Menai Bridge, Menai Strait · Hotel
A French-styled Victorian chateau on the banks of the Menai Strait, with turrets, terraced gardens and a private shoreline below the lawns.
Chateau Rhianfa was built in the 1840s in the manner of a Loire chateau, complete with pointed turrets and steep slate roofs, and stands in its own grounds on the Anglesey bank of the Menai Strait a short drive from Menai Bridge. The setting is the main event: the gardens drop in terraces to a private stretch of shore, with the water and the mainland mountains directly in front of you.
Rooms are split between the main house and converted outbuildings, and vary considerably in character. The best are large, high-ceilinged strait-facing rooms in the original building with roll-top baths and period detail; the coach house and mews rooms are more contemporary and generally cheaper. Several suites are set within the turrets themselves, which is either charming or awkward depending on your view of circular bedrooms.
Dining is in the house restaurant, which leans on Welsh produce and seafood from the strait, with a terrace for warm evenings. The hotel is well set up for weddings and takes exclusive-use bookings, so it is worth checking what else is happening before you commit to a quiet weekend. Guests can arrange sailing, ziplining and mountain biking through the hotel, with the Eryri activity centres only a short drive across the bridge.
It suits couples, special occasions and anyone who wants a base that feels like a destination in itself rather than somewhere to sleep between beaches. Families are accommodated but this is not a hotel built around children. Menai Bridge and its restaurants are five minutes away by car, Beaumaris around fifteen, and Bangor station is close enough to arrive by train and taxi in.