Boutique Tours of North Wales

With visions of driving around Mt. Snowdon seeking photo ops, my wife, Muriel, and I had long wanted to go to Wales, especially North Wales and Snowdonia National Park. We finally took our trip May 2-24, 2014. 

After flying into London’s Heathrow Airport, we took a private tour to South Wales, then stayed for a week in a rented cottage, where I soon realized it was quite difficult to get to the areas of my main concern. 

Our landlady suggested a local man who ran Boutique Tours of North Wales (22 Ellis Way, Conwy, Conwy Co. Borough, No. Wales, LL32 8GU, U.K.; phone 0044 [0] 750 020 9464, www.boutiquetours.co.uk).

John Hadwin turned out to be a fantastic choice. He knew virtually every nook and cranny of North Wales, and in his comfortable Mercedes-Benz Viano he took us to places we never would have found if we had driven ourselves.

He knew locations that had clear views of Mt. Snowdon with no other people around, so I could spend time there with my camera. He took us on roads I would not have dared to go, with the car brushing the hedgerows on each side, leading us to interesting places with lovely views.

We stopped at an ice cream shop that had (as a sign proudly stated) the best ice cream in Wales and at the “Ugly house” (correctly named!), with the best scones in Wales, where John was well known.

John is most knowledgeable about the history, legends and fables of North Wales and kept us interested in what had happened there in the past.

Our first day tour took about eight hours in the best sunny weather of the whole trip. 

For our second tour, we planned to ride the train to the top of Mt. Snowdon, but there were heavy clouds and rain, with zero visibility from the top, so John booked us onto the Welsh Highland Railway, which travels along the slopes of Mt. Snowdon past dramatic and spectacular scenery.

The cost for a one-way first-class ticket from Caernarfon to Porthmadog was £38 (near $58). However, since the first part of the trip is not so interesting, John drove us to the second stop at Waunfawr, from which we took the train to Porthmadog, giving us a lower-cost and more scenic ride. 

John drove to and met us in Porthmadog and we continued the tour. This ability to make rapid and well-chosen adaptations to the original schedule was one of John’s strong points. 

Another example — we were heading into Porthmadog and found heavy traffic, so he just wheeled us onto a tiny road, which we had to ourselves for several miles, to a tiny medieval inn, Ty Mawr Wybrnant (Penmachno, Betws-y-Coed; phone 01690 760213, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ty-mawr-wybrnant), with a jovial and knowledgeable innkeeper.

The second day’s tour also took over eight hours. For that evening, John had arranged for us to attend the performance of a male choir in Llandudno, though we had to forgo that due to a slight medical problem.

The price of each tour was £300 ($459). We found this to be a comfortable, stress-free way to see the best of North Wales in the company of an expert driver and interesting guide.

IAN ROSS

Santa Barbara, CA