CAG on travel: Climbing in Snowdonia Wales

The love of the outdoors is something I can really get behind. Despite the fact that I've been living in the UK for so many years, there are still so many things in this country that continue to amaze me. Such a small place with so much to offer. Going to get my climb on in Snowdonia National Park Wales was such an interesting experience.

You can really tailor a trip to so many preferences, levels of ability, and types of accommodation. Snowdonia is huge, so picking an area to stay in was pretty key unless you really don't mind driving over 40km a day to get to where you want to climb. That doesn't sound like that long of a drive, but it's probably more key for thinking about post mountain summit.  Opting for the quaint country cottage in Dolgellau (largely for pub access reasons!), we settled into a nice, quiet, completely inundated by sheep weekend.

The first climb was Cader Idris, a smaller climb than Snowdon in the National Park, but a popular and pretty mountain. It was a pretty standard hike/ climb and because the weather was perfect it was quite easy, just a long walk. The views were amazing from the top of Cader Idris, and the barbecue after was so much more worth it.

The next day was a flatter, more foresty hike in the Coed y Brenin Forest Park. It was mostly mountain bike paths, but also provided a lot of beautiful scenery and waterfalls. It was a long walk as the park is huge, but again totally worth it.

The post walk treat was one of the top rated restaurants in Dolgellau called the Y Meirionnydd, partially situated in a medieval cellar. I still can barely pronounce any of the names in Wales- such a difficult language. The food really was amazing, mostly locally sourced, really nice staff, and the owner even offered to drive us home (just showing how nice people really are in Wales)!!

Wales is also known for its castles, so I'm putting photographs of this castle called Cymer Abbey up, but it was largely underwhelming. I'm sure the other castles in Wales are much more exciting.