August 2021
We visited Anglesey in August 2021. Anglesey is a very personal place for me, as I holidayed here every year as a child, and some years spent every weekend of the summer here with my Dad. Because of this, I am of coarse bias, and believe that Anglesey is one of the best and most affordable places to holiday here in the UK. It has beautiful clean soft sand beaches and offers ample entertainment for couples, individuals, and families to enjoy.
The Isle of Anglesey is close to the Snowdonia national park, which again is a key visiting point for tourists to Wales. We visited places during our trip which are important to me, but I will also put suggestions below of different options for visitors to enjoy and explore.
We camped at ‘Trewan Sands Holiday Park’ which was a lovely caravan and camping site next to Anglesey golf course. The facilities were fantastic, if you are open to camping or caravanning. Myself and Gaz commented on how clean the toilet and shower facilities were. There was also adequate pot washing facilities which was useful and very welcome.
It is worth noting, wherever you stay in Anglesey you will definitely be able to hear the RAF Valley fighter pilot training school. We don’t mind this and find it really interesting.. This campsite is right next to the school and a railway line. Perhaps not the place for light sleepers or those easily bothered by external noise. Despite the potential bother for some, I had never stayed so close to the RAF base, and actually watching the pilots in training drills was fantastic to see and I would suggest even if you don’t stay close, have a walk close to the RAF base to see the planes in tandem flight as it truly is brilliant to see.
trewansandscaravanpark.co.uk Postcode: LL65 3SW
Day 1
Who doesn’t love a beach day! There are fantastic beaches in Anglesey (more will follow later in this feature), most are beautiful golden sand beaches, and most have headland walks which allows Anglesey to suit all the families holiday needs. A beach well worth visiting in my opinion is Porth Trecastell, we call this horse-shoe bay. There is a beautiful coastal walk up around the headland with an interesting burial chamber, plenty of opportunity for rock fishing, it is reasonably quiet so you shouldn’t find it too difficult to get a sun-bathing or sand castle building spot and the sand and water are just beautiful. It’s a sweet little horse shoe shaped bay, and has everything for a simple family day out. This is a secret spot for great surfing too, in rough weather the bay collects some great waves. There is a lot to do close by (such as a visit into Rhosneigr or the very close Eglwys Cwyfan walk which I will also include in this feature). Porth Trecastell postcode: LL63 5TE
In the afternoon we visited the close by Eglwys Cwyfan chapel, known as ‘the little church in the sea’. This is a tiny church which still has an active, albeit small congregation. This is a beautiful church which is accessed via a causeway in high tide. You can see the day we visited was very overcast, which to be honest made this a much more moody and effective backdrop to visit the little church in the sea. It is easily accessed, you go past the boundaries of the closely Trac-Mon circuit (Angleseys well known race circuit). The steps to the church however are very steep, so would not be accessible for pushchairs or wheelchair users. The deep blue snowdonia mountains are clearly seen in the background.
We then went to Rhosneigr, walked along the beach and had lunch at the oyster cafe. We had the seafood platter below which was amazing and very reasonably priced. This is a luxury addition the holiday, but is well worth the visit, if only for a drink on the terrace, looking across the sand dunes out to sea.
Day 2
We spent the next day at Newborough forest and beach. This was an amazing day, we started with a walk through the forest (picnic in rucksack), the dog loved this as it wasn’t too busy so there was plenty of off-lead action. We did a long walk through the forest to begin with with the aim to get to the far side of the beach and have our picnic on the beach early afternoon. The forest is great, there are ravens in the woods (which sound like little pigs… who knew?) which until we saw the sign advising us of this made us very worried we were being followed by some wild boar! You would not know you were close to the seaside, as this forest feels more like an ancient British woodland. If you have pushbikes, this would be a lovely place to have a gentle bike ride though, these paths are widely used by cyclists.
I used the OS route planner to plan a route through the forest and onto the beach towards Goleudy Tŵr Mawr lighthouse.
Goleudy Tŵr Mawr light house.
The name translates to ‘great tower’, now I wouldn’t describe this as a great tower due in regards to height, but on dramatic effect this scores 10/10. This was a fabulous walk from the forest to the lighthouse. Again from here you can see the blue snowdonia national park in the distance. This is a busier area of Anglesey, there is frequently a large amount of people here who come to see the lighthouse. Anglesey has some fabulous lighthouses, and this is certainly one of them.
We then walked from the light house to Newborough beach, known as Traeth Llanddwyn beach, and had a picnic on the beach and spent some time in the water. This is one of the busiest beaches on the island and it’s easy to see why. Its a beautiful clean beach with shallow water so its easy to paddle and swim.
Newborough Forest car park postcode: LL61 6SG. (£7 per day).
Day 3
On day 3 we decided to go North onto Holyhead island (which is an island off of Anglesey island) to visit South Stack and climb Holyhead mountain.
The walk was 2.5hrs and moderate difficulty. Link to my OS walk https://explore.osmaps.com/route/9861886/Holyhead-Mountain-and-South-Stack-walk
The walk to South Stack was beautiful with lovely clear waters, the path follows from Holyhead Breakwater Country Park (LL65 1YG) all the way to South Stack following the coast line. The water was so clear we saw seals in the water which was brilliant. Anglesey is also a popular hotspot for natural dolphin watching.
South Stack
South Stack is a beautiful light house and is definitely worth a visit if you go to Anglesey. This is one of the most popular tourist sites in Anglesey, and is frequently used as a promotional feature of the island (you will certainly see it on travel brochures). I would strongly recommend the walk here from Breakwater country park, rather than just driving here, however if you can’t walk far due to children or you have disabilities then the postcode for South Stack is LL65 1YH, there is some limited parking here.
Holyhead Mountain
From South Stack we walked to Holyhead mountain which, if you are able, is a fantastic way back towards Breakwater Country Park. (My OS map route link above will show you the path we followed for this circular walk). This is not a mountain of massive proportions, taking only 30-45 minutes to the top of the mountain, but again is totally worth the climb, at the top you can see so far across Holyhead and can see the ships and the port so easily. Well worth the walk in my opinion.
When you are finally back to Breakwater country park car park, you will notice there is a cute little cafe which serves panini’s, cakes, sandwiches and jacket potatoes. It is not ‘a la carte’, but it’s just what’s needed with a cup of tea after the completed walk.
We then came back to the caravan for a game of monopoly and a hot chocolate.
This was a great short Monday-Friday break with 3 full days of travelling included, I have only featured a very small part of what Anglesey has to offer. My other suggestions would be a day at ‘Trac-Mon’ race circuit if they have a race on, this is usually well priced as a spectator. Close to Porth Trecastle, on the way to Rhosneigr, there are surf lessons at the local beach and there are many equestrian centres which offer horse rides. Holidays can truly be as expensive or purse conscious as you like. As you can see, we spent very little on this holiday as most of our activities were focused around the beach or walking.
Until next time…..
Rachel.
The British Escape 