Since we’ve moved to London, I’ve had the goal of visiting the other countries in the United Kingdom, as well as the English countryside. I had some early opportunities to visit Scotland and more of England, but Wales evaded me up until recently.
For the bank holiday here in the UK, I decided to rent a car and have a Welsh countryside road trip. Initially, I planned to do something like the Cambrian way, up the mountainous roads of Wales from south to north.
I ended up learning about the Skomer Island puffins, and their yearly egg-laying on the island. This caused me to detour a bit to the west. In the end, we visited Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire, waterfall country, and Brecon Beacons. I’m going to use this post to share some things I learned and guides to activities we did.
Skomer Island puffins, seals, and other birds
Skomer Island is a tiny little island not far off the west coast of Wales. In about 10 minutes, a ferry whisks you from a dock close to Martin’s Haven and onto Skomer Island. This island’s harsh landscape leaves little room for predators to live, so many birds come here to nest and lay eggs. The most popular bird that people visit for however, are the puffins.
Somewhere between a penguin and a toucan, the Skomer Island puffins find their way to this island every spring. They cross the Atlantic from Nova Scotia to lay their eggs and rear their offspring here. There are also other birds such as Razorbills and Manx. Manx are particularly interesting as roughly half the world’s Manx population calls the island home during this time.
The ferries to the island start at 10 AM, and there are four ferries every 30 minutes. You can take a return ferry in the same increment starting at 3 PM. We did the 10 AM to 3 PM stay on the island. If you plan to do the entire loop, it is a good amount of time. Anything less, you may find it to be a long time, but also depends on the weather and the animals you’re able to see.
The ferry company advises you to arrive an hour early. We followed this instruction and were one of the first ones there to wait for the ferry. I would aim to achieve this as well, but if you’re running 15-20 minutes late, it didn’t seem to be an issue.
We stayed in the town of Milford Haven, but many folks also come to the area for towns like Tenby and Saundersfoot, which are about 30-45 minutes from the departure point. So check these out when you’re looking into the area. Another popular town nearby is St. David’s.
To book the ferry, check this link.
Brecon Beacons and Waterfall Country
After our visit with the Skomer Island puffins, we headed inland to Central Wales. We stayed near the town of Builth Wells, about 35 minutes north of Brecon Beacons National Park. This area was chock full of sheep farms, rolling green hills, and beautiful scenery.
The airbnb we stayed at had such a view, that driving down into the park almost didn’t feel worth it. In fact, I would highly recommend our Airbnb, as it was the perfect place to spend a relaxing couple of days in the welsh countryside:
We did and took the Sydrych waterfall hike which was a very nice hike into the woods. Along this hike, we encountered a series of cascades which came down until we got up to the namesake waterfall. The namesake waterfall is somewhat famous for having an old mine next to it.
This hike is one of the less popular waterfall hikes, and apparently one of the less impressive waterfalls in the area. Still, with it being a bank holiday, it was pretty uncrowded and a good hike. Nearby there is also the Elidir trail, which is about 1.5 miles and comprised of multiple, bigger waterfalls. Then, more famously, there is the four falls trail a bit further north. These trails and their parking areas were incredibly busy when we went, but I imagine on regular weekends or week days you could find some form of parking.
If you are into more rigorous hikes, you might check out Pen y Fan in the actual beacons part of the park. This is a very popular vertical hike, but was also quite busy due to bank holiday.
Instead, we opted for some scenic drives in the park, particularly the Black Mountain Pass. This is otherwise known as the “Top Gear Road”, due to it’s appearance in many episodes of the car show Top Gear.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Wales is a beautiful, and less visited part of the UK. I saw the least amount of other foreigners here out of all my trips in the UK. I think it’s just because it is a bit off the beaten path, but it’s beauty is definitely worth a visit.
If you have any questions about the trip, or are planning your own trip to Wales, let me know in the comments below! If you enjoyed this content, feel free to check out some of my older posts below:
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