Wales (Chester / Bangor area)

The town of Llanberis is quite nice. You have a good bus connections from Bangor to the Snowdon national park. In Llanberis there is a slate industry museum, lots of outdoor stuff, hiking opportunities to and from Mount Snowdon and surroundings. You can also take a train up to mount Snowdon. I also did a nice hike from Betyws-y-coed to Capel-curig a few years ago.

Caernarfon also is worth a visit, with it’s big castle and pleasant centre.

If it’s your thing for a day out, the Ffestiniog and/or Welsh Highland railway is also quite worthwile for the views of Snowdon national park and the heritage steam trains.

I wouldn’t class Bangor as a city.  More of a small town.  Chester is a city, but still a rather small city.

I’m going out on a limb here and guessing you are going to Bangor to do the gigantic zip wire at Penrhyn - https://www.zipworld.co.uk/locations/penrhyn-quarry.  If that’s not on the list then you should consider it.

The whole north Wales coast between Chester and Bangor (and on to Holyhead) has plenty of things to do, but in my mind they are mostly outdoors sort of things - walks, hikes, etc . . . There is a good deal of “old castle” and Roman archaeology I believe but I have no specific experience.

Note that public transport in/around Bangor is somewhat limited in my experience.  There is of course the railway to Chester and from there on directly to London/anywhere else in the UK, but other than that bus service is limited.  The routes do exist, but some might only be served a couple of times a day.  Or once a day.  In other words, consider your local transport options carefully.

Thanks Brendan! We've put the Snowdon national park on our list with the diesel train up the mountain, that looks amazing! The other one you mention (Ffestiniog and/or Welsh Highland railway) also looks great. How was it in comparison to the Snowdon Railway? I'm not sure if we can do both timewise 😅...

Sounds like you had a great experience!

Haha that is very true re being small 😄. 

Someone in our group indeed came across the zip wire, it looks like a fun experience (hoping the weather will be good). We'll do everything with public transport but there's buses from Bangor to that place 🤞🏻 We found the local bus times, indeed limited, to get to e.g. Llanberis and Penrhyn. How did you get there when you travelled?

Thanks for sharing!

Difficult to compare, they’re both unique.

The Snowdon railway is a mountain rack railway to the top, similar to a lot of those in the alps, just up and down in 2 hours, 2,5 hours. Didn’t do it myself, as it was rather pricey and capacity quite limited. You aren’t guaranteed good weather, so it’s possible the top is covered with clouds. We hiked to Snowdon top, also very doable, same views, for free and very rewarding once you reach the top. The top itself was very popular, very touristic even a bit out of high season (traveled there in september).

Me and my friends did the Welsh Highland Railway, but the full monty. In Pullman class with a high tea option as our resting day, the day after the Snowdon hike. That was very pleasant, but maybe more like a “grandma & grandpa” activity 😅. Although you can also combine it with some hikes getting on or off intermediate stops. I think it’s about 25 miles, a full day trip. You have some time in Caernarfon or Porthmadog too, depending where you leave. 

The bus service stops quite early indeed. There are also some taxi services in the region that can help you out, they were reasonably priced!

A nice relaxed activity, and you have a great story afterwards 😁