Climb to Criccieth Castle and its twin-towered gatehouse

Walk both beaches on either side of the headland

Visit the Lloyd George Museum at Llanystumdwy

Eat an ice cream from Cadwaladers on the front

Criccieth Castle stands on a headland between two beaches. Llywelyn ap Iorwerth began it in the 1230s and his grandson Llywelyn ap Gruffudd extended it; Edward I took it in 1283 and heightened its towers, and it was captured again in 1404 in Owain Glyndŵr's revolt. David Lloyd George grew up at Llanystumdwy nearby.

Criccieth: Llywelyn's Castle Between Two Beaches

The Llŷn Peninsula

Eleven nights from Conwy to Betws-y-Coed: Edward I's castles at Conwy, Caernarfon, Beaumaris and Harlech, the boat to Ynys Enlli off the tip of the Llŷn, Portmeirion, then Snowdon by the Miners' Track and the scramble up Tryfan.

North Wales: Castles, the Llŷn and Eryri

Walk through Portmeirion, the village Clough Williams-Ellis built between 1925 and 1975

Find the places used as 'the Village' in The Prisoner

Find the Fountain, where Noël Coward is said to have written Blithe Spirit

Walk down to the Dwyryd estuary below the village

Sir Clough Williams-Ellis designed and built Portmeirion between 1925 and 1975 on the estuary of the Dwyryd, two miles from Porthmadog, and denied that it was modelled on Portofino, though he admitted his love of the place. The main hotel building was the house of Aber Iâ, a private estate developed in the 1850s, and many of the buildings are listed, with the gardens Grade II* on the Cadw register. Noël Coward wrote Blithe Spirit while staying here, and in the 1960s it was 'the Village' in The Prisoner. In the woods just outside are the slight remains of a medieval castle that Gerald of Wales recorded in 1188.

Portmeirion: The Village Clough Williams-Ellis Built

Explore Harlech Castle, built by Edward I between 1282 and 1289, whose Lancastrian garrison held out from 1461 to 1468 — the siege remembered in 'Men of Harlech' — and which held out in the Civil War until 15 March 1647

Walk down the Way from the Sea, the water gate through which supplies reached the castle during the 1294–95 siege

Look down from the castle over the Royal St David's links and the Morfa Harlech dunes

Edward I built Harlech between 1282 and 1289 on a rock close to the Irish Sea, with a water gate and a long flight of steps down to the shore so the castle could be supplied by sea under siege. It needed them: Madog ap Llywelyn besieged it in 1294–95, Owain Glyndŵr took it in 1404 and made it his headquarters until 1409, and the Lancastrians held it for seven years before the Yorkists forced its surrender in 1468, the siege remembered in 'Men of Harlech'. The sea has since pulled back, and the castle now stands above the dunes and the beach.

Harlech: The Castle Supplied From the Sea

Climb Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa, 1,085m), the highest mountain in Wales, by the Miners' Track from Pen-y-Pass — 6.6km with 726m of ascent, the gentlest of the six main routes

Cross the causeway over Llyn Llydaw, built in 1853, and pass the derelict copper-mine buildings on the way to Glaslyn

Find the brass toposcope on the summit pillar, which names 100 places you can see on a clear day

See the Snowdon Mountain Railway, opened in 1896 and running 4.75 miles from Llanberis to the summit, from the top

Snowdon — Yr Wyddfa — is the highest mountain in Wales at 1,085m and the busiest in Britain: 543,541 people walked up it in 2022. The Miners' Track from Pen-y-Pass is the gentlest of the six main routes, 6.6km with 726m of climbing, crossing the causeway over Llyn Llydaw built in 1853 and passing the ruins of the copper mine on the way up to Glaslyn. On top is Hafod Eryri, the summit building opened in 2009, and the end of the Snowdon Mountain Railway, opened in 1896, which climbs 4.75 miles from Llanberis. One legend puts the giant Rhita, killed by King Arthur, under the summit cairn.

Snowdon: The Miners' Track to Yr Wyddfa

Go underground on the deep mine tour at Llechwedd

Walk through the old mining chambers 500ft underground

Look up at the tips that surround the town

Ride the Ffestiniog Railway that carried the slate to Porthmadog

The slate landscape of north-west Wales became a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 July 2021. At Blaenau Ffestiniog the slate was mined rather than quarried, and the Oakeley mine here became the largest underground slate mine in the world; Llechwedd runs tours down into the caverns, and the town still sits under grey tips on every side.

Blaenau Ffestiniog: The Slate Landscape That Roofed the World

Scramble the north ridge from the A5 in the Ogwen valley

Reach Siôn a Siân — Adam and Eve — the two 3m monoliths on the summit

Walk on into the Glyderau above the valley

Start from Ogwen Cottage at the head of Llyn Ogwen

Tryfan stands over the Ogwen valley as a pointed wall of rugged crag, one of the most recognisable mountains in Britain and, at 917.5m, the fifteenth highest in Wales. It is part of the Glyderau, and the usual way up is the north ridge, a continuous scramble starting near the A5 about a mile east of Idwal Cottage. There is no walking route to the top: every way up ends in a scramble.

Tryfan and the Glyderau: The Scramble Up the North Ridge

Drive the pass from Capel Curig over Pen-y-Pass to Llanberis

Stop at Pen-y-Pass, 359m up, where the old hotel is now a youth hostel

Look up at Dinas y Gromlech and find the line of Cenotaph Corner

Walk by Llyn Padarn at Llanberis at the bottom

The A4086 climbs through the Llanberis Pass between the Snowdon massif on one side and the Glyderau on the other, topping out at 359m at Pen-y-Pass, where the old hotel is now a youth hostel. The valley is narrow, straight and steep-sided, and the crags on either side of the road, among them Dinas y Gromlech with the line of Cenotaph Corner, have made it one of the most popular climbing areas in Britain. Below it the Nant Peris valley drops past the village of Nant Peris to Llanberis and the two lakes, Llyn Peris and Llyn Padarn.

The Llanberis Pass: Between Snowdon and the Glyderau

Walk the Georgian grid and the harbour at Whitehaven

Walk up to the cliffs at Kells to see the winding engine house of Haig Pit, Cumbria's last deep coal mine, closed in 1986

Dip your boots in the sea on St Bees beach and start the Coast to Coast

Walk the cliff path round St Bees Head to the lighthouse

The Lowther family bought the Whitehaven estate in 1630 and built the port, the coal mines and, in the 18th century, a Georgian planned town that has left more than 170 listed buildings; the pits ran out under the sea. Four miles south, walkers dip their boots in the Irish Sea on St Bees beach to start Wainwright's Coast to Coast, then climb straight onto St Bees Head.

Whitehaven and St Bees: A Planned Georgian Port and the Coast to Coast Start

Walk the footway across Barmouth Bridge over the estuary

Cycle or walk the Mawddach Trail towards Dolgellau

Look across to Cadair Idris from the quay

Barmouth stands where the Mawddach meets the sea under Cadair Idris, and the railway crosses the estuary on a timber viaduct with a walkway beside the track. Across the bridge the old railway line is now the Mawddach Trail, about eight flat miles along the water from Morfa Mawddach to Dolgellau.