Gone to Caernarfon
My memory of Caernarfon is that it's one of the friendliest places I've been to, certainly in the UK. I hope it sticks this time, as it wasn't until I was on my way that I was reminded I had been there before. We had stopped off once, but I didn't recognise anything. We stayed at a little Premier Inn by the waterfront, which wouldn't have been there then. The magnificent castle most definitely was.
From the minute we arrived at the aforementioned PremInn (for which I haven't written a separate post, as it's pretty standard and what you'd expect), we got a sense of the welcome. What I thought was exemplary chain training actually stretched out through the whole town. I got up to go to the loo at Costa and a chap from five metres away said "the toilet is over there, love" or words to that effect.
And that's how our three-night stay continued. We made good use of the very limited Sunday bus service to get to Porthmadog, which I'd really wanted to visit, but perversely it was the opposite of Caernarfon. Hey ho. Bangor, where we changed trains, was more run-down than I expected for a bustling university town, although the university itself is a fantastic building.
We attempted a restaurant in the main Caernarfon town centre, but they were too popular to accommodate us, so we ended up eating at the restaurants surrounding our hotel on all three evenings, none of which were worth writing home about. Pricey but convenient.
I loved stopping off at Ceirios Coffee on our way to the thriving hotspot that is Betws-y-Coed (I love the names), where we found Iechyd Da Deli, packed with Welsh produce. Another memory is the local bookshop, Palas Print, I made a beeline for, where I bought a book by a Welsh author that I read on the train to Scotland a few weeks later.
Overall, I loved the exceptionally windy walk along the beach, the striking lighthouse, and the fact that this little coastal town had everything you needed, with a magnificent castle to remind you where you are.
March 2026
