North Wales roofed the nineteenth century. At its peak the slate industry here produced something approaching half the world's roofing slate, and it went out through Porthmadog and Bangor to Germany, the Americas and Australia. The Penrhyn and Dinorwig quarries were the largest in the world; the galleries cut into the mountainsides are visible from kilometres away and are not going to weather out in any human timescale.
In 2021 UNESCO listed the whole thing — the quarries, the inclines, the narrow-gauge railways built to move the stone, the harbours and the quarrymen's villages — as the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales. It is an industrial World Heritage site in a national park, which is an unusual combination and is the reason the region looks the way it does.
Snowdonia and the coast
Eryri, the Welsh name for Snowdonia now used officially, covers 2,130 square kilometres. Yr Wyddfa, the summit, is 1,085 metres, and a rack railway has run to the top since 1896 — the only public rack railway in Britain, which means the highest point in Wales is reachable without walking.
Llandudno and the north coast have the Victorian resort architecture, a pier, and the Great Orme with its own tramway and a Bronze Age copper mine.
Anglesey, across the Menai Strait, is flat, agricultural and ringed by a coastal path, with Beaumaris Castle at the eastern end.
Portmeirion, on the southern coast, is an Italianate village built between 1925 and 1975 by one architect, Clough Williams-Ellis, who wanted to show that development need not spoil a beautiful place. It was used as the setting for The Prisoner and it is unlike anything else in Britain.
The Llŷn peninsula, west, is Welsh-speaking, quiet and has the beaches.
The seven below are grouped that way.
Inland Snowdonia
Under the mountains.
Palé Hall occupies a Victorian mansion near Bala where Queen Victoria stayed in 1889, restored with the original rooms intact, a serious kitchen and its own hydroelectric supply from the river. It is the best hotel in Wales.
Palé Hall
Near Bala, Snowdonia · 5★ · $$$$
A Victorian mansion running on its own hydroelectric supply
Check availabilityPlas Dinas Country House sits outside Caernarfon in a house that belonged to the Armstrong-Jones family, with a small room count, a garden and the mountains behind.
Plas Dinas Country House
Near Caernarfon · 4★ · $$$
A family house with a garden below the mountains
Check availabilityThe north coast and Llandudno
The Victorian resort and the Great Orme.
Bodysgallen Hall & Spa occupies a seventeenth-century house in 200 acres above Llandudno, owned by the National Trust, with a walled rose garden, a spa and no children under eight.
Bodysgallen Hall & Spa
Above Llandudno · 4★ · $$$
A seventeenth-century house in 200 National Trust acres
Check availabilitySt Tudno Hotel sits on the Llandudno promenade in a Victorian building with a small room count and a long-held reputation for its kitchen.
St Tudno Hotel
Llandudno promenade · 4★ · $$$
A Victorian seafront house with a long kitchen reputation
Check availabilityOsborne House occupies another seafront building in Llandudno with high-ceilinged rooms and sea views.
Osborne House
Llandudno seafront · 4★ · $$
High-ceilinged sea-facing rooms on the promenade
Check availabilityAnglesey
Across the strait.
Château Rhianfa occupies a Victorian château on the Menai Strait with turrets, terraced gardens to the water and views across to Snowdonia.
Château Rhianfa
Menai Strait, Anglesey · 4★ · $$$
A turreted château with gardens to the water
Check availabilityPortmeirion
The Italianate village.
The Hotel Portmeirion sits at the water's edge below the village, with guests given access to the whole site including the hours before it opens and after it closes to day visitors. That access is the reason to stay.
The Hotel Portmeirion
Portmeirion · 4★ · $$$
Access to the Italianate village outside opening hours
Check availabilityWhat we have left off
The inns and guest houses across the Snowdonia villages are excluded, and in walking country they are the standard and least expensive way to stay. They are pubs and guest houses rather than hotels.
What to do
Go up Yr Wyddfa, on foot by one of six paths or by the rack railway from Llanberis. The railway runs roughly March to October and is weather-dependent; it does not always reach the summit.
See the slate landscape properly. The National Slate Museum at Llanberis sits in the Dinorwig workshops with the original machinery, and Zip World runs lines over the Penrhyn quarry for anyone who would rather experience it at speed.
Ride a narrow-gauge railway. The Ffestiniog line was built in 1836 to carry slate down to Porthmadog and now carries passengers over the same route.
Walk Portmeirion in the evening when the day visitors have gone, and again early.
Cross to Anglesey for Beaumaris Castle, one of Edward I's ring of fortresses and the most technically perfect of them, though never finished.
Practical notes
Manchester and Liverpool airports are both about two hours away. The North Wales coast line runs to Bangor and Llandudno Junction. A car is needed inland.
May, June and September are the best months. Summer is busy on the Snowdon paths — the summit route can be genuinely crowded. Winter brings snow to the tops and the railway closes.
Welsh is the first language of much of the region and place names are being used in their Welsh forms more widely, including Eryri and Yr Wyddfa.
Every hotel bookable in North Wales
Questions people actually ask
Can you get to the summit without walking?
A rack railway has run from Llanberis since 1896, roughly March to October and weather permitting.
What is the slate landscape?
The quarries, railways, harbours and villages of the industry that roofed the nineteenth-century world, UNESCO-listed in 2021.
Is Portmeirion worth staying at?
Guests get the village outside opening hours, which is when it is at its best.
How many nights?
Four. Two inland and two on the coast.