Hello gallivanters! Thank you for continuously reading my blogs! I am writing about a different kind of travel escapade this time. I have traded away the cities and historic landmarks for hiking and reconnecting to our raw and unspoiled natural environment. This trip was spent in no less than the highest mountain in Wales in the Snowdonia National Park.
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This hiking trip wasn’t my idea. I don’t think I would ever purposely put myself in a difficult position. To give you a background about me, I am not physically active but I walk to work everyday and I consider that my exercise. I have good exercise tolerance in my own opinion. Anyway, this isn’t a solo trip because I was just convinced by my friend to do this. However, now that I have done it, I realised it is actually pretty doable to go solo.
Going to Snowdonia can be a little tricky if you can’t drive the long miles but there is a way to get there. This blog is to show you how I did it from London using public transportation.
As with all my other Blogs, I always present my tabled itinerary with corresponding expenses. The price listed is quoted per person and only reflects the amount at the time of booking. Here it is.
Itinerary:
| Date | Activity | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Train from London Euston to Betws-y-Coed. The price shown is a return ticket | £79.50 |
| Dinner at Betws-y-Coed. Buy foods too. | £20 | |
| Ride S1 Bus to Pen-y-pass YHA | £ 3 | |
| Accommodation: Pen-y-pass YHA. The price is per person for 3 nights | £72 | |
| Day 2 | Breakfast at accommodation (Free) Start the hike from 08:00 am and depending on the route you took and stamina, you can arrive back to your accommodation at 18:00. Bring your own food. | Free |
| Dinner at accommodation | £20 | |
| Day 3 | Bus to Betws-y-Coed Zip World. Bus price for the day travel ticket | £ 6.50 |
| Roam and play in Betws- y- Coed Zip World depending on which adventure you book. Price is for the forest coaster only and booked in advance From 16:00 Ride Bus S1 from the Zip World to Betws-y- Coed Town Center (Use the day travel ticket) | £30 | |
| Dinner at the Town Center Ride bus S1 to Pen-y-Pass YHA accommodation | £20 | |
| Day 4 | Time to go back home to London! Ride Bus S1 from Pen-y-Pass YHA (£3) Train Ride from Betws-y-Coed to London Euston (already paid a return ticket) | |
| TOTAL SPENT is approximately | £ 300 |
As you can see from this itinerary, I allocated 1 day for travelling to and from Snowdonia which means out of the 4 days I was in there, only two days were spent for hiking and exploring. But of course, it is highly dependent on your energy levels and will-power. You can probably compress this into a 2-day trip the least. I will explain more on this as we go through.
London- Betws-y-Coed
Since I live near London, I picked this as the origin destination in my blog. If you live in a different area, just search on Trainline on how you can get from your area to Betws-y-Coed.
Why choose Betws-y-Coed? Although there are other town that gets you access to Mount Snowdon, this little village of Betws-y-Coed has an easier public transportation access to the route we prefer to take when going up Mount Snowdon (Pyg’s Track).
Now, to get to this town, you search for this train route on Trainline/ Trip. There are 1 change, 2 changes or 3 changes option depending on your preferred schedule:
- London Euston- Llandudno Junction (change platform) Llandudno Junction- Betws- y- Coed
- London Euston- Chester (change platform) Chester- Llandudno Junction (change platform) Llandudno Junction- Betws- y- Coed
- London Euston- Crewe (change platform) Crewe- Chester (change platform) Chester- Llandudno Junction (change platform) Llandudno Junction- Betws- y- Coed.
All these routes usually takes 3- 4+ hours travel but less than 5 hours. You can book your time as early as 06:30 am. The fare (£79.50) that I have stated in there is the actual cost at the time of booking and I used a 25-30 railcard. You have to book in advance as these gets sold out quickly. You will pay more if you don’t book in advance and have no railcard or a different one (Network Railcard).
Starting off early
If you plan on only staying there for two days then take the earliest train from 06:30 am and you will get to the town center by 11:00 am. Buses from the town center to Pen-y-pass are scheduled to run every 30 minutes or so but take in considerations the bus delays as well. If you are lucky, you might be able to catch the bus right away. You can climb Snowdon in the afternoon and I hope you are a fast climber so you can do it in just 7 hours up and down the mountain. I’ve met a lot of hikers along the way who did it in under 7 hours. I did the whole trip in 10 hours but this is my first time hiking.
Betws-y-Coed Town to Pen-y-Pass YHA
While you are in town, make sure you have all the essential things that you can’t live without because once you get to Pen-y-Pass, there will only be one shop and restaurant you can find which is the accommodation. The bus stop at Betws-y-Coed is very easy to spot as it is a small town and the bus stop is adequately labeled.
There is only one bus going to and from that place directly and runs every hour. This is bus S1 and you can see the Timetable on this link or you can click on this for real-time journey planner: Traveline Cymru. From this journey planner you can type in LL24 0AG (Betws-y-Coed Railway Station postcode) in the “From” blank space button and LL55 4NY (Pen-y-Pass Youth Hostel postcode) “To” blank space button and choose your date and time and it will give you the directions and time. Alternatively, you can use google maps.The route takes about 25 minutes.
Accommodation
We chose YHA Snowdon Pen-y-Pass (sponsored link) for our accommodation. The place is dedicated for all types of hikers and has a lovely, homey feel. They have dormitory-type rooms for solo travellers and I guess they do get a lot of solo travellers around here. If you are a solo traveller and want a room all to yourself, you can book their twin bedrooms and you pay a few more extra pounds. If there’s a lot of you, They have 4-bed, 5-bed , and 6-bed dormitories which you can rent so you all stay in the same room.
For hiking trips like this, it is recommended that you travel with friends so you save on the accommodation and you have someone to help you if things don’t go as planned. It has a restaurant, bar and shop and I think it is the only establishment in the area as far as I can see. It is also strategically located in that the Miner’s Track and Pyg’s Path of Snowdon begins in front of the hotel. The bus stop is also just a few steps from the hostel entrance which makes it really convenient.
Hiking up to Snowdon Summit (Yr Wyddfa)
The second day is our trekking day. I have researched the paths to take before coming here that is why I have booked a hotel strategically located to the path’s starting point. So there are six paths up to the summit and the hotel I stayed at has a lot of information on their board about it with visual illustrations and highlighted caution.
These are the six pathways:
- Llanberis Path
- Pyg’s Track
- Miner’s Track
- Rhydd Ddu
- Snow Rangers Path
- Watkin’s Path
I won’t be explaining all of these paths in detail as you can find all there is to know on the official Snowdonia Website and here too Snowdonia Info. It is important that you tell someone when and which path you are going so that in case of any unexpected natural events or accidents, someone can alert the authorities. The Llanberis Path is said to be the easiest route and even children can do it. The most difficult route are the bottom 3 on the list. I chose the mid- level difficulty which is the Pyg’s Track.
From the Pen-y-Pass YHA, there are two paths which begins in front of the hotel. You can take the Miner’s Track or the Pyg’s Track from there.
The Pyg’s Track and Miner’s Track
I took the Pyg’s track going up and the Miner’s Track going down. There is a path in the Pyg’s track though that leads you to Crib Goch which is a knife- edge ridge with no escape once you start that path. If you are not yet an experienced hiker/ mountaineer, please avoid that.
The Pyg’s Track and Miner’s track meets at the top before the summit.
For all the travellers who are inexperienced hikers out there, I recommend that you do this hike once in your life. I didn’t regret my decision of taking this expedition. I had so much fear and anxiety before doing the climb because I worried I might get too tired in the middle and would not want to walk anymore and there is no other way but to walk back.
Also, if you prefer, there is a train that goes all the way up to just below the summit if you prefer to ride the train up and just walk back. However, you need to be staying close to the start point of Llanberis Path because that is where the Snowdon Mountain Railway begins. For more information of the train times, just click Snowdon Train Times.
These are just some of the views you get to see along the way. The serene tranquility of the Llyn Teyrn lake and the Llyn Llydaw are along the Miner’s Track gave me the feelings of calmness and connection with nature. There is a pathway crossing the Llyn Llydaw with scenic surroundings perfect for taking photographs. This path is already near the accommodation so not much walking now before I reach Pen-Y-Pass Hostel.
Finishing the trail
We returned to the accommodation at sunset already because I was a slow walker. We all had to walk together. Hey! What are friends for? Anyway, we had dinner together and everyone went straight to bed. I think that was the longest restful sleep I had in months! I better start tiring myself to get that kind of sleep again. You do this trail at least once in your life.
The next day, we had booked ourselves some fun time in Zip World. The bus stop as I said, is just in front of the hostel. You can click on this for real-time journey planner: Traveline Cymru. The destination postcode is LL24 0HX which you can use to put in the journey planner. You’ll see that you have to take Bus S1 towards the village of Betws-y-Coed then take bus 19 towards Zip World which takes a little more than an hour
Zip World
The nearest Zip World that we can get to is the Zip World Betws-y- Coed which is just a 7 minute bus ride from the village when taking Bus 19.
Zip world is an outdoor adventure park for all ages. See what activities you can do there on their official website: Zip World. There are 7 Zip World Locations in Wales offering an array of thrilling adventures. These locations are:
- Zip World Penrhyn Quarry- 5 adventures
- Zip World Betws-y-Coed- 6 adventures
- Zip World Llechwedd- 7 adventures
- Zip World Tower- 4 adventures
- Zip World Windermere- 5 adventures
- Zip World Manchester- 3 adventures
- Zip World Conwy- 5 adventures
I will be talking about the Zip World Betws-y-Coed because that’s where we’ve been. The six adventures are Fforest Coaster, Plummet, Sky Ride, Zip Safari, Treetop Nets, and Tree Hoppers. If you have Go Ape adventures where you live, the last three adventures mentioned are almost similar to that.
Zip World Betws-y-Coed
I have tried the Fforest coaster which is the only alpine coaster in the UK. You can drive on your own or be the passenger. You can control the brakes and speeds can go up to 25mph. Because the toboggan style coaster is really close to the ground, you get an incredible sense of speed. It was really thrilling and enjoyable! Free image grabbed from google
We also tried the Sky Ride which is a 5 seater giant swing and I recommend that you try this with friends. This is Europe’s highest 5-seater swing. It is an absolutely exhilarating experience. One friend has to pull the release string and if you’re friend is a prankster then you’ll surely have the mixture of excitement and growing suspense. The sudden plunge ignites a surge of adrenaline. You can book these adventures from their website and I have attached a screenshot of that website below:
Some of my friends tried the other adventures but I my head was already spinning in circles so I sat at the cafe waiting for them. This is definitely an experience that I will never forget. We ended the day by taking the bus back to the village and back to our accommodation.
The next day was allotted for travel back to London. That was it for our Snowdon Adventure. Please follow me on Facebook to be updated on the next travel article that I will write.