Snowdonia circular by rail

[TomJ]

Has anyone done this? I’ve booked to go mountain biking with some friends at the weekend but an injury means I’m not riding. So with accommodation booked in Snowdonia then trains is the obvious alternative!

Being terminally indecisive I can’t decide between the Ffestiniog or Welsh Highland. So I’ve come up with the idea of doing a circular of both.

Park at Llandudno Junction, Conway valley to Blaenau Ffestiniog, Ffestiniog to Porthmadog, a break for lunch then WHR through to Caernavon. Looks like pretty frequent buses back from Caernavon to Llandudno or I could change to the train at Bangor. Then retrieve my car and join my mates for beer and dinner!

 

Anyone done this? What’s it like and would it be a good day? The only tight connection is at Blaenau and the nice chaps at Ffestiniog assure me they’ll wait unless the Conway Valley train is very late.

[Zomboid]

I don't know if the timings & connections work out, but in terms of the train ride the other direction is better because you get the Ffestiniog train going uphill, complete with better sound effects. WHR summit is in the middle, so pretty good in either direction.

 

Edit - WHR & FR timetables seem to work with a sensible (1h+) break in Porthmadog at lunchtime.

Edited October 9, 2018 by Zomboid

[TomJ]

Thanks - I don’t know why I didn’t think of it that way. Like you say it works out well. It’s an earlier start, but an earlier finish (join the lads for beers sooner......). I think I’ll have to leave the car at Caernavon to make it work - which is a slightly longer drive

[jonhall]

Yes, I did that based at LLandudno a few years ago - a very good day, but it was a good spring day.

 

Jon

[TomJ]

Which way round did you do it?

[ColinK]

I did it the other way round, starting and finishing at Lancaster. Worked fine. We went that way round so it was uphill from Portmadoc to Blaneau. We actually booked first class on the ng lines, but that meant we were right at the back on both lines. Had we known, we could have had a curry on board the WHR, which would have been far better than the cafe in Caernarfon.