first time in Wales: southern country & hiking Snowdonia

I might be saying it a lot recently, but going on a roadtrip across the UK has always been on my bucket list. Especially Wales, which always seems so distant and unreachable tucked away in the far corner of Europe. And here we are, living in London, and what better time to do it than now.

And so we went. Wales was our first destination on the 10-day itinerary and we couldn’t have been more excited.

Day 1: Mewslade Bay & Whitesands Bay

Leaving from London on an early morning, we headed straight to the southern part of Wales. Not far after Swansea, at the very end of a little peninsula, we chose Mewslade Bay to be our first stop. I can’t remember how I found it really, but the place was not at all easy to find since apparently it’s visited mostly by the locals who know where to go. It’s well worth it though, since the bay is tucked in between steep cliffs, has a little beach (it was a sunny day and some children were playing in the water) and beautiful, almost Scandinavian-like landscape.

We grabbed our pre-prepared lunch there, exchanged many ohs! and ahs! and headed more west to the Pembrokeshire Coast where our camping site for the night was. We booked a place on the Celtic Camping and to be honest, couldn’t have chosen a better one to start our trip. It’s beautifully located right on the coast with views over the cliffs of Whitesands Bay and Blue Lagoon in the far back. It was a bank holiday weekend so the campsite was rather full but we still managed to find a spot right on the edge with one of the most spectacular views we ever slept with. Just see on the pictures below!

Day 2: Snowdonia & hiking Mount Snowdon

Waking up very content and ready for more, we headed straight up north to Snowdonia and the Llyn Gwynant Campsite were we hoped to find a spot for the night (you can’t book this one online in advance). We arrived right on time to grab one of the last spots by the little river and once all settled, headed for THE hike. I mean, you can’t be in Snowdonia and not at least take a glimpse at Mount Snowdon. Can you?

We chose this trail starting at Pen-y-Pass and heading up to the top of the mountain via spectacular Lake Llydaw and this must have been the most beautiful hike I’ve ever done. The views from the path look like straight from your computer’s highly photoshopped wallpaper, except for the fact that they are just there and 100% real. Wow.

The trail is very accessible for the first 70% of it and turns into a rather steep climb towards the end with a VERY steep climb right under the peak of the mountain. Most of the families walked only until the second little lake called Glaslyn and turned back there. We continued with the first steep approach and avoided only the very last one since Buddy’s little paws wouldn't support this one but to be honest, the views don’t get much nicer afterwards anyway and the path gets rather complicated so I would even advice to avoid it if you’re ambition is not bugging you too much.

Day 3: Llyn Idwal

For our 3rd and last day in Wales we planned to see Lake Idwal, which was a much easier a shorter hike than the one to Snowdon the day before. We did initially want to extend it to go a bit higher up to a place called Devil’s Kitchen but noticed Buddy limping a bit so didn’t want to expose him to any other potential climbing at this point.

No regret though cause the lake in itself was absolutely beautiful, surrounded by mountains and blooming heather. It’s a very easy circular walk around the lake and I would recommend it to anyone to catch a brake from more wearing hikes. We had our lunch around there and headed back to the car, direction Liverpool and back to England.

If you have only few days and you stil want to see Wales, I feel like this is a perfect itinerary. You can cover a big stretch of the country and see a little bit of everything. We didn’t stop in any city but passed through several coastal towns and were charmed with the cute architecture - we’d definitely add a few stops there if we had more time to spare.

Both of the campsites were absolutely amazing - nothing like the campsites I remember from my younger days in Poland. Beautiful locations and full amenities (the one in Snowdonia even had a coffee shop on site!) for as cheap as £10-12/person so yes, you can do it on budget too.

More posts from the rest of our roadtrip coming soon!