Llangollen

Llangollen is compact enough that almost anywhere in the town centre puts visitors within a few minutes' walk of the river, the railway station and the main restaurants, which makes location a less pressing decision here than in larger destinations. Bridge Street and the immediate town centre hold the greatest concentration of places to stay, from long-established coaching inns with riverside terraces to smaller guest houses tucked into converted townhouses, all within easy reach of the bridge, the abbey ruins and the shops. Staying here suits visitors without a car, or anyone planning to spend evenings in the town's pubs and restaurants rather than driving out to them.

A short distance out of the centre, Abbey Road and the roads climbing towards Valle Crucis and the Horseshoe Pass offer a quieter alternative, generally a five to fifteen minute walk from the centre, with valley views that the tighter streets of the town itself cannot match. Properties here range from traditional bed and breakfasts in Victorian villas to a handful of larger hotels set in their own grounds, popular with visitors more interested in the surrounding hills and countryside than an evening out in town. Further afield, towards Trevor and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, a small number of country house hotels sit right on the Llangollen Canal, well suited to anyone planning to spend most of their stay on or beside the water.

Across the eight properties featured here, the spread runs from a spa hotel with leisure facilities and a country house set in its own parkland, through mid-range coaching inns and riverside hotels in the town centre, to smaller, family-run bed and breakfasts offering a more personal welcome and, in several cases, decades of experience hosting visitors to the valley. Prices are generally lower than at busier North Wales coastal resorts, though rooms in the town centre book up quickly around the International Musical Eisteddfod in July and on Horseshoe Pass driving-event weekends, so early booking is worth it for a summer visit.

Llangollen and its immediate surroundings pack in more UNESCO-listed engineering, ruined masonry and open hillside than most towns many times its size.

• Pontcysyllte Aqueduct carries the Llangollen Canal 126 feet above the River Dee near Trevor, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the longest and highest navigable aqueduct in Britain; walking or cycling across it, with only a towpath rail between you and the drop, is the valley's signature experience.
• Llangollen Railway is a heritage steam line running from the town's restored Great Western-style station along the Dee Valley towards Corwen, with several request stops and a programme of themed and dining trains through the year.
• Castell Dinas Brân is a ruined 13th-century Welsh castle set on a steep-sided hill directly above the town, reached by a well-used footpath that rewards the climb with views the length of the valley.
• Valle Crucis Abbey, a few minutes' drive north of town, is a well-preserved Cistercian ruin founded in 1201, standing in quiet farmland beneath the Eglwyseg escarpment.
• Plas Newydd, on the edge of town, was the eccentric Gothic home of the Ladies of Llangollen, two Irish aristocrats whose 18th-century household became a celebrated curiosity, and is now a museum set in its own gardens.
• The Horseshoe Pass is a dramatic mountain road climbing out of the valley towards Ruthin, with a viewpoint and cafe at the top and some of the best driving, cycling and motorcycling roads in North Wales.
• Llangollen Canal and towpath can be explored on foot, by bike or by hiring a canoe or narrowboat, with the towpath running all the way to the Pontcysyllte and Chirk aqueducts.
• White water rafting and canoeing on the River Dee is run by several operators based in the town, taking advantage of a stretch of river with genuine rapids close to the centre.

Llangollen's dining scene leans on its riverside setting and its position at the edge of good Welsh farming country, with lamb, Dee salmon and trout appearing regularly on menus around town. The Corn Mill, a converted 18th-century flour mill on the riverbank, is the best-known food and drink stop in town, serving modern pub food from a series of open-plan rooms and a deck overlooking the water and the old railway station. Gales, a long-established wine bar on Bridge Street trading since the 1970s, is known locally for an extensive wine list alongside seasonal, produce-led cooking, and doubles as one of the town's characterful small hotels. A weekly market held in the town square brings local produce, cheese and baked goods into the centre, and several pubs along Castle Street and Bridge Street serve cask ales from small Welsh breweries, a reflection of the wider North Wales beer scene that has grown up around towns like Llangollen and nearby Wrexham.

The hills and farmland around Llangollen suit camping and touring well, with a landscape that ranges from gentle valley pasture beside the River Dee to the steeper, wilder ground of the Horseshoe Pass and the Eglwyseg escarpment further north. Sites within a short drive of the town range from small, family-run touring parks set on working farms to larger caravan and camping parks with more extensive facilities, several of them within walking distance of the town centre or the canal towpath. Most take a mix of tents, touring caravans and motorhomes, with electric hook-up increasingly standard even on smaller sites, and a handful now offering static caravans or glamping-style options for visitors who want the countryside setting without bringing their own kit.

Wild camping has no general legal right in Wales, unlike in Scotland, so pitching a tent on open hillside or common land around Llangollen without the landowner's permission is technically trespass, even where enforcement is rare in the quieter hills above the town. Anyone wanting to camp away from a formal site should seek permission first, or stick to the area's established farm-based sites, several of which have operated for decades and know the local walking and cycling routes well. Weather rolling in off the Irish Sea and across the Welsh hills can turn quickly even in summer, so a well-pitched tent and decent waterproofs are worth having whatever the forecast says on the day you set off.

The most reliable camping season here runs from Easter through to late September, with May, June and September generally offering the best combination of settled weather and quieter sites, ahead of and after the school-holiday peak of late July and August, when the town and its campsites are at their busiest around the International Musical Eisteddfod. Many of the smaller, family-run sites close over winter, reopening in spring, so a call ahead is worth it for anyone travelling outside the main season.