Betws-y-Coed - Conwy Valley

Date of visit - 23/06/2024

We combined our visit to Betws-y-Coed along with the trip to Zip World in Gwydir forest. We had passed through the village on our way to our adrenaline session, and thought it looked a good place to stop on our way back.

Considering it is in the middle of nowhere this was probably the first touristy town we had seen in North Wales, it was incredibly busy, with all the car parks pretty much full.

I had found a walk starting at the top end of town, at Pont-y-pair (Bridge of the Cauldron), but first we had to get there from the car park. We elected to use the buggy, as my wife wanted to look in a few of the gift type shops we had spotted on our earlier drive through first.

The first thing to note - the pavements aren't very wide, and we had to keep either stopping or ducking onto the road to avoid people - not ideal! Also, there are several areas where the path runs out completely, meaning either a walk in the road until the path picks up again, or crossing over to the other side of the road where there is path - again, not ideal if someone in your party is using wheels or their mobility is restricted.

After popping into a couple of shops we found our way to the bridge. There is a car park here, but it is quite small, so if you can do the walk from town it probably makes sense to start from there. There are toilets in the car park, charging 50p a go! The same applies to the toilets in the main town car park area. At least they were clean, so I felt like I got my 50 pence worth!

We had elected to do the Coed Tan Dinas Trail - at just ¾ mile/1.2 kilometres, it is designated as easy. The walk follows the boardwalk and wide path alongside the river through Douglas fir trees which are up to 100 years old.

As mentioned earlier, we had decided to bring Little One out in his buggy - in hindsight, this was probably a mistake on the boardwalk, as it is a very rough crossing and shook the buggy quite badly. We got him out and onto the wrist strap, which made pushing the buggy easier, and gave him a bit of time to stretch his legs. We were obviously extremely mindful of the fact that there was flowing water just off the boardwalk.

We came to a nice clearing, with a slate/shingle beach stepping out into the shallow water of the river Llugwy (Afon Llugwy)

This seemed like the perfect spot for Little One to dip his toes - he wasn't sure to start with, as the water was very cold, but once in and realising he was allowed to be there, he made himself at home, stripping his shirt off.

This is something we have particularly noticed this year, he doesn't want to keep a shirt on, and when he has long trousers on he rolls them up to his knees. This habit came in handy here, as it kept his trousers out of the water, as he was happy to have them rolled up!

After drying off, we completed the walk back to the bridge. This was a pleasant, easy walk, just be mindful of the boardwalk - it really is VERY bumpy!