After an exhausting eight days trekking through Italy, France and Switzerland on the Tour du Mont Blanc, we decided it would be fun to spend the remaining part of our vacation taking a road trip around Wales.
Initially we didn’t know much about this small country in the United Kingdom, but after watching Welcome to Wrexham and spending countless hours researching interesting things to do, it seemed like Wales was the perfect place for us. The history and cultural impact is fascinating and easy to experience while driving around, the nature is beautiful and offers plenty of hiking opportunities, and the country itself is small enough explore in a little over a week.
We took a short flight from Geneva, arriving at Heathrow where we picked up the rental car under cloudy and cool skies. The weather was a nice break from the heatwave that was currently baking Europe, and we were looking forward to some rain and cooler temperatures.
Selecting the rental car took longer than expected, we chose the smallest, simplest one available, then we hit the road towards Swansea.
Swansea
Black Mountain Pass
Despite needing to drive west to get to our hotel, there was a stretch of road a little bit out of our way to the north that we thought would be worth the detour. The Black Mountain Pass is a curvy, mountainous section of the A4069 through the Brecon Beacons National Park. It was made famous in an old episode of Top Gear and is the most iconic drive in Wales.
While the road is definitely a fun one and the views are incredible, it’s not a great place for spirited driving. The road is slippery, there are speed cameras everywhere, it’s a little too narrow, and there are sheep around every corner just waiting to jump out in front of you. We ended up driving over the pass twice, once in each direction so we could get a good view of both sides. Near the top we also took a little walk to look out over the beautiful Welsh countryside with its chaotic patchwork of green farms and tree-lined country roads.
Dobby’s Grave-Freshwater West
Freshwater West is a gorgeous, remote beach in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. This isolated stretch of coastline is one of Wales’ top surfing spots and a popular place for family beach days. We, however, weren’t there to enjoy the beach. Freshwater West was the filming location for one of Harry Potter’s most emotional scenes, the burial of Dobby the house-elf. We were there to visit his grave.
We arrived relatively early in the morning so it wasn’t diffictult to find parking in the small lot. In order to visit Dobby’s grave properly, Thu decided it was important to find heart-shaped rocks and leave them as a tribute. Little did I know this would take over an hour. We wandered up and down the coast through the beautiful sand dunes and finally found two perfect rocks that would make for a nice offering.
We had trouble at first finding the exact location of the gravesite. We were using a shot from the film, but something was off. Eventually we realized the tide was much higher during filming, so we had wandered too far down the beach.
For being such a hard spot to get to, Dobby’s grave was surprisingly busy. We waited for a break in the steady trickle of visitors before approching the grave site ourselves. Once it cleared, we worked our way down from the highest dune and marveled at this curious and unique tribute to one of the most celebrated characters in the Harry Potter universe. We placed our stones and read through several of the heartfelt and emotional messages left by the many fans.
For being such a hard spot to get to, Dobby’s grave was surprisingly busy. We waited for a break in the steady trickle of visitors before approching the grave site ourselves. Once it cleared, we worked our way down from the highest dune and marveled at this curious and unique tribute to one of the most celebrated characters in the Harry Potter universe. We placed our stones and read through several of the heartfelt and emotional messages left by the many fans.
During the filming of Deathly Hollows, they not only used this site for Dobby’s burial, but they had also built Shell Cottage which was the home of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour once they were married. Unfortunately the cottage was a temporary set and had been torn down once they wrapped with the shoot.
Still, this was a really fun spot and it was nice to see how fans really connected with the Dobby character and were willing to travel from around the world to leave him a message. Rarely have we ever witnessed something so wholesome and enjoyable in our travels.
Pembrokeshire Coastal Path
Dobby’s grave was a fun place to visit, but we spent a lot more time than we had planned. With plenty of coastline left to explore, we drove about 30 minutes south to the more rugged area of the Pembrokeshire Coast. As we approached the carpark, we noticed some pretty serious warning signs. To access this area of coast you must drive through a 2.5km long military firing range. When it’s active the road is closed, so we were lucky to arrive on a day when they weren’t practicing blowing things up!
Elegug Stacks
Unlike many natural scenic areas that we’ve visited, this one had just one single warning sign basically saying watch out, there are cliffs here! We’re so used to everything being roped off and protected that it was refreshing to see the area completely open to explore at your own discretion. Iceland was similar but is slowly building more and more barriers.
The first lookout brought us to the Elegug Stacks, two 25 meter isolated limestone stacks rising vertically from the sea bed. It was believed that at one time these two impressive stacks formed an enormous arch. And another fun fact, the name Elegug is Welsh for guillemot, which are the birds that nest all over the stacks, lending to their white bird poop coloring.
Another striking feature to this section of coastline was the color of the water. The range of hues, from deep turquoise further out at sea to the vibrant, almost toxic yellows and greens near shore were so unique.
The Green Bridge of Wales
Not far from the Elegug Stacks we found the most iconic natural formation in Wales, the Green Bridge of Wales. This dramatic limestone arch is around 80 feet tall and the bridge stretches almost 70 feet across. The arch gets its name from the layer of grass and vegetation growing on top. We always love seeing a good arch, and one that drops into the ocean just makes it so much better! It is possible to walk across the bridge, but we took a look at the narrow, slippery trail and decided against it.
The Pembrokeshire Coastal Path is a 186 mile hiking trail along this stunning and rugged coastline. Since we had only a short amount of time we only saw a tiny section of the trail. We were pleasantly surprised at how beautiful the coast is in the south of Wales and would definitely enjoy returning to see more of it one day.
Tenby
Tenby is a harbor town and resort known for its 13th century walls and colorful, stacked homes. We were running behind schedule, so after exploring the Pembrokeshire coast we had just a little bit of time to stop and wander around the picturesque little town.
After getting lucky finding parking and dealing with the complicated parking meter, we walked into town and had a nice lunch of salmon and some sort of pot pie. The seagulls were bold here, unafraid of standing on the tables and stealing anything that wasn’t locked down. After lunch, we walked around town for a bit, taking in the views before heading back to Roch where we had dinner reservations.
Roch
Roch castle was our home base while in Southern Wales. This small 13th century castle was originally built as one of the outer defenses of Little England and sits on a small rocky hill commanding sweeping views of the surrounding area.
Changing hands multiple times over its life between different royal families, Roch Castle was finally bought and restored as a hotel in 2008 after having fallen into disrepair. It was a unique and memorable place to stay, one could call it peeeeerfect.
Solva
Solva is a tiny, colorful village at the mouth of the River Solva. Long ago it was the main trading center of St. Bride’s Bay and after that an important location for lime burning. There were still several preserved lime kilns down near the harbor. Today, Solva is mostly a tourist village, home to a few restaurants and shops. We decided to make dinner reservations at a local seafood restaurant which is rare for us, but apparently this area gets busy especially in the summer months.
Our restaurant choice was entirely based on Thu wanting mussels for dinner and this was the only restaurant in the area that had them on the menu. The facade of the restaurant was perfect, exactly what we were hoping for. The interior however, was updated and modern, a little less rustic and pub-like. Dinner was nothing special but it was good, and I found that drinking an entire pint of pineapple juice not only gets you strange looks from the bartender, but can also make you feel a little sick afterward...who knew?