Wales, for your Active Adventurers

Wales is the founder of coasteering, capital of mountain biking, and home to some of the most epic ziplining operations in the world. This is Waterfall country, a host to over 50 Islands, nature reserves, two national parks, incredible mountain ranges and ancient ruins. What the active community in Wales provides the active adventurer is extraordinarily unique, varied, and thrilling. And how little we active holiday makers know about it!
 

In a time when Canadians of Millenials & Gen Y find themselves attracted to New Zealand, craving the chance to say they climbed mountains, and jumped off gorges, while connecting with a like minded english-speaking community interested in a thrilling, active, and exciting place will find Wales an accessible and more affordable alternative. 

 

Many Canadians of all walks of life are willing to  embrace the adventurous & unique opportunities countries like Wales can offer. Luckily, many of these adventures especially in Wales are accessible to all. Seniors can easily experience the top of Mount Snowden, just as children as young as seven can explore the underground trampolines and coasteering opportunities.

Areas of Interest for the Active Adventurer
-Cardiff
-Brecon Beacons
-Swansea
-Cardigan & Pembrokeshire
-King’s Head
-Ardoch
-Snowdonia National Park
-Conwy
 

Can’t Miss Festivals & Events
Man V Horse, Real Ale Wobble, Blog Snorkelling Championships, the Welsh Open Stone Skimming
 

When to Travel
Travel in the late spring & summer months for the most daylight hours, opportunities and events.
 

 

Sample 10 Day Itinerary
When it comes to putting a sample itinerary together for active Wales, there is no avoiding jam-packing a ten day trip with a variety of options, opportunities, and adventures, again, it would be difficult to do it all, there’s just so much opportunity in such a small place!
 

Day 1
We start our tour travelling from London, across the Severn Bridge, and into Cardiff to explore the International Sports Village of Cardiff (currently the largest regeneration project running in the UK – upon completion, we can expect an indoor snow facility for skiing and snowboarding as well as hotel accommodation!). The village is home to an Olympic Standard Swimming pool, ice rink, and the International White Water Centre, providing white water rafting courses, kayaking, and indoor surfing instruction. For those willing to stay dry the village is complete with an air trail: a high ropes course across the white water river. This is a great way ease our travellers in to the sports in white water & surfing up ahead on the itinerary. The sports village is located within a 5 min drive to a multitude of bars and restaurants in the nearby Mermaid Quay area which makes for a great introduction to Wales and the welcoming communities of the Welsh Capital.
 

Days 2 & 3
Active adventurers will then head north for the real adventure to begin in Brecon Beacons, home to the mountain range and National Park. The six peaks that comprise Brecon Beacons includes the popular ridge walk of Beacons Horseshoe, as well as many other fine walking, hill walking, climbing, gorge walking, caving, horse riding, and mountain biking experiences.

 

Hill-Walkers, Explorers, Ramblers, & Canyoning climbers will want to journey to the Western edge of the Brecon Beacons, where three rivers intertwine: The Mellte, Hepste, and Nedd Fachan – through steep gorges, incredible caves and spell binding cascades of falling water. Hike the Four Falls Walk – enter through the biggest cave entrance, into the caverns below, follow the Blue Pool as it turns into a lovely woodland stream, to the fall of the White Meadow falls: popular to kayakers and canyoning groups, follow the three hour walk to the Sgwd yr Eira, or “Waterfall of Snow” and walk behind it’s mesmerizing cascades.

For accommodation, the Afan Lodge Hotel nearby offers our travellers a relaxing Alpine retreat for the end of the day.
 

Another great accommodation in Brecon Beacons – the Ty Newydd Country Hotel in Hirwaun, complete with their own whiskey distillery.

 

Day 4 & 5
After a few days adventuring through the mountains of Brecon Beacons, we journey on to Swansea the second largest city in Wales. Along the way, a trip to the National Showcaves Centre in Abercraf – the underground cave complex complete with dinosaur park is an absolute must on our list. Home to 16 km of tunnels and underground caves including the Cathedral Cave. Travellers can discover beautiful rock formations such as the rare straw stalactites, an array of underground lakes, and large hanging domes. The Bone cave is especially interesting for historians, after 42 human skeletons dating back to the Bronze Age were discovered in these chambers, amongst a plethora of ancient Roman artifacts, revealing the profound struggle to survive in the early stages of history.

 

Then, to Swansea to visit the 360 Beach & Watersports Club. This is Swansea’s hub for beachsports, watersports and outdoor activity in the Swansea Bay Area. They offer an variety of support, training, and free events such as beach boot camp, well being sessions, health walks,  and the option to join a club for the day such as the Nordic Walking Club.

 

Then we take off to Swansea’s Sport and Leisure Complex. Not only is this the largest indoor waterpark Wales can offer, it is also a leader in waterpark innovation.The nick-named Swansea’s LC happens to be THE top visited attraction in Wales six years running. The MasterBlaster, a white knuckle roller coaster waterslide, their state-of-the-art wave pool, a lazy river, the Aqua Slide, the Aqua Tube, the LC Lagoon and Volcano Ride are all thrilling new adventures for all ages to enjoy. Travellers joining the LC on Fridays will also enjoy the LC’s Adrenaline Night – and with their high powered technology, you can only imagine what Fridays are like! An incredible cutting edge indoor climbing facility is also available on site to our travellers which makes excellent training grounds if you’re preparing for Snowdonia’s more challenging climbs (but we’ll get there later on in the itinerary).

 

A visit to the Rhossili Bay Gower Peninsula will end our journey from Swansea. When the tide is right the peninsula won’t just be perfect for sunsets, but will make way for 3 miles of golden sand beaches, a genuine shipwreck, and a huge expanse to the promontory known as Worm’s Head. This is the ideal surfing capital of Wales, and it is the first place in Britain to be designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty. This spot hosts a variety of surfing and campground and cottage opportunities for a longer stay.
 

Day 6 
Today we continue on to the REAL adventure - coasteering Pembrokeshire and exploring the Pembrokeshire’s Coast National Park Trail. This thrilling sport will challenge adventurers to scale the coast without the support of boats and other equipment. This means scrambling, swimming, jumping, caving, and other activities are required to get around the phenomenal coastline. This would be music to the ears of scramblers, climbers, and boulderers of Canada. 

Celtic Quest Coasteering will take us around Cardigan Bay to the King’s Head. An exhilarating adventure – acessible to all over the age of 8, Celtic Quest encourages the disabled, blind, deaf, and non swimmers to join the experience. BIG cliff jumps and scramble climbing will take you to the finish in Blue Lagoon where the Red Bull cliff diving World Series location was held in both 2013 and 2014.
 

Our accommodation tonight? A state of the art Campsite for all seasons, Fforest was voted by the Times as the “Coolest Camping in Britain”. Just outside of Pembroke National park, and a ten minute drive from Cardigan Castle, this is the ultimate accommodation experience for any active adventurer to try. Fforest offers four types of tented accommodations, as well as modern crog lofts (based on traditional Welsh cottages) showing that camping can be achieved for every style, including boutique! Breakfasts and communal barbecue dinners are routine here, while plenty of opprtunities for full day adventures, half day, families, land, river & sea activities are on every day!
 

Day 7
After exploring the coastline of Pembroke, after your active adventurer has had their fill of fishing, coasteering, white water kayaking, and island hopping, we say our farewells and embark on our next adventure: Snowdonia.

On the way a stop in Abersoch – a lively village, and popular coastal seaside resort, this is a tourist centre specialising in sailing, windsurfing, jet skiing, and surfing. Abersoch is well known as a water sport capital of the world, and has been hosting Wakestock since the year 2000. Adventurists can watch the Big Air competition held every July. Surrounded with bars, & restaurants, boat trips and surf lessons, there is plenty of fun to be had in this coastal town, on the brink of Snowdonia’s mountain range and national park. 

In the same afternoon, adventurers can find themselves hiking the mountains of Snowdonia and take advantage of some incredible sights, including the Devil’s Appendix, Rangers Path, and the Highest Falls in Wales: Pistill y Llyn. For more information on hiking and hillwalking Snowdonia, read up on our post about Hiking Snowdonia.
 

Day 8 – 9
Adventurers can delve deeper into Welsh adventure, upon arrival in the historic mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, lying in the heart of Snowdonia National Park. There are several major opportunities including visiting the Slate Mines, child friendly pot holing, walking the caves and quarries, enjoying award winning campground facilities, fishing, kayaking, and hill walking guides, as well as a few out of the ordinary experiences: Bounce Below, Zip World, and Antur Stiniog. Bounce Below is a giant underground trampoline complex. But unlike any ordinary underground trampoline experience, these are set within the deep caverns of a historic and disused slate cavern. The trampolines are hung within two vast chambers at varying levels, linked together by walkways and slides, the biggest being a 60 foot drop. (*must be 120 kg must be at minimum 7 no max age.)

Apart of the same complex as Bounce Below, Zip World Titan contains the ultimate adrenaline rush. Opened in June 2014, ZipWorld Titan is the newest member to the pre existing Zip World Velocity, also located in Snowdonia. Combined, Zip World is the largest Zip zone in Europe, and Europe’s only 4 person zip line. Zip World Velocity is the longest zip line in the northern hemisphere, and the fastest zip line in the world, where riders can expect to exceed 100 mph, at 500 ft.

 

Another stop in this adrenaline infused region, is to the community of Antur Stiniog, a not for profit social enterprise established to develop the potential of the outdoor sector in a sustainable and innovative way for the benefit of their community. In true Welsh fashion, Antur Stiniog is a warm and welcoming place with an intricate network of bike trails for every level, plus bike rentals and a full uplift service for the entire day. They also offer training, and guiding, climbing, fishing, caving, and paddling trips through the ancient mountains of Snowdonia. Two days at least would be needed in Blaenau because of the variety of accommodations offered are too good to miss: Cottages, Guest houses, even a chance at the Old Quarry Hospital – there are accommodations available for every type of stay.

 

Day 10
The last and final stop we’d like to mention, although there are plenty more that could be elaborated on, is Llanrwst Conwy, just outside Snowdonia, on the coast of North Wales. There is a beautiful hike along the coast at Low Tide for those who wish to take it easy on their last day before their trip to Manchester the following morning for their transfer home. But for those who crave one last experience in altitude, a visit to Tree Top Adventure might be in order- a thrilling high level adventure course 50 feet and higher in the air above the Conwy Valley with high and low development courses available for all types of groups.
 

For those with a luxurious taste can treat themselves to a stay at the Mansion on a Rock overnight before the journey home, a 5 star grade guest house. There are also a number of high quality Caravan & Camping Sites, as well as self catering, holiday accommodation, and bed & breakdast accommodation
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