Llandudno is the most complete Victorian seaside resort in Britain. It was laid out from scratch in the 1850s on what had been a tract of sand and dune between two limestone headlands — the Great Orme and the Little Orme — and the original developers, the Mostyn family, were strict about keeping the new town orderly. The main streets follow a tight grid, the buildings are uniformly three and four storeys high, the seafront promenade is unbroken from one headland to the other, and there are almost no modern intrusions to spoil the effect. Walking the North Shore on a clear evening is to step into a perfectly preserved 1880s holiday postcard.
The grand sweep of Llandudno Bay is its heart. The two-mile promenade runs along a single curve of beach, with the Llandudno Pier — a Grade II* listed Victorian survival, fully open with shops and ice-cream concessions — projecting from its northern end. The Mostyn on Vaughan Street is one of the most interesting contemporary art galleries in Wales, with a serious international exhibition programme behind a striking modern facade. The tidy 1902 Town Hall and the curved Victorian shopping streets between Mostyn Street and the seafront are worth wandering.
The Great Orme is the dominant feature, a limestone headland rising 207 metres straight out of the sea at the northern end of the town. You can reach the summit by the Great Orme Tramway (Britain's only cable-hauled street tramway, in operation since 1902), by the Llandudno Cable Car (the longest passenger cable car in Britain), by car along the Marine Drive toll road, or on foot. At the top are the Great Orme Mines, an extraordinary Bronze Age copper-working complex you can walk through, and a herd of feral Kashmir goats descended from a Victorian gift to Queen Victoria.
Beyond the obvious headline sights, Llandudno is a comfortable base for Conwy (10 minutes by train), Snowdonia (Betws-y-Coed is 40 minutes by car), Bodnant Garden, and the smaller seaside resorts along the coast east to Colwyn Bay. The town is well-served by hotels and guesthouses, has a healthy restaurant scene by Welsh seaside standards, and is on the main coast railway line for easy access from Chester, Manchester and beyond.
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