chosen because the good days out radiate from them.
- Llandudno and Caernarfon for Snowdonia, with the Seafront Hotel on Llandudno's curve of bay between the Great and Little Ormes, and the Celtic Royal a few minutes' walk from Caernarfon's castle walls.
- Tenby for Pembrokeshire, at the Belgrave Hotel, with the walled town, the harbour and the National Trust coast all within reach.
- Llandrindod Wells for mid Wales, at the 4-star Metropole, a Victorian spa town that grew up around the railway and still has the wide streets and ironwork to show for it.
All four tours run five days and include breakfast and evening meals, private coach travel throughout and the excursions listed on the itinerary.
Roads, passes and why a coach helps
Welsh distances are short and Welsh journeys are not. The A470 takes the best part of a day to drive end to end, and the mountain roads through Llanberis and the Nant Ffrancon are the kind you remember for the gear changes rather than the view.
Travelling as a group takes all of that off your hands. Somebody else negotiates the Menai crossings, finds the coach bay at Portmeirion and knows which lay-by has the view of Tryfan. You get to look up.
It also solves the awkward geography of the good places. Stackpole, Cilgerran and Colby sit at the end of lanes that were never designed for visitors; Betws-y-Coed and Conwy are pleasant to walk around and dispiriting to park in. A driver who has done the route before makes the difference between seeing three things in a day and seeing one.
Castles, gardens and mountain railways
Edward I's castles are the obvious draw in the north, and they earn it. Caernarfon and Conwy both went up in the 1280s and both still stand within their walled towns, which is rarer than it sounds. Cilgerran, in Pembrokeshire, is older and wilder, perched above the Teifi gorge where Turner painted it.
The railways are a proper part of the Welsh day out rather than a novelty. The Snowdon Mountain Railway grinds up from Llanberis to near the summit of Yr Wyddfa on a rack and pinion track laid in 1896; the Llanberis Lake Railway runs the gentler line along Llyn Padarn.
Gardens and houses fill the rest. Colby Woodland Garden is at its best when the rhododendrons and azaleas go over in late spring, Stackpole has the lily ponds at Bosherston, and Portmeirion is the Italianate village Clough Williams-Ellis spent fifty years building above the estuary.
When to travel and what the weather does
Wales is wet, and Snowdonia is wetter than almost anywhere else in Britain. It is worth knowing rather than worrying about: the rain tends to come through quickly, and the mountains look better with cloud moving across them than under flat sunshine.
Late spring is the strongest season for the gardens, with the woodland planting at its peak through May and early June. High summer brings the warmest sea and the busiest coast paths. September and early October are quieter, the light on the Pembrokeshire cliffs is at its best, and the hotels are calmer.
Pack layers and something genuinely waterproof whatever the month, along with shoes you can walk a cobbled town in. Castle grounds and coastal gardens involve uneven ground and a few slopes; if you would like a sense of how much walking a particular day involves, ask us before you book.
