Packages and Tours

Travel through Snowdonia in a Panoramic Pullman Observation Carriage taking in the flora and fauna of the area whilst being pulled by a Steam Locomotive. Visit Plas Brondanw former family home of architect Sir Clough Williams Ellis (creator of Portmeirion) for an informal guided tour of the garden, followed by a Champagne lunch at Portmeirion Hotel.

Travel on a luxury coach to the historic town of Caernarfon with its famous 13th Castle, built during the reign of King Edward 1st and setting of the Investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales in 1969. Board the Welsh Highland Railway the most powerful 2 foot gauge Steam Locomotive in the world and journey through the heart of Snowdonia aboard the opulent First Class Pullman Observation Carriage to the picturesque village of Beddgelert winner of many Wales, Britain and Europe “In Bloom” Awards.

Journey to Plas Brondanw, the former family home of architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis (1883-1978), creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion made famous by the cult TV series ‘The Prisoner’set in the 1960’s. A private informal tour of the garden will include Italian cypress which divide the garden into a series of rooms.

Head to Portmeirion where you will be met by your host Robin Llewellyn, grandson of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis for a Champagne reception accompanied by a Welsh harpist followed by lunch. Vist the selection of craft shops which range from Portmeirion Pottery established by Susan Williams Ellis in 1960 (daughter of Sir Clough Williams Ellis) to the Welsh Pot Jam shop! Before departure enjoy a guided tour of the woodland gardens overlooking the Dwyryd River Estuary with Arwel Hughes, Head Gardener for over 30 years.

Enjoy a nostalgic tour and memory evoking journey in a 1950’s Luxury Vintage Coach calling at Plas Cadnant – a private Georgian estate set in 200 acres of peaceful parkland overlooking the Menai Strait which divides the Isle of Anglesey from mainland Wales. Lunch at Plas Newydd Historic House, home of the Marquess of Anglesey and built during the 18th century. Browse around Crûg Farm Nursery an unrivalled cornucopia of exotic plants from across many continents.

Travel in style to Plas Cadnant, a private Georgian Manor House set in 200 acres of rolling parkland overlooking the Menai Strait and the Mountains of Snowdonia. Welsh fare will be served in the dining room followed by a guided tour of the lovingly restored historic garden by its owner Anthony Tavernor.

An exclusive visit to Plas Newydd Historic House and Gardens built by the renowned architect James Wyatt in the 18th century and home to the Marquess of Anglesey calling at the on-site National Trust shop. A champagne lunch will be served in the magnificent music room accompanied by traditional Welsh harp music. Followed by a connoisseur tour of the house and garden based on a Henry Repton design on the banks of the Menai Strait.

From Plas Newydd over the Menai Strait to Felinheli for a short journey to Crûg Farm Nursery to be greeted by the owners Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones. The couple regularly travel to exotic countries such as Sri Lanka, Laos, Vietnam, Columbia and Korea searching for rare and unusual plants and are understood to be the only people outside the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, to hold a permanent collecting licence.

Morning: The day will start with a self-guided audio-visual tour through the old workings of Sygun Copper Mine. Witness winding tunnels and large, colourful chambers with magnificent stalactite and stalagmite formations. You are provided with a rare opportunity to explore tunnels abandoned in 1903. Above ground you’ll find the Museum of Antiquities, Coins and Fossils. Alternatively try your hand at Panning for Gold or Pottery Painting. For those of a more active disposition there’s Archery and for the youngsters a Bouncy Castle and Adventure Playground. Young and old will enjoy the spectacular view offered when on one of the various Lake Side Walks. Sygun has been named Winner of the Prince of Wales Award for Tourism.

From here, there’s time to take a stroll in the centre of Beddgelert village, which – with its cafés, shops and riverside walks – provides the perfect reason to stay and explore. Listen enthralled as your guide tells the tale of Gelert, the most faithful dog in Welsh history!

Afternoon: Experience what it took to roof the world during an afternoon at Llechwedd Slate Mines. Not an average museum, it is set in 2000 acres of land above the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. Llechwedd is a living, working slate mine that has been active since opening in 1836. There are two exciting and unique underground mine tours, the Deep Mine Tour and Miners’ Tramway Tour, that take you deep into the mountain to explore the mysterious world of the Victorian slate miner. Believe it or not, the temperature in the mines is about 54F throughout the year making the caverns ideal come rain or shine.

Above ground there’s the Victorian village to explore, Pentre Llechwedd. There’s Greenway and Greaves Bank where you can change money for a unique old currency with ha’pennies and farthings that are accepted in the village. You can spend them at the Miners’ Arms, a cosy fully licensed village pub, Ffestin’s Victorian Sweet Shop, buy preserves and pickles in Angharad Ellis’ Shop, or purchase a potion in the Chemist Shop.

At Llechwedd top quality ‘Greaves Porthmadoc Slate’ is still being mined, and gifts fashioned from this incredibly durable and fascinating material are available to purchase.

*Morning: *Spend the morning at Llechwedd Slate Caverns. Not an average museum, it is set in 2000 acres of land above the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. Llechwedd is a living, working slate mine that has been active since opening in 1836. There are two unique underground mine tours, the Deep Mine Tour and Miners’ Tramway Tour, that take you deep into the mountain to explore the mysterious world of the Victorian slate miner.

At Llechwedd top quality ‘Greaves Portmadoc Slate’ is still being mined, and gifts fashioned from this incredibly durable and fascinating material are available to purchase.

Lunch: Lunch will be a light bite in the Hard Rock Café and then the opportunity to take a self guided tour of Inigo Jones slateworks and discover more about the secret of Welsh slate. Try your hand at calligraphy – engrave a piece of slate to keep as a souvenir. In the well stocked and highly appealing showroom there will be the opportunity to purchase high quality slate, Celtic and Welsh craft items.

Afternoon: At the National Slate Museum get a fascinating glimpse into the history of slate quarrying – the most Welsh of Welsh industries. The tour starts with an evocative and moving introductory film which depicts the harsh conditions experienced by the slate quarry workers but also outlines the real sense of community created by the formation of the industry in the surrounding villages and towns. There are live slate-splitting demonstrations, carpenter’s tour and blacksmith demonstration where you can witness Welsh dragons being created! See the quarrymen’s houses depicting different eras of the history of the quarry. Children’s play area, gift shop full of handcrafted gifts and café.

The train lets off steam so you don’t have to. Take control of a historic steam locomotive for yourself followed by a well-deserved gourmet lunch at Portmeirion.

10:30am – Arrive at the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway. You will don individually monogrammed boiler suits and caps for a driver experience you will never forget. Join the driver and fireman as they finish preparations for the day’s steaming. The vintage locomotive is yours for the morning as you learn some of the engineer’s skills, including how to keep a constant white-hot fire, as well as how to cook bacon to perfection on the coal shovel.

Then the magical moment. The whistle echoes off the distant mountains as you crack open the regulator, and feel the steam locomotive come alive as it creeps forward under its own power. Try a few trips “light engine” without the carriages first, then test your new driving skills by shunting some wagons.
Finally, you couple up to the vintage passenger carriages for a return trip up and down the WHHR’s short branch line.

12:30am – Head to Portmeirion for a champagne reception and locally sourced gourmet lunch in the company of the village’s owner, Robin Llywelyn. Portmeirion, made famous by the iconic Prisoner television series in the 1960s, is a fantastical Italianate folly taking full advantage of its breathtaking location on the estuary.

2:30 – After lunch stroll around Portmeirion before heading back to your hotel.

Wales is famed for its natural beauty and resources which helped to drive the industrial revolution. There’s none more awe inspiring than Mount Snowdon and Portmeirion…

9:30am – Land at the National Slate Museum in Llanberis. This museum is a living celebration of this most Welsh of Welsh industries. You can still see the blacksmith at work and slate being split. You can watch the only working incline in the UK carry wagons up and down the quarry face. The Museum is like Doctor Who’s TARDIS – a big time machine. You will believe the workmen only just downed their tools. Your personal guide, a former slate worker, will also show you the largest working water wheel in mainland Britain at more than 15 metres wide.

11:00am – Your next journey takes you to the highest summit of England and Wales – Mount Snowdon. But don’t worry it will be a relaxing 1 hour journey on a unique rack and pinion railway allowing you to take in the spectacular views of the Snowdonia National Park. At the top there’s 30 mins for a short walk to the very summit and refreshments in the recently opened Hafod Eryri Visitor Centre before your train journey back down to earth!

12:30pm – Next you head to Portmeirion by helicopter for a champagne reception and locally sourced gourmet lunch in the company of the village’s owner, Robin Llywelyn. Portmeirion, made famous by the iconic Prisoner television series in the 1960s, is a fantastical Italianate folly taking full advantage of its breathtaking estuary location.

2:30pm – Take a stroll around Portmeirion before your tour ends

This half-day tour will whisk you through the centuries from pre-history to medieval times, ending your trip at Portmeirion, a wondrous 20th century folly.

9:00am – Head for Tre’r Ceiri, dubbed the Machu Picchu of Wales. If you only visit one Iron Age site in Wales, it should be the spectacular hillfort of Tre’r Ceiri, meaning ‘Town of the Giants’. Often said to be the most impressive hillfort in north Wales, there are significant stone ramparts surrounding its entire circuit, and in places still standing to over 3m in height.

11:00am – Head for World Heritage Site the brooding Harlech Castle. As if its spectacular situation, foreboding might, and great power were not sufficient to ensure the fame of this magnificent castle, Harlech is also inseparably linked in Welsh myth with the tragic heroine of Branwen, the daughter of Llyr, of the Mabinogion. Mythology aside, it is small wonder that this is one of the most familiar strongholds in Britain

12:00pm – Travel on to Portmeirion for a special lunch. You will be met by its owner Robin Llywelyn who will join you for a champagne, local, gourmet three-course lunch with some of the finest estuary views in Wales at your disposal. Portmeirion was designed by the visionary Sir Clough Williams-Ellis to show how a naturally beautiful site could be developed without spoiling it. It took him 50 years but in the process he created a ‘home for fallen buildings’ as wrecks of all architectural styles from Britain and abroad were rescued, dismantled and rebuilt.

2:30pm – End your tour with a stroll around portmeirion.

Travelling east along the North Welsh coast from Anglesey we soon enter the county of Conwy where we will be greeted by the aroma of freshly baked speciality breads at artisan baker Becws Alun in Penmaenmawr. On to a different use for yeast and we will visit two thriving micro breweries just outside the medieval town of Conwy.

Moving from the oil exploration industry, Gwynne Thomas turned his technical scientific skills to brewing beer at Conwy Brewery, and, just across the River Conwy, Great Orme Brewery, run by Jonathan Hughes was established in 2005. After lunch in the four star Castle Hotel’s Dawsons Restaurant, base of the Welsh Culinary Team, there will be time for a stroll around Conwy’s ancient walled town, taking in views of its magnificent thirteenth century castle. Whilst in the town we will visit the famous Edward’s of Conwy butcher’s shop, home of award winning Traditional Welsh Sausage Company.

Experience the best of Anglesey’s cheese and winemaking tradition with a trip around the hidden corners of this gem of North Wales. Harry Dean’s Ty Croes Vineyard in the island’s south west produces fine red and white Welsh wines whilst, just round the corner, Huw and Margaret Davies produce their acclaimed Gorau Glas soft blue veined cheese and their camembert style Saintes Dwynwen, named after Wales’ equivalent of St Valentine. Option: Lunch in Beaumaris, overlooking the Lavan Sands and the Snowdonia Massif, in the contemporary restaurant and brasserie at Ye Olde Bulls Head Inn, a coaching inn remodelled during the Georgian period and whose guests included Charles Dickens. Afterwards travel back up the island’s east coast with distant views of Llandudno and its Great Orme visiting makers of camembert style and goats cheeses** en route.

Anglesey’s south west corner, facing both Caernarfon Bay and the narrow Menai Strait separating the island from the Welsh mainland, has become a hub of specialist food producers. At Popty’r Bryn Nerys Roberts makes Bara Brith (Welsh ‘speckled bread’ fruit cake), Anglesey shortbread and her family’s treacle toffee; there may even be a chance to try your hand at one of these. Close by the aroma of sweet confectionery drifts out of the chocolate workshop at Anglesey Farmhouse Chocolates, overlooking the Menai Strait and Caernarfon, where their chocolatier is at work creating pralines, fondants and chocolate liqueurs. Slightly further up the coast Helen Holland produces Mon ar Lwy’s luxurious contemporary icecreams which are supplied to hotels and restaurants in the area from her working farm at Bodorgan.

From her base in Penmynydd, a stone’s throw from the family seat of the Tudur’s, past ascendants to the English throne, Angharad Holmes produces preserves and farm churned butter which she sells alongside other local produce from her farmshop, Anglesey Farm Foods. Finally, a trip to Condessa Liqueurs in north-west Anglesey for a chance to try some of their many fruit and cream liqueurs.

We will begin the day with a visit to meet well known Welsh bard and poet Cynan Jones at his fascinating mushroom garden, Yr Ardd Fadarch, near Porthmadog. From there a stop in the town itself for a personalised Welsh cheese sampling with guide and local food entrepreneur Geraint Hughes at his delicatessen. Then on to Portmeirion, the famous Italianate village designed by Clough Williams-Ellis in the 1920s and location for the cult 1960s series The Prisoner. Here you will have lunch in the Portmeirion Hotel’s Art Deco curvilinear terrace restaurant redesigned by Terence Conran in 2005. Afterwards there will be time to stroll around the unusual icecream coloured village, taking in the Edwardian style Cadwaladers Ice Cream Parlour.

Take a drive around Anglesey’s stunning cliff-backed coast with a stop off for Menai oysters and champagne against the backdrop of the Menai Strait and Caernarfon Castle. Then thread your way through the island’s rolling fields and leafy lanes to Derimon Smokery overlooking the eastern Dulas estuary. Here owner David McReadie will guide you around his oak smokery after which you will sample some of his many smoked treats in the grand bay-windowed dining room of his Victorian farmhouse. Round onto the dramatic north coast you will have the chance to stroll around Gwinllan Padrig (Padrig Vineyard) where Tom Barlow produces fine red, white and sparkling wines. After sampling some of both these and the fruit wines and vodkas also made on site, the Vineyard’s delightful tearoom housed in a flower covered Welsh longhouse will offer a welcome cup of tea or coffee.

This is a half-day package which includes lunch and a special concert at historic Plas Newydd overlooking the Menai Straits on Anglesey. With Plas Newydd’s unbeatable location and its views across the spectacular Snowdonia mountain range this is a taste of Wales that you will never forget.

10:00am – Arrive at Plas Newydd where you will be given a tour of the property and will learn more about the daring deeds which got the 1st Marquess his title at the battle of Waterloo, and how the artist Rex Whistler fell in love when he came to paint his great masterpiece at Plas Newydd.

*12:30pm * – You will then be treated to a delicious Welsh lunch in the tea-room where only the finest local ingredients are used.

Morning: A magical trip on the Welsh Highland Railway through the Snowdonia countryside to the pretty village of Beddgelert. Journey behind the most powerful 2’ gauge steam locomotives in the world on a trip through the fabulous scenery of the Snowdonia National Park. The railway starts beside the awe-inspiring Caernarfon Castle, snaking around seemingly impossible bends, up hard gradients and around the foothills of Snowdon to arrive at Rhyd Ddu, about 12 miles from Caernarfon and high up in the Snowdonian mountains. Relax in high-quality saloon carriages with on-train refreshments, enjoy the superior comfort of First Class in the Pullman Saloon “Bodysgallen” or sit back in the panoramic Pullman Observation carriage.

Afternoon: Travel on Snowdon Mountain Railway, the only public rack and pinion railway in Britain, which ascends 3,560 ft to the summit of the highest mountain in England and Wales. Enjoy the in-carriage commentary about the history of the landscape and the mountain. Before embarkation relax in the film theatre and enjoy the 15 minute presentation which explains the history of Snowdon Mountain Railway since its creation.

The railway reached Llanberis from Caernarfon in 1869 but the only way to get to the summit of Snowdon from there was to walk or take a donkey ride. After initial misgivings, local landowner George William Duff Assherton Smith allowed his land to be used for construction of Snowdon Mountain Railway and it became a very popular Victorian tourist attraction opening in 1896.

At the top you can relax before your journey back down in Hafod Eryri, an £8 million Visitor Centre which opened to the public in summer 2009. A uniquely designed building, it is built of granite with views from the “window on the world” wall of glass. It acts as a terminus for the Snowdon Mountain Railway providing refreshment facilities and interpretation of the mountain, its history and ways to enjoy it. Lines of poetry from the former National Poet of Wales, Gwyn Thomas, are also built into the building – the highest in Wales and England.

Finish your afternoon with a short trip around Llyn Padarn on the Llanberis Lake Railway. Delight in the spectacular sights of Snowdonia from this narrow-gauge steam train. A 5-mile return trip past historic Dolbadarn Castle, following the old railway route stopping at Cei Llydan. The Railway was originally used to carry slate from the quarry to Port Dinorwig and the scale of the now disused quarry can quite clearly be appreciated from the train. In fact, it was the quarry that provided the initial equipment and the men to build the railway and it was re-opened as a visitor attraction in 1971.