Photoblogging my holiday in Llandudno

Friday, August 15, 2025 ⚓

#blaugust2025 #photos

I am on the way back from a holiday in Llandudno (hlan-DUD-no), North Wales (the best Wales), our first holiday with our "completed" family. Llandudno has two beaches and a great pier. Here are some holiday snaps. I shot them on my Lumix LX-100 (so excuse any sensor dust, a big issue with that camera), and did some light editing on my Pocket Reform using Shotwell, a very basic but pleasant photo manager (no way could I use Darktable on a 7-inch screen!). I also used the "magic eraser" tool on my phone to remove the worst of the sensor dust issues, but not to alter any compositions.

Here is the location of Llandudno, mainly for the benefit of non-Brit readers:

Map of part of British Isles showing the location of Llandudno, in North Wales

We stayed at this cute little cottage that had a nice deck at the rear adjoined to the main bedroom:
Photograph of a white cottage on a hillside
The hill you can see at the rear is the Great Orme, at the tip of the Creuddyn ("CRAY-thihn") peninsula.

The first couple of nights my parents also stayed in Llandudno — their babysitting let us have a date night. We went for a stroll on the pier under the full moon and went on the big wheel:

Very dark photo of a bay at night with a full moon shining over it, reflected in the water. Across the bay, street lights illimuninate a row of buildings.

High-contrast image of an illimuinated tram station at night

The big highlight from this early portion of the holiday was a live demonstration from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, show-casing two boats and a helicopter performing manouevres:
Lifeboat at sea and helicopter with a winch picking up a person from the boat
A small in-shore lifeboat, a large off-shore lifeboat, and a helicopter travelling side-by-side

This place has a good Spoons^[1]! A converted theatre:

Inside of Wetherspoons, in a converted theatre. The stalls form the main pub area, but upper tiers of seating are still visible. The photo is taken from the perspective of the stage (which now houses the toilets!)

It's also not bad for vegan food. There's a fully vegan café, as well as a chippie called Barnacles, an ice-cream parlour, a pizza place, and usual chain places that all have options.

A basket of chips, garlic mayo dip, and a vegan burger, served on a board

We spent lots of time at the beach:

A beach scene with people by the shore, a ferris wheel, a hotel, and a pier in the background

Wide shot of a boy and his mother alone on a sandy beach. Hills in background at the other side of the bay. The mother is pointing at something.

I also took little man on a short boat ride

A view from on a boat, with a bit of rope tied in the centre on the side of the boat, and a distant shoreline visible behind.

We went up the Great Orme via funicular tram. There are lots of ways to get up the Great Orme, including road train, coach, tram, cable car, and of course just walking.

Two ends of a funicular tram having just passed one another

A cemetery as viewed from the top of the Great Orme, with the sea visible behind

On the way home, we stopped at Conwy ("CON-wih") castle:

A boy and his mother looking over a castle wall at a river estuary. Towers are visible

A view from a castle of some boats in an estuary

A high-contrast image of light streaming in through a narrow castle window, making long shadows on the coarse stone walls

Well, that about concludes it. Lovely visit, one of my favourite places in Britain to holiday.

For non-Brit readers: Wetherspoons is a British pub chain known for restoring and converting old buildings, and rock-bottom prices. It is controversial because it undercuts independent pubs, and because of the founder's outspoken political stances (notably, he was a vocal supporter of Brexit). ↩︎