Conwy, Wales - April 15th to 16th and May 18th to 19th, 2025
We planned our stop in Conwy, Wales, mainly as a staging point for taking the ferry over to Dublin. We spent two nights in Conwy on our way to Dublin, and two more nights in Conwy on our way back from Dublin. This post covers both of those visits to Conwy.
Tuesday was a travel day, from Moreton-in-Marsh in England to Conwy in Wales. It was a lesson in traveling by train. It took five trains with four different rail companies to get there, with transfers at Worcestershire Parkway, Birmingham New Street, Crewe, and Chester.
The first one was on a Great Western Railway train, departing Moreton at 10:19 am and arriving at Worcestershire Parkway at 10:51 am. We had reserved seats and like all the other GWR trains we had taken so far, it was very comfortable.
However, as we were approaching Worcestershire Parkway, there was an announcement that one of the connecting trains at Worcestershire Parkway was cancelled and people should stay on the GWR train. Wait! Was that our connecting train? And stay on until when? Then what? We didn’t see any staff members to ask and we only had a couple of minutes to make a decision, so we got off the train.
We walked over to the ticket window at the Worcestershire Parkway to ask about the trains. Yes, our train scheduled for 11:14 am to Birmingham New Street was extremely delayed, but there was a train leaving in five minutes that would get us to Birmingham New Street earlier. So we hustled over to Platform 2 and hopped on.
The second train was a Cross Country train, both the one we actually got on and the one we had booked. The difference was that we had reserved seats on the original train, but, because so many extra people were on the train, we stood the whole way to Birmingham New Street, about a 25 minute ride. We probably could have applied for compensation, but we didn’t bother trying.
So we arrived at Birmingham New Street ahead of our scheduled time. We had to go up the stairs and over several platforms to get to the platform for our next train, but we had plenty of time. Birmingham New Street is a large, busy train station. They have multiple trains per track, so the platforms are divided up into sections identified by a letter. We had been to the station before, on our way to Moreton, but this time the station didn’t seem quite as busy and chaotic. Perhaps we were there at a bad time of day before.
When we reached Platform 2B, there was already a train going to the same destination as our scheduled train, just a half hour earlier. We debated about hopping on, but decided to wait for our scheduled train. Most of the train tickets we purchased in England were Advanced Single tickets, which are for particular trains. So we weren’t sure if we were allowed to board the earlier train with our ticket. However, we should have checked our tickets, because we later looked at it and this one happened to be an Anytime ticket, which means we could have taken any train on our route for that day.
While we sat on the platform, waiting for our train, we pulled out a couple of energy bars to try. We bought them in Bourton-on-the-Water before our hike in case we couldn’t find a place to stop for lunch. One bar was called Grenade, the white chocolate, salted peanut flavor. Grenade is a high protein, low sugar bar. It was pretty tasty. The other one was Jack’s Buttery Flapjack, a Tesco brand. It was mostly oats and a little crumbly, but had a nice flavor. Keith preferred the Grenade. Ann didn’t really have a preference.
The third train was with West Midlands Trains, departing Birmingham New Street at 12:04 pm and arriving in Crewe at 1 pm. The train was comfortable and not crowded, so it was a pleasant ride.
In Crewe, we transferred to a Transport for Wales train. Now we felt like we were entering a foreign country. Everything on the train was in both Welsh and English, both the electronic signs and the verbal announcements. Ann had studied Welsh just a little bit on Duolingo, so she was trying to figure out some of the words, but not very successfully. It was a 21 minute ride to Chester (Caer in Welsh).
In Chester, we had 9 minutes to transfer to our last train for the day, another Transport for Wales, which was plenty of time. It was about an hour ride to reach our final destination, Llandudno Junction (Cyffordd Llanduno). From the train, we could see the Irish Sea for most of the ride. There was a large windmill farm offshore.
We made it to our destination right on time, around 2:45 pm, despite the hiccup between Worcestershire Parkway and Birmingham New Street. When we arrived at Llandudno Junction, there was a light drizzle of rain. Fortunately, our hotel, the Old Station Hotel, was just across the street from the train station.
Since it was cold and raining outside, we decided to hang out in our room until dinner. We made reservations in the hotel restaurant for 6 pm.
Like most of the hotels we’ve stayed in so far, it is in an old building, with unlevel floors, doors that stick, and stairs that creak. But the room was spacious with high ceilings and all the necessary comforts. Like many of the other rooms so far, there was a heated towel bar. We had to figure out how to turn it on, not because we are spoiled with having warm towels, but because it helps us dry our hand wash faster, especially our thick hiking socks.
We’ve noticed that none of the hotels so far have had microwaves or refrigerators, except for the B&B in Bourton-on-the-Water, which had a small fridge. However, they all have electric tea kettles along with tea and instant coffee. There is usually some packaged treats like biscuits (cookies).
By 6 pm, the hotel restaurant and pub was hopping. Dinner was wonderful. Keith had the Gammon steak while Ann had the curry of the day. The curry that day was chicken with a nice, spicy curry along with a mango chutney. The restaurant had a 2-4-1 deal going on, where you get the second meal (the cheaper of the two) for free. That made for a very inexpensive meal for us. We don’t know how long they are offering that and not sure how they are making any money. Perhaps they’re making up for it with drinks. We felt a little guilty because we just had water. Keith was still trying to get over his cold and didn’t feel like having a beer. Ann had a slight sore throat, either due to fighting the same cold or spring allergies, so she followed suit and stayed away from coating her throat with sugar.
Wednesday morning, we headed downstairs for breakfast at 8 am. Breakfast was served from 8 to 9 am. There seemed to only be one other person staying in the hotel, or at least having breakfast. There was a small buffet with cereal, orange juice, and condiments. There was no breakfast menu. A waiter came over and asked what we wanted for breakfast. We assumed that anything in a full English breakfast was fair game. From our experiences so far, we knew a full English breakfast consisted of eggs, bacon (English), sausage, baked beans, black pudding, a grilled tomato, mushrooms, and toast. So Ann ordered two fried eggs with bacon while Keith ordered toast. The waiter didn’t ask whether Keith wanted white or brown bread, as had been customary since we’ve been in England, but he brought out three slices (cut in half) of three different types of bread. Keith split the toast with Ann. We both had butter and black current jam on our toast, as black current has become our favorite type of jam.
It was a cool and rainy day, but we ventured out around 10 am. It rained off and on, but mainly just a drizzle, so it wasn’t too bad. We walked over the Conwy Bridge to Conwy and explored the town. The Conwy Castle dominated the view as we crossed over the bridge. The castle are the remains of a medieval fortress, dating back about 700 years. You can pay to explore it, but we decided to save that for when we return to Conwy after visiting Ireland.
Then we turned and walked along the quayside. Conwy sits on the banks of the River Conwy, not far from where it empties into the Irish Sea. In addition to pleasure boats and sightseeing boats, there were working fishing boats. Crab pots lined port. There was a variety of different crab pots, so we not sure if they all were for crab or for catching some different types of seafood.
Also along the quayside is Britain’s Smallest House. There is a small fee to take a peek inside, but we decided to leave that for our next Conwy visit as well.
Later that day, we saw children lined up along the water’s edge, dropping their lines down into the water to pull up crabs. There were some who had caught several of them, dropping them into their waiting buckets of water next to them.
There is an old town wall that encircles the medieval downtown area. The walls are among the most complete in Europe. The walls are 3/4 of a mile long, with 21 towers and three original gateways. After reaching the far end of the quay, we walked along the outside of the walls. Then we noticed that we could climb up and walk along the top of the walls, so up we went. There were a couple of breaks where we had to come down to street level, then a section of the wall was closed for some conservation work, so we didn’t quite complete the full loop.
We explored the streets inside the wall for a little bit before going inside M & J Cafe for lunch. It was a cute, little place. Keith had one of the specials for the day, goulash with mashed potatoes, while Ann tried the Welsh rarebit. Rarebit is basically a fancy melted cheese on toast, but it was very tasty. Ann likes her melted cheese.
After lunch, we made our way back to the hotel. On the way, we walked over the Conwy Suspension Bridge. The bridge is one of the first road suspension bridges in the world, built from 1822 to 1826. It no longer allows cars across the bridge, only pedestrians.
For dinner, we ate again at the hotel. This time, Ann had one of the chef’s specials, the lamb moussaka while Keith had the courgette (zucchini), mushroom, and pepper stroganoff. Again, our meals were tasty.
On Thursday, April 17th, we traveled over to Ireland. We spent about a month in Ireland, then returned to Conwy, Wales on our way back from Ireland, on Sunday, May 18th. Our following posts will cover our time in Ireland. This post picks back up as we left Dublin to return to Wales.
Sunday was a travel day from Dublin in Ireland, to Conwy in Wales. Our day started early. We had an early ferry from Dublin to Holyhead, Wales we needed to catch. After our experience with Uber when we arrived in Dublin the month before, we were a little nervous about our taxi ride to the ferry port. Before, we waited for an Uber to arrive to pick us up for over 20 minutes before cancelling it, when a different taxi showed up at the port. From what we have seen in Dublin, Uber does not use private cars, but only taxis. We’ve noticed that many taxis are labeled with Uber or another service called Free Now. We decided to give Free Now a shot. It was pretty easy to download the app and set it up. So the day before, we pre-ordered a taxi ride to the ferry port from our townhouse for 6:15 am.
We got up at 5:30 am to get ready to go. When we woke up, we checked the Free Now app. They had already assigned us a driver. Good. When we looked out the window, just after 6 am, our taxi was already sitting out front waiting for us. Thank goodness! We really didn’t have a backup plan if the taxi didn’t show up. It was only a 15 minute drive to the port, but about an hour and a half walk or over an hour via public transportation. We needed to check in for the ferry before 7:15 am.
So we were happy to arrive at the port around 6:30 am, with plenty of time to catch our ferry. Irish Ferries was already checking in passengers for our 7:45 am departure ferry. It was a pretty easy check-in. They just checked our booking number and gave us tags for our checked luggage before hauling them away. We only sat in the waiting room for about 15 minutes or so before they let us board the ship. Unlike in Holyhead, where we had to board a shuttle bus over to the ferry, this time we were able to walk across a walkway bridge right onto the ship, similar to an airplane.
We bought our breakfast at the Boylan Brasserie onboard and were sitting down to eat before the ship even left the port. The ship we were on was the Ulysses. It was larger and slower than the Dublin Swift boat that we took from Holyhead to Dublin. The Ulysses takes three and a half hours to cross over to Holyhead instead of just over two hours like the Dublin Swift.
The Ulysses felt more like a cruise ship, with several decks of comfortable seating and cabins. In addition, there was a duty-free shop, a movie theater, a bar, a brasserie (restaurant), and a cafe. We’re not sure why you would book a cabin for a three and a half hour ride, but we did see a motorcycle rider check out of a cabin when we arrived in Holyhead.
Customs at the terminal was pretty simple. All we had to do was show our passport. We’re guessing they already verified our ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization) for entering the United Kingdom through the passport information we provided Irish Ferries when booking our ticket.
When we arrived in Holyhead, we had several hours to wait for a train to Conwy. It was after 11:30 am by the time we were shuttled back to the Holyhead port terminal, picked up our luggage, and went through customs. The foot passengers are always the last ones off the ferry, as they let the vehicles off first. Originally, Ann picked the 15:30 train to Llandudno Junction, but we had Anytime Day Single tickets, which meant we could take any train for the same route that same day. There was one leaving slightly earlier, at 14:29, so we decided to take that one.
We still had a few hours to kill. We could have walked over to the city center of Holyhead, but then we would have needed to find a place to store our luggage. Other than the interesting bridge to walk over to the city center, it didn’t look that interesting. So we opted to hang out in the ferry terminal building.
There was a convenience store with food, so we bought ourselves lunch. Keith got the cajun chicken pasta salad while Ann opted for the sweet potato falafel salad. We paired our salads with potato chips and drinks. They weren’t bad for a prepackaged meal. Thankfully the chairs were comfortable. After we finished eating, we pulled out our laptop and iPad to occupy ourselves until it was time to board the train. The train platform was right outside the ferry terminal building.
We arrived at the Llandudno Junction train station by 15:30 (3:30 pm). The Old Station Hotel, where we were spending the next two nights, was right across the street from the train station. We checked into our room, the same room we had the last time.
After dropping off our bags, we went downstairs to the pub and ordered a couple of soft drinks so we could sit outside to enjoy the warm sunshine. Ann got a Fentimans ginger beer, but Keith tried Fentimans Dandelion & Burdock. It had an interesting flavor. He said he wouldn’t order it again, but Ann thought she might.
Once our drinks were finished, we went for a walk. We headed about a half a mile east on Conwy Road. There were a few restaurants along the road that we decided we would try the following night. We already made dinner reservations at the Old Station Hotel for later that evening.
For dinner back at the hotel, Ann ordered the lamb moussaka while Keith had the pork steak. Moussaka is a Greek dish with layers of ground lamb with tomato sauce, potatoes, and aubergine (eggplant), topped with a béchamel sauce and baked. Our meals were tasty and very filling. We probably didn’t need to eat that much, but we finished our meals anyway. Needless to say we didn’t have any room for dessert.
Monday, we toured Conwy Castle. We thought our National Trust membership would get us in for free, but only English Heritage members were allowed free admission. The difference between National Trust and English Heritage is very confusing. Stonehenge and Old Sarum is part of English Heritage, but the Stonehenge Landscape near Stonehenge is a National Trust site. Conwy Castle is English Heritage, but the Conwy Suspension Bridge, just outside the castle is a National Trust site. Note, there is no admission fee for those two National Trust sites. So far, we’ve only used our National Trust membership to get into Hidcote (Moreton-in-Marsh, England - April 9th, and 14th, 2025) and Snowshill Manor for just one of us (Broadway, England - April 10th to 11th, 2025) in the Cotswolds. It will take another two and a half admissions to break even. We’re not sure we’re going to get there.
So we paid our admission to Conwy Castle. The castle was built between 1283 and 1287 AD. It is in ruins, but most of the walls and towers still stand. We spent about an hour wandering around all the little nooks and crannies.
We climbed up all the towers that were accessible, six of the eight towers. The concrete spiral stairs up to the tops were narrow, usually with a rope in the center to hang onto. A pigeon decided to nest on one of the steps. You would think it would pick a less trafficked spot.
In addition to the towers, you can walk around the whole castle up on top of the wall. The views of the surrounding area from both the towers and the wall are wonderful. If you’d rather not climb so many stairs, you can stay on the ground floor, going through each of the rooms, which no longer have roofs, and imagine what life was like there.
After getting a workout inside the castle, we walked over to the Jester’s Tower for lunch. Jester’s Tower is a little coffee shop located inside one of the city wall’s towers. We ordered the reuben and Cuban sandwiches along with flavored iced teas, lemon and blackberry. The sandwiches were pretty decent.
After lunch, we decided to go back and relax at the hotel. We were still a little tired from getting up so early the day before. For dinner, we walked up Conwy Road to Enochs Fish & Chips. Ann ordered the haddock fish & chips while Keith had haddock, but the En Papilote. En Papilote is a French style of cooking. The fish is wrapped in parchment paper with a sauce and baked. Keith chose the chili, lime, and coriander sauce. If he got it again, he thinks he would have chosen the lemon sauce. Neither one of us wanted peas as a side, so we opted for the baked beans. Enochs provides free refills on the chips (fries), but we were so full that we could barely finish the first serving of chips. All the food was quite tasty.
Upon returning to the hotel, we went down to the pub and ordered drinks. Ann tried the Wild Berries cider from Rekorderlig in Sweden. She seems to prefer the berry or cherry flavored ciders over just apple ciders. Keith doesn’t remember what type of ale he ordered, but he enjoyed it all the same.
Even though Conwy was just a staging stop, it turned out to be a nice little place to visit. A port, a castle, a medieval wall, a cute old town area, and good food. It was definitely worth a stop, even if you’re not taking a ferry.
Check out our related video: Conwy, Wales
(Ann)