Snowdonia National Park was the first Welsh national park, it was founded in 1951. The most famous part is undoubtedly the one around Mount Snowdon with its heavily trafficked trails, but the park also includes coastal areas, rivers and a lake, the largest in Wales.
Unlike the national parks in other countries, the majority of the land in the park belongs to private individuals and over 26 thousand people live here.
If you look at the map you will see that the park has a hole in the middle. In fact, in the middle there are slate quarries which, in order not to spoil the beauty of the park, were eliminated from the boundaries of the park. The park has around 6 million visitors annually.
Beware of the mountains of Snowdonia National Park
The highest mountain Snowdon comes to 1085 meters, but there are other peaks in the park that are worth a visit. As with Scotland, these mountains are not to be underestimated, they can be very dangerous.
We are close to sea level and the weather changes very quickly, there are sudden dense fogs and strong winds. This area is one of the areas with the most rainfall in the whole of the UK.
If you want to climb Snowdon you will probably start from Llanberis, which is right on the edge of the park and used to be an old centre of slate quarries. Although the quarries closed years ago, you can still visit some old mines transformed into a museum .
As a curiosity the majority of the inhabitants of Llanberis speak Welsh and for many it is also the first language. From here starts the Llanberis Path that takes you up to Mount Snowdon but also, if you don’t feel like walking, the magnificent Snowdon Mountain Railway which takes you to the top.
You can also stay in Beddgelert which means Gelert’s tomb. Legend has it that Gelert was the dog of a medieval Welsh prince. The prince thought that the dog tore his newborn son to pieces and had him killed.
Later he discovered that the dog Gelert tried to defend the newborn from an attack by a wolf. In any case, Beedgelert now has 500 inhabitants, a copper mine you can see and some wonderful walks, one of the which take you to the beautiful Glaslyn Gorge. Although small Beddgelert has a number of B & Bs, small hotels and restaurants.
Another great base for exploring Snowdonia National Park is Betws-y-Coed which is located at crossing of three rivers (all with unpronounceable names).
Besides being a base for visiting the park in general, this village also has several walks and an entire forest to explore, not to mention the well-known Swallow Falls.
The Snowdonia National Park has a site with all the information required for the stay. Obviously, given the size of the park and the many things to see and climb, we recommend that you stay there at least a week.