Wales - in December?

Need advice to give to a friend. She is flying into Manchester and wants to visit Wales. At the Christmas Holidays. She says she wants to visit  Llandudno, Conwy, and Snowdonia, but is only giving herself three days in Wales.

Are those parts of Wales even doable in the dead of winter? She would prefer to use public transportation. I am thinking she may want to rent a car for that part of her trip.  Once she finishes Wales she plans to visit England, but again is only giving herself 3 days there. She has allocated 6 days each for Scotland and Ireland.

If it were me, I'd allocate six days for England, and then split the remainder of the Scotland/Ireland time between those two countries, since so much up here in Scotland for tourists will be closed at that time of year. There would be plenty to do in London and in England....

Anyway, for the Wales contingent, any advice I can pass along to her? She's traveling alone. And she "loves" trains.

England is small but you can easily spend 3 days in one small part of it... There's so much history and things to do/see! What exactly are her main interests? Nature, museums, architecture, Christmas markets? That'll help give advice for what to see. She'll be constantly travelling if only giving herself 3 days for the entire country!

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England is small but you can easily spend 3 days in one small part of it... There's so much history and things to do/see! What exactly are her main interests? Nature, museums, architecture, Christmas markets? That'll help give advice for what to see. She'll be constantly travelling if only giving herself 3 days for the entire country!

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Yeah, that's what I've been trying to tell her. Landing in Manchester, than travel to Wales is a day gone - and she'll be tired, as she's coming in from the US West Coast, so that first day is going to be pretty much lost. She loves trains, so she's going to go from Wales to London so she can take the Caledonian Sleeper to Scotland. Apparently that's on her bucket list.

She's NOT into booze/boozey crowds, so she'll be spending a quiet Hogmany in her hotel room somewhere up here. If she's up here on Christmas proper we're going to invite her to stay with us, as there will be nothing for her to do on that day and no way to get to it (unless she's rented a car). But other than that, she wants to see "scenery", ride trains, etc.  So the traveling will be part of the fun for her.

I am going to suggest that she go ahead and go over to London when she's through with Wales, and then see the usual tourist sights there. I have warned her about the insanity that is Oxford Street.  I was also going to advise her to take several day trips out - when we've been in London we took day trips to Canterbury, and to Stonhenge/Glasgonbury, etc.   Or, since she's coming in from the West she might just go to Glastonbury or Wells and use it as a base for a day or two, then come into London.  I'm not sure how well she'll deal with London and all the people/traffic/noise therein.

I was also going to suggest to her that instead of the Sleeper she just take a train north and spend at least a day and a night in York. I believe there's a nice Christmas market there, and I think she can get out to see Hadrian's wall via tour from there.  She'll be eventually ending up in Edinburgh. Which has another nice Christmas market.  She wants to go to the Highlands, but I'm not sure the weather will allow much of that. She's going to have to play it by ear. If she does take the Sleeper, she can go all the way up to Ft. William, but I can't imagine there'll be much for her to actually do there in late December?

I have also warned her that "daylight" is 9:00am - 4:00pm and that the sidewalks (except for bars/restaurants/theatres) pretty much roll up around 6pm.  She's never been to the UK, so I would like for her to have a nice time - she's braver than I am, making a three-week trip like that on her own!

I think the time of year is also going to be a big negative. As you point out, there's not much daylight and many attractions are closed. Is there any particular reason she wants to come then?

How about something a bit organised? It might help her make the most of limited time. Here are some rail tours, I haven't looked to see if anything is running during December though but if she likes the look of those, she might consider coming at a different time of year. 

https://www.greatrail.com/holiday-destinations/europe/rail-tours-uk-ireland/

http://www.railwaytouring.net/Default.aspx?CCID=1841&FID=48041&ExcludeBoolFalse=True&PageID=679716

http://www.railwaytouring.net/uk-day-trips/

Winchester Market is one of the best, and on the way from Wales to London. She could also go to Salisbury Cathedral out this way and se the magna carta if that interests her at all, there's a bus tour that covers the cathedral and stonehenge from Salisbury that's pretty reasonable. If she has any interest in the Royal family, the Windsor Castle is also between Wales and London and its pretty nice around there at Xmas time too. I think Kew Gardens also has some special events on, but you have to book well in advance. Basically if there's anything specific she wants to see, she should probably book in advance.

Has she actually looked at train ticket prices? She might be pretty surprised at the expense. I found on the trip I went all over the country that renting a car while outside of London was so much cheaper.

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Winchester Market is one of the best, and on the way from Wales to London. She could also go to Salisbury Cathedral out this way and se the magna carta if that interests her at all, there's a bus tour that covers the cathedral and stonehenge from Salisbury that's pretty reasonable. If she has any interest in the Royal family, the Windsor Castle is also between Wales and London and its pretty nice around there at Xmas time too. I think Kew Gardens also has some special events on, but you have to book well in advance. Basically if there's anything specific she wants to see, she should probably book in advance.

Has she actually looked at train ticket prices? She might be pretty surprised at the expense. I found on the trip I went all over the country that renting a car while outside of London was so much cheaper.

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Yeah,  the Salisbury Cathedral/Stonehenge/Glastonbury thing would be on my list, if it were me. I'll pass along these ideas to her.

No idea if she's looked at ticket prices, but she's a single woman making some serious bucks, so that's not really going to be an issue for her, I think.   She hates driving in California, so driving in winter on the wrong side of the road with unfamiliar rules... probably not so good.

I think the time of year is also going to be a big negative. As you point out, there's not much daylight and many attractions are closed. Is there any particular reason she wants to come then?

How about something a bit organised? It might help her make the most of limited time. Here are some rail tours, I haven't looked to see if anything is running during December though but if she likes the look of those, she might consider coming at a different time of year. 

https://www.greatrail.com/holiday-destinations/europe/rail-tours-uk-ireland/

http://www.railwaytouring.net/Default.aspx?CCID=1841&FID=48041&ExcludeBoolFalse=True&PageID=679716

http://www.railwaytouring.net/uk-day-trips/

The email I received was that she's already bought her flights.  She's working at the same place I used to work, and we get a big furlough at that time of year. She is using it to travel. I actually visited the UK for the first time at that time of year, but I was headed for London. We landed on Boxing day and left on New Year's Day, and had a great time.  Her "wanna-do" list is a bit more extensive than mine was, and she has both more time and more money to do it with, so....    I'll definitely pass the above links on to her.

About Wales....?

Hopefully @JFKimberly will see this and be able to chime in on wales at Xmas time

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Don't all of the trains in the whole country shut down for Christmas and boxing day?  In London, all of the public transport is shut down.

For tourism, Christmas in London is GRIM.

On a positive note, the Blaenau Ffestiniog railway is a must see
https://www.festrail.co.uk/

Transport shuts down on Christmas. It's spotty on Boxing Day. A things stand now, she should be up here for the actual Christmas Day, and we've invited her to stay if she doesn't want to spend it stuck in her hotel room. Have also suggested a few places (inns) out in the countryside where she can stay, have a nice meal on Christmas day, do a little walking and resting. (Which she will need, given all that she wants to do in the time she has!)

Yeah, she'd love that train. Unfortunately they don't seem to be running in December. 

Don't all of the trains in the whole country shut down for Christmas and boxing day?  In London, all of the public transport is shut down.

For tourism, Christmas in London is GRIM.

On a positive note, the Blaenau Ffestiniog railway is a must see
https://www.festrail.co.uk/

There are definitely no trains on Christmas Day or Boxing Day in England.

Not to mention all the engineering works that happen over the holiday period. 

But as someone who used to really travel off peak - I don't think it's weird for her to come when the days are shorter.  And if she wants to do the overnight train as a bucket list item - she needs to do that.  Three weeks *is* a long trip and it's just one night.

But as someone who used to really travel off peak - I don't think it's weird for her to come when the days are shorter.  And if she wants to do the overnight train as a bucket list item - she needs to do that.  Three weeks *is* a long trip and it's just one night.

I got married in December, between Christmas and Hogmanay and I had folks come who also wanted to tour around.  Luckily, there was plenty of free stuff that people could go and do and scenery galore ,without any other tourists getting in the way.   Most hired cars, or went back to places like Edinburgh where they're quite used to tourists at that time of year.
Hubby and I did have a giggle  when we went to Clava Cairns on the 2nd January this year and it was mobbed. It is free, but before Outlander, you'd never see a soul there.

I live in the southwest part of Wales, so other than two camping holidays up in the area you're talking about, I don't have a lot of experience.  And my trips up there were both in summer months.  There are things to see and do, though!  I second Jimbo's suggestion regarding the railway.  Also, I haven't been, but am really keen to see Portmeirion... I imagine it would be amazing at Christmas.

Only commenting on the Wales part of the question as I'm taking my parents to Llangollen next week and will be going to a vineyard in Conwy one of the days. I looked up how to get to Conwy from Llangollen and it seemed like a big faff with public transport (buses, not trains).  I didn't dig massively deeply than what the top results on google had said, but this part of Wales (from camping in/around Snowdon, etc.) would be that public transport will be less feasible so she might want to rent a car if she feels comfortable. Also, to state the obvious, this is not the best time of year necessarily to visit Wales. It can be cold and rainy at the best of times (though it does get some gorgeous weather too! lol), so I can't imagine the weather in winter and the early times of sunset will be helpful to her with only 3 days to spare.

Snowdonia is a "region" more than it is a single place, so hard to tell what distance to measure as I'm not sure where specifically in Snowdon she'd be going. Conwy to Llandudno is only a 15-ish minute drive but roughly a half hour using public transport give or take (and if weather is bad, could be worse). Not sure what type of stuff she's into and if she wants to see as much as she can or if she has specific stuff she wants to see, so 3 days could be fine or it might not be enough (hard to say). It's doable (again, based only on the trips I've had to Wales but I don't live there like others do so they might know far better), but I don't think it would be the most ideal time to go there.

I live in the southwest part of Wales, so other than two camping holidays up in the area you're talking about, I don't have a lot of experience.  And my trips up there were both in summer months.  There are things to see and do, though!  I second Jimbo's suggestion regarding the railway.  Also, I haven't been, but am really keen to see Portmeirion... I imagine it would be amazing at Christmas.

We're doing Portmeirion next week! haha just a day trip (not staying there) but after you had told me about it ages ago and it looked gorgeous, I showed my mom and then she started watching whatever show it is that is set in Portmeirion ("the prisoner" or something like that?)

Love Port Portmeirion.

It was used to film "The Prisoner" because it is so quirky.

North Wales is beautiful.