We visited Beddgelert on a day trip from Porthmadog, a quick and easy trip by Sherpa bus. I think it’s fun that they’re called Sherpa buses.) The bus driver on the trip there was really nice. He took the time to inquire about what kind of ticket we wanted and whether we were going to use the bus again and told us about the 1bws (1bus) ticket that allows you to ride all the buses all day. And when we got to Beddgelert he announced to everyone where to pick up the bus back and what time the buses were. Maybe he’s learned to do this so that 17 different people don’t ask him the same question. Anyway it was very nice.
The main draw for us was the walk through the Aberglaslyn pass. The first part of trail follows the edge of a meadow.
You can walk along either side of the river. A little ways in there’s a bridge across the river and trail merges. The scenic train through the pass parallels the trail for a ways. We took the train through here also.
From there we walked through the Aberglaslyn pass until we reached the point where the trail got really narrow and there was a hand hold built into the rock. That’s when we decided to turn back! It’s a pain getting old when things that you would blithely do when younger now seem … scary.
We walked back along the opposite side of the river. The scenery was beautiful throughout. And that weather coming in was another factor in shortening our walk.
It was a good solid trail, though we heard it gets rockier as you go further south.
We stopped at this cool little woodworking store in the village and bought a dragon windchime and then went to a pub where the dogs almost outnumbered the humans. We had a nice pint of IPA (Hopnik and Big Sur) there outdoors. Then we caught the bus back to Porthmadog.
I would not go there just to visit the village, unless you’re really into visiting shops and cafés. (We aren’t.) The walk is definitely worth it.
