My North Wales- Snowdonia Tour

My North Wales- Snowdonia Tour
Wales is a land that continually surprises me. I’ve been heading up there with my small group tours for several years, and I always eagerly anticipate it.
The land and seascape is rugged, it’s unforgiving, and yet it’s welcoming.
I have developed a 10 day tour that is based in one boutique style hotel in a splendid Victorian seaside town called Llandudno. It’s a perfect base for striking out into the mountains or reaching into the heart of Anglesey.

The whole tour came about after a discussion on a hilltop with local legend, tv personality, author and farmer, Gareth Wyn Jones ( he’s also a friend of mine).i wanted to do a regular bus tour of Wales, but also spend time with him and his family, absorbing his culture, lifestyle and Welshness. He wanted to show off his farm, his knowledge and his generosity to more curious people. The discussion turned into a lengthy Welsh whiskey ‘session’, and the tour idea had taken route.

Welsh history, like so many other regions in the British Isles, is one of turmoil, greed and warfare. The many impressive and powerful castles that appear in every valley and in every hilltop attest this. But, to me, the story that has to be told is one about the people. These people resisted Román occupation, Saxon invasion, Norman conquest. Each time they resisted, their numbers swelled, as disenfranchised people from the lowland farming areas of what is now England fled to join them in the mountains. This means that to be a Welsh IS to be British.

In the highland areas, they have farmed, for milliennia. On the coastal areas they have fished and traded. In the valleys, they’ve mined for coal and slate. In fact it was the coal of Wales that fuelled the worlds first and longest industrial revolution that helped to turn the United Kingdom into the worlds superpower, in the 17 and 1800s.

My tour helps people understand the Welsh from a deep and fascinating perspective.... heck they spend 3 days with Gareth and his wife, Rhiann, on his land....learning...and talking.

Ancient history is to be found everywhere in North Wales. Often sitting next to medieval castles, you’ll find Bronze Age and Iron Age tombs or hill forts. We visit some of these, and I take you back to a lost time... a time that we don’t really understand... our prehistory. The time before the Romans.

When you tour another area, you have to have fun. Learning has to be fun or it probably won’t happen. Therefore, I’ve built in a couple of days where we have loads of fun. One such, is where we take to the water on a high powered RIB (boat) and explore the marine and bird life of Anglesey, an island on Wales North coast. Another is where we delve into slate mining.... by going 600 feet into the bowels of a mountain, in an attempt to understand how harsh life could be, working underground, to mine the material that would provide a rooftop to the homes of the English speaking world. That afternoon, we ascend the same mountain in a military vehicle... yes, the quarried in the surface too.

Welsh language lessons and medieval history walking tours are also incorporated into what we experience on this tour.

A tour conjured up over a bottle of Welsh whiskey, on a mountain too, at 1.00am, with a Welsh farmer !!

Email me for more details