Llandudno & Great Orme Tramway

Date of visit - 19/06/2024

I have long been a fan of the funicular railway. There have been many instances of them around the UK, but unfortunately the sands of time have run out on the vast majority, so it was a bit of big thing for me to see this piece of living history in the flesh, so to speak.

Obviously when we plan a day out, our first thought is how will this fit in with our Little One and his needs. When we are out and about for a long day we always take his buggy with us, it folds up reasonably small, like any tubular buggy, just a bit larger. The tram company are happy to accommodate up to 3 folded buggies at a time, or two folded wheelchairs.

It should be noted, there are 3 quite steep steps onto and off the tram, and some steps at the station entrance at Llandudno, which may make exiting the tram and station difficult. You can however, if you just wish to ride the tram stay on and do the round trip. The summit station at the top of the Great Orme has better wheelchair access if you just want to do the round trip, but still requires self propelled entry to the tram itself.

The access statement clearly spells out some of the difficulties they have, as an historic attraction.

Our Little One loves movement, so we were quite happy that this would be a good thing for him to do. He also loves to feel the wind on his face, which is just as well, as the carriages are all open to the elements, with no glazing in the "windows" - worth bearing in mind if you visit on a damp day, or when cold or windy!

Anyway, as said, he loves the elements, so no concerns there. The only concerns for us were when the tram driver blew the whistle, which was quite a loud shrill noise, which despite his hearing issues, he reacted to. Little One doesn't like unexpected noises, particularly high-pitched ones, so something to bear in mind for travellers with noise sensitive children (adults).

The next thing was the journey length. The ride is around 20 minutes each way, which with the sedate nature of the journey, was probably just about at the top end of his endurance levels. As he doesn't understand timings, it is difficult to get through to him that "we're nearly there" and he did get a big fidgety on both journey's up and down.

I probably should have mentioned it earlier, when talking about accessibility, that you have to alight at the half way station and change to the downward or upward tram - this at least gave our Little One a slight break from the journey and made it easier for him and us to keep him amused for the whole journey - if you watch the above video you can see he had his own kind of fun!

Once we reached sea level we were able to explore Llandudno itself - Little One happily in his buggy made our trip towards the seafront easy.

Over the years we have been to quite a few seaside towns, many with a long lost splendour. Llandudno appears to have been able to hold onto some of it's old charm, without looking too shabby - unless you ignore the Grand Hotel area - which really isn't grand, at all!

Anyway, for our party the walk along the sea front was nice and easy. The tide was out so Little One wasn't drawn towards the water and with a nice, wide promenade it was easy for us all to enjoy the fresh sea air.

With towns like Llandudno you can't help but feel a draw to the past, where these towns developed and grew and their place in history. Llandudno has an interesting Alice in Wonderland trail, with several wooden sculptures dotted around town, some of which can be seen in the above video. This association comes from Lewis Carroll's connection to the family of Alice Liddell, who apparently was the basis for the Alice stories, and who spent a lot of her time in the town.

As we like a themed walk, or Treasure Trail, I had tried to find the themed trail online, but the links all appeared to be broken, although there seemed to be an indication that the local Tourist Information office might be of help!

As previously mentioned, the seafront is wide, flat and generally accessible until you get around the pier area, which was very crowded the day we went. If you move on past the dilapidated Grand Hotel you will have to travel up a quite (very) steep hill towards Happy Valley. There is a small largely sloping green area here, but the current main attraction of this area is that this is where the cable car goes from to the top of the Great Orme. We didn't try this, so can't say what it is like for accessibility, but would note that the service is cash only, so make sure you take some with you, as it's a bit of a trek back downhill to find a cash machine. 

All round we were pleasantly surprised by Llandudno. Much of the town is still in good shape. The pier area is a bit tatty, but the promenade was pleasant and clean, and there was a nice selection of shops in town.

The Tramway was an experience worth doing, if mobility allows, and next time we visit I think we will attempt the cable car too!