8 Great Spots for Campervans in North Wales

You’ve bought yourself a new or second hand campervan – from your favourite campervan dealer Spinney, of course – and you’ve had a little spell of testing it out, perhaps with a couple of quick weekend trips to a spot quite near where you live. Now it’s time to start using it properly, and venture further afield for longer. The plan is: Find some amazing places to visit in a particular area of the UK and thoroughly explore and enjoy. That means, yes, the obvious destinations – but also some off-the-beaten track quirks and lesser-known wonders. From then on, it’s rinse and repeat each time you take a break, focusing on a different area and digging in to what it has to offer.

Where to begin, though? Somewhere equally beautiful and interesting, that can keep you occupied for as long as you stay. How about North Wales? In this edition of our blog we’ll suggest eight great things you can do or places you can visit…

8 Great Spots for Campervans

1. Snowdonia

You might already have heard of this truly majestic part of Wales. It’s a mountainous national park region of approximately 800 square miles with around 40 miles of coast (designated a special area of conservation), so there’s plenty of it for owners of second hand campervans to explore. You could start with Mount Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales (3,560 feet above sea level). Each year it’s visited by over half a million walkers and, while we’re not suggesting making your way to its summit, it’s well worth seeing with your own eyes as you tick off your list of all of the impressive natural beauty to see in the area. If you do ‘go up’, however, you’ll be rewarded with a visitor centre and a café! The rest of Snowdonia has much to offer, too, including the Welsh Highland Railway.

2. Blaenau Ffestiniog

This historic mining town in the north west of Wales was once the ‘slate capital of the world’, though now relies on tourism, drawing visitors to the Ffestiniog Railway and the multi award-winning Llechwedd Slate Caverns. This former slate mine is well worth a visit as it vividly details the history of quarrying in the town. There is a tour so you can visit a cavern 500 feet into the earth on the UK’s steepest narrow gauge railway , or take part in activities such as zip lining, mountain biking or Bounce Below (the world’s largest underground trampoline).

3. Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

Fans of architecture will gain much from visiting this enormous and impressive feat of civil engineering. It’s the longest aqueduct in Britain at 1,007 feet, and it carries the Llangollen Canal across the River Dee. Pontcysyllte is 12 feet wide with a footpath running alongside the watercourse – but don’t walk along it if you can’t stand heights! The aqueduct is the highest canal aqueduct in the world, standing at 126 feet above ground! If you do walk it, though, you will be rewarded with some absolutely stunning views of the Vale of Llangollen.

4. Llandudno

One of the most popular resorts in the north of Wales, Llandudno is something of a seaside gem. The town is sited at the foot of the Great Orme, a limestone mountain. Quirky fact, here, for quirky fact lovers: the Great Orme is home to a large herd of Kashmiri goats descended from a pair gifted to Queen Victoria in the 19th century! On Llandudno’s north shore lies a beautiful promenade and pier, and Happy Valley – a large, landscaped area developed as gardens, two miniature golf courses, a putting green, a popular open-air theatre and extensive lawns. Llandudno was also the birthplace of former top-class footballer Neville Southall, now a social activist and campaigner, who has been granted freedom of the town…

5. Cardigan Bay

Cardigan Bay is a hotspot for bottlenose dolphins, which regularly visit New Quay harbour throughout the year (most often from April through until November). Seeing these beautiful creatures frolic is one of life’s true joys, and this is known as Europe’s very best spot for it. The Marine Wildlife Centre itself was originally established in the mid-1990s as a non-profit organisation dedicated to conserving marine wildlife through education and research. A heritage building and visitors centre overlooks the beautiful beach and harbour, and has become the focus for marine research in the area. It relies entirely on donations to continue, so if you do decide to spend some time there it’s a worthwhile thing to do to give some cash to keep the centre open and the work going.

6. Penrhyn Castle

This imposing castle, on the Menai Strait, is perfect for art lovers and history buffs. It’s filled with luxurious interiors and an excellent collection of fine art – but it also has socio-political importance too. An exhibition details the colonial history of North Wales, contextualising the development of the region in the Victorian era with the global story of slavery. The Pennant family, owners of the castle in the 18th century, derived their fortune from the hard work of slaves on their sugar plantations in Jamaica. Though they invested much of their money into North Wales, setting up communities and providing work, the moral question remains. Penrhyn may help you find your own answers.

7. Wrexham AFC

If a day in a city is required, then North Wales offers Wrexham as a great destination – and the football club is one of its current biggest draws. In common with many football clubs which face a weekly struggle to survive outside of the land of milk and honey known as the Premier League, Wrexham was in dire straits just a few years ago. Then, as if playing out some strange surrealist fantasy, Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took over. They have invested big, and the rise of the club from its ashes has been well documented in a truly charming fly on the wall TV series. Obviously you should check the club’s fixture list first, to make sure it chimes with your plans, but going to a match at the club’s Racecourse Ground is a worthy and most often entertaining way to spend some time. You will feel real optimism and a great atmosphere, and probably come away as a fan! The rest of this historic city is not bad either, well worth a Welsh wander!

8. Portmeirion

We just mentioned TV – and Portmeirion will need little introduction to fans of cult 1960s sci-fi. It was used as the location for the popular series The Prisoner, with a man trapped in a dystopian nightmare from which there was no escape. The town was also used as a location for a few episodes of another sci-fi series in the 1970s – Doctor Who – and in the promotional video for Alright, a huge hit single in the 1990s by the band Supergrass. The town is relatively new – designed and built by Welsh architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975. His motivation was to pay tribute to the Mediterranean, so the twist is that Portmeirion is entirely in the style of an Italian village. Despite the fact that it’s ‘new’, it has become well-established as one of the top tourist draws in North Wales.

Campervans at Spinney

That’s it! That’s our ‘Great Eight’ for you to explore when you go to North Wales. As a camper dealer which always likes to offer more to our customers, we’re happy to have offered these tips and hope you’ll report back to us with stories of how much you have enjoyed yourselves. Whether you’re driving new or second hand campers, it doesn’t really matter. Getting out there and having fun is the thing – and North Wales is just the place to start!