One the UK's 'most entertaining' getaways is in North Wales
It's Bill Bryson's favourite seaside town, so it must being doing something right. While many of Britain's coastal resorts are in genteel decline, Llandudno is doing its best to buck the trend.
Being shoehorned between two headlands, with a great crescent of a promenade backed by handsome pastel-coloured hotels, and a stately pier stretching out into the bay, it will always have the bones of a classic seaside destination. Even without shops, restaurants and attractions (and North Shore sand), the resort still has a natural beauty guaranteed to appeal.
While its core demographic of visitors may be the wrong side of 50, Llandudno has enough going on to generate traditional seaside buzz. As an entertainment venue, it's not quite Blackpool, not does it wish to be. But if you care to look for it, there's plenty of ways to keep busy besides promenading with chips and ice cream.
This week, a survey named Llandudno the UK's 10th most 'entertaining resort' - it was second in Wales behind Swansea (5th). Inevitably, the list was headed by a glitzy Lancashire seaside town with an iconic tower and gaudy promenade lights.
Blackpool topped the pile – compiled by SuomiCasino from a shortlist of 26 – by virtue of its 12 water/amusement parks and, appropriately, 13 casinos. Swansea's ranking was boosted by its 529 bars and restaurants – more than three times the number attributed to Llandudno (148).
The survey was perhaps overly generous when it credited the Conwy town with four beaches – residents may wonder where half of them are. As the compilers used Tripadvisor's AI assistant, beaches at Penrhyn Bay and Deganwy might have been thrown in for good measure.
At the same time, Llandudno was credited with 58 'landmarks', the most in the top 10 other than Blackpool (67). It fared less well for music venues (two), casinos (one, apparently?) and escape rooms (one). But the town has plenty more besides donkey rides, boat trips, and Punch and Judy. Sign up now for the latest news on the North Wales Live Whatsapp community
(Image: SuomiCasino)
For the energetic, there a dry ski slope and a climbing centre. For families, the freshly renovated Craig-y-don paddling pool is always popular. The Great Orme has San Franciscan-style trams, alpine cable cars and simply spectacular views, including those from a road carved into the sea-cliff.
And does Blackpool have a 3,000-year-old prehistoric copper mines you can wander around? Or a network of Victorian tunnels dug out beneath its streets?
In the resort, tourists can visit chocolate and Home Front museums, and browse canopied shopping streets behind the seafront. Young and old can enjoy a blast of Wonderland whimsy by following the Alice Trail and its sculptures. Venue Cymru is huge, offering events, music and big touring productions.
Sure, some elements are naff and parts of the town need sprucing up, particularly the iconic Grand Hotel. Phone signals are dire and the seagulls vicious. But this is a place that trades on its dramatic location and that will never change. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox
Find out what's happening near you
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
an hour ago
- Daily Record
Scotland's top 'lucky landmarks' named and both are in one city
The most popular sites in the country said to bring good fortune have been named. Scotland's top "lucky landmarks" have been named in a new study, with both sites located in Edinburgh. For hundreds of years, people have sought to boost their fortunes by visiting monuments believed to bring good luck. Whether tossing coins into fountains or touching centuries-old statues, some destinations are believed to be particularly lucky. SuomiCasino have shared a list of the top five lucky landmarks in Scotland and Ireland. The experts analysed the popularity of the landmarks by examining data from Instagram, TikTok, and Google search trends. Edinburgh is the only city in the top five to feature two lucky landmarks. Greyfriars Bobby and the David Hume Statue are both named on the list. Greyfriars Bobby placed at number three on SuomiCasino's roundup. It is a fountain that sits at the corner of Edinburgh's Candlemaker Row and George IV Bridge. According to the experts, the monument has 39,200 Instagram posts and more than 1,100 TikTok mentions. The statue was also revealed to have a monthly Google search volume of 4,400. The Greyfriars Bobby memorial is dedicated to the dog of the same name, who lived between 1855 and 1872. Bobby is famous for spending 14 years guarding the grave of his owner at Greyfriars Kirkyard until his death. The granite fountain, which is surmounted by a bronze life-size statue of Greyfriars Bobby, was erected in 1873. The bittersweet tale of loyalty has made it a popular tourist attraction over the years. It has become customary for those who visit Greyfriars Bobby to rub his nose for good luck. Over the years, this has caused the nose of the statue to turn shiny. The Greyfriars Bobby statue has earned positive reviews from tourists and visitors. On Google, the monument has an overall rating of 4.7 out of five based on 1,946 reviews. One visitor shared: "Bobby's story is beautiful and they say that stroking his nose brings good luck, so be sure to do this when you visit him." A second wrote: "I touched the nose for good luck, then won £1000 on Premium Bonds in April. Thanks Bobby!" Elsewhere, the David Hume Statue followed behind at number four on SuomiCasino's roundup. The statue is located at the top of Edinburgh's Royal Mile. According to the experts, the statue has 260 Instagram posts. It was also found to be the subject of 3,600 monthly searches on Google. The David Hume statue is dedicated to the Edinburgh-born 18th century philosopher, historian, and economist. It attracts visitors who touch its toe for wisdom and fortune. Elsewhere, coming in at number one on the list of the top lucky spots in Scotland and Ireland is The Blarney Stone in Cork. The centuries-old stone, which is said to grant the 'gift of eloquence' to anyone who kisses it, features in 76,900 Instagram posts and is the subject of 110,000 monthly Google searches. Read on for the full list of the luckiest spots in Scotland and Ireland. The luckiest spots in Scotland and Ireland The Blarney Stone, Cork The Hill of Tara, County Meath Greyfriars Bobby, Edinburgh David Hume Statue, Edinburgh Cnoc Meadha, Galway
Scottish Sun
an hour ago
- Scottish Sun
Europe's longest swimming pool is as big as a football pitch and it costs just £3.50 to visit
And how to find the longest swimming pool in the UK SPLASH IN Europe's longest swimming pool is as big as a football pitch and it costs just £3.50 to visit Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THE longest swimming pool in Europe is found in Spain - and it's a bargain to visit. Amurjo is a natural pool which is filled by the Orcera river during the summer, with four million litres of water. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 Europe's longest pool is in Spain Credit: Google 4 More than 1,200 swimmers can be in at any time Credit: Tripadvisor Found in Jaén in Andalucía, it stretches 85m, and is 19m in width, making it nearly as big as a football pitch. The 1,500sqm pool can fit up to 1,200 swimmers, so you won't have to worry about finding space. The pool dates back to the 1970s when it was converted from an irrigation reservoir into the public swimming space. There is also a kids pool as showers, lockers and a bar serving snacks and drinks. Free aqua gym classes also run most days at the pool, otherwise outside there is a nearby hotel and restaurants. And due to its secluded nature, it means there aren't many crowds there even in summer either. Previous guests have raved about it, with one saying: "The pool is really big, perfect for swimming and enjoying without feeling cramped." Another said: "One of the best pools I've ever visited, and I'll definitely go back. Lots of shade and quiet. "Perfect for training and entertaining the kids." A third wrote: "I went in the middle of August, and it wasn't crowded at all." This Incredible Pool Is Inside A Former Church 4 The pool was converted in the 1970s Credit: Cultural Agenda of Andalusia Tickets cost €4 (£3.50) for adults or €3 (£2.60) for kids, and is open from 12pm to 9pm. Or you can book night-time swim sessions for an extra euro, as well as open air cinemas and live music events. A tourist train even runs from Orcera, the nearest city, during the busy season to prevent car park crowding. However, don't try and visit in the winter - the pool is only open from June to August, with the pool emptied after this. For Brits to get there, the nearest major airport is Murcia Airport, where flights from the UK take around 2hr45. The pool is then another 2hr45 by car. Also in Spain is Europe's longest infinity swimming pool. Swimming safety advice Experts have revealed some of their top advice for both adults and kids heading to the water this summer: How to stay safe at the beach Gareth Morrison, Head of Water Safety at the RNLI said: "If you find yourself being swept out to sea in a rip, try to relax and float until you are free from the rip and you can then swim to safety. "If you see someone else in danger, alert a lifeguard or call 999 or 112 and ask for the Coastguard." How to stay safe at the swimming pool Tiny Hearts Education, former paramedic and CEO Nikki Jurcutz said: "Always put your little one in bright or contrasting colours that would be easy to find in an emergency. "It only takes 20 seconds to drown, little tips like this could save a life". An Auqabliss spokesperson added: 'Swimming toys such as noodles, dive rings, floaties and beach balls can be dangerous if left in the pool. 'Children may try to grab these from the pool's edge and fall in." How to stay safe at a waterpark Ali Beckman, Puddle Ducks Technical Director, said: "Never send a child down the slide on their own, not only are they going to be entering the slide pool area independently, they then have to exit the pool and wait for an adult. "And wave pools should be avoided until your child is really confident with water going over their faces and you know they are able to regain their feet independently. 'Waterparks are often very busy places and it's easy to lose sight of a child in a split second." In Tenerife is the Gran Melia Palacio de Isora Resort & Spa, which is home to a 400m saltwater infinity pool. Or here is here to find the UK's longest swimming pool.
Spectator
4 hours ago
- Spectator
Why Middlemarch is ‘the perfect beach read'
At the time of writing, I am not more than a few hours away from leaving this dismal hell-hole and hightailing it for the South of France in a battered Skoda Octavia. And there, I shall settle down for a fortnight, surrounded by all the paraphernalia of 1970s camping – the blue gas-bottles; the nylon sleeping bags; the fold-out chairs where the cup-holder in the arm is torn so your Orangina plummets to the floor when you absent-mindedly deposit it there. Bliss. And what will I do there, apart from squatting on my haunches to cook awful one-pot beany casseroles and eating croissants? Why, read, of course. Isn't that what holidays are, fundamentally, for? This is where my long-suffering wife and I find ourselves somewhat at odds. She thinks I am boring and antisocial and an all-round suboptimal husband because all I want to do on holiday is sit in a sunny place with a cold drink and a paperback. Vigorous activities and sparkling conversation should, she thinks, also form part of a holiday. What's the point, she thinks, in going to a foreign country if all you're going to do there is sit in a chair and read a book, which is what you spend the rest of the year doing anyway? Also she thinks men, especially men with feet like mine, shouldn't wear flip-flops, that my straw hat makes me look like a wally (she doesn't say this, but I intuit it), and that if we ignore the children they will drown in the river. As they say: agree to disagree. For most people of working age, the summer holiday is the one time when you can read continuously for a week or two – so what you take matters a good deal. This is your chance. But all sorts of myths surround the idea of 'holiday reading'. I'm forever being emailed by publicists, for instance, announcing that this book or that one – usually thrillers or romantic comedies – is 'the perfect beach read'. Isn't that weird? In most of the rest of our lives, we feel under vague but palpable pressure to read something improving and high-minded – not what our more austere older relatives would dismiss as 'trash'. We reproach ourselves, many of us, about our failure to do so – dutifully chugging through ten pages of Middlemarch before bed and becoming ever more dispirited as the weeks pass. But then, at the one time of year when we could, for instance, read a couple of hundred pages of Middlemarch in a day and really get into it (there's a lot going on in that book: you do need to immerse yourself a bit), we get reading-shamed in the other direction. Now is, apparently, the time to get stuck into the new Dan Brown and if we insist on taking a Victorian classic we are, implicitly, the sort of pretentious person who doesn't know how to enjoy a holiday. It should be, I suggest, quite the other way round. Think how much happier we'd all be if we read thrillers and chick-lit and science-fiction and all that lovely pulp in our day-to-day lives, when our batteries are low and our phones and emails a constant distraction, and saved up the more challenging material for our holidays. I don't say this to denigrate popular fiction – I love that stuff, and the writers who do it well are consummately skilled – but to note that there are different types of reading, and that the circumstances in which you read makes a difference to how enjoyable and successful a given type of reading will be. It goes without saying, of course, that all of us should read what we damn well like when we damn well like, and that shaming people for what they read is one of the most insidious and philistine of our cultural contagions. But the holidays are a precious opportunity. They are the one time of year when we really do have leisure to properly immerse ourselves in a book. For what it's worth, I think there is something to the stereotype that paperbacks are best. Thick hardbacks are heavy, and e-books may help with the luggage allowance but reading on screen is tricky in bright sunshine and you don't have to worry about sand getting in the charging port of a paperback. My own situation is a bit unusual, obviously. I am privileged to have a day job, as literary editor of this magazine and host of our weekly podcast, that involves a lot of reading. But it has given me a very distorted reading life: it means almost everything I read in the ordinary course of things is published within a month or two of the time in which I read it. Holidays, then, are usually the chance to catch up on things I've missed. Books by friends, for instance, which I've shamingly failed to find time for the rest of the year; classics I've never read; a bit of homework in advance; and, yes, sometimes 'something sensational to read on the train'. So, this year I'm taking a mix: it's Elif Shafak's There are Rivers in the Sky (she's a great writer and I've been wanting to read this for a year), Stuart Jeffries's A Short History of Stupidity (something chewy and, hopefully, also fun), Graham Robb's The Discovery of Britain (forthcoming work by another fine writer), Terry Pratchett's The Night Watch (reissued classic I've never read)… and David McCloskey's Damascus Station (spy thriller friends have raved about) on the Kindle for emergencies – because the great thing about holiday reading is you don't have to follow even your own rules. And once I've read them, if she hasn't divorced me, I'll put some proper shoes on and have a conversation with my wife.
