Wales (again)

[SmilerFTM]

After reading through various threads already on here I'm pretty confident I've got a well sorted route done for two big days in Wales towards the end of May. Just wondering if anyone thinks I should tweak it slightly and will googlemaps estimated time be accurate. I know from driving boring roads I always beat the time it states but these are a bit more twisty and slow going so should I be expecting to add much time onto them? 1st day estimate time is 7 hours 51 mins and the 2nd day 7 hours.

Day 1

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z-_W6J3HJg5...

Day 2

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z-_W6J3HJg5...

Edited by SmilerFTM on Thursday 14th April 14:35

[Trophy Husband]

Right past my house on day 2. If I were you I'd go into Betws y Coed, past the Shell Garage on your left and keep going until you come to a little bridge that goes over the river- B5106. The road is through Gwydyr Forest and whilst it's only a 5-10 minute drive to get back to the Trefriw road it's a great little stretch of road with plenty of humps, dips and corners. It's my favourite little blast on a Sunday morning, early. My brother bought a 500 Abarth essesse a few years back and this little stretch was my tester for the car. He was a little green when we got to Betws! Very capable little motor but didn't match the Trophy (quite)
Enjoy.

[SmilerFTM]

I thought I'd actually put me going along the B5106, sorted it now thanks

[BoRED S2upid]

I recently went from Bala to Dolgellau and onto Aber on the A487 that's quite a nice route but it looks like you have a lot of bases covered with those routes.

[ARHarh]

Trophy Husband said:

Right past my house on day 2. If I were you I'd go into Betws y Coed, past the Shell Garage on your left and keep going until you come to a little bridge that goes over the river- B5106. The road is through Gwydyr Forest and whilst it's only a 5-10 minute drive to get back to the Trefriw road it's a great little stretch of road with plenty of humps, dips and corners. It's my favourite little blast on a Sunday morning, early. My brother bought a 500 Abarth essesse a few years back and this little stretch was my tester for the car. He was a little green when we got to Betws! Very capable little motor but didn't match the Trophy (quite)
Enjoy.

Goes past my house on day 2 as well. I would leave lake vymwy from the north end and take the road to Bala then on to Llangynog

[samsul89]

B4560 - Llangynidr to Garnlydan. You won't regret it!

[Birdster]

Agreed, B4560 is a great road. Just returned from my second trip to Wales.

You've some roads on there that I haven't travelled. I may have to borrow your route if that's okay? What app do you use to navigate so that it takes you point by point using that Google link as a reference?

[SmilerFTM]

Tyretotravel to transfer routes onto my Garmin sat nav. I also transfer stuff onto copilot on my phone 1st by saving the route as a gpx file using gpxvisualizer.com. I then convert it to a .trp file that copilot recognises using software I can't remember the name of (its on my PC, I'm at work). It can be a slight pain as no matter how many way points I put in on google maps copilot always seems to find a slightly different route but you can fine tune them by dragging the route to the desired road which usually doesn't take too long.

[SmilerFTM]

To use gpxvisualizer you just need to copy the Googlemaps URL into it and it does the work for you. Depends what type of sat nav you're using as to what file type you need after that. Be wary though as some (like Copilot) will always adjust the routes slightly so you may need to tweak them which is why I like Copilot as its very easy to drag the route to the desired roads if it is off them slightly. If you have a Tom Tom or Garmin then Tyre to travel is good but you'll need to input the route onto it yourself, it uses googlemaps and it'll transfer and save the route to your sat nav using the correct file type.

[Birdster]

Thank you for the reply. I'll give it a try. I was using memory and dropping pins on iPhone maps. Worked well enough, but isn't ideal when you stop and break the flow.

[tuffer]

Doing something similar this Thursday/Friday:

Day 1
Day 2

[tuffer]

Hhhmmmmm: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-36055774

[Claude455]

I'd consider taking a slight detour to explore the dams and reservoirs of the Élan Valley.

[tuffer]

[Red Devil]

tuffer said:

Nice pic. That's Llyn Brianne on the Afon Tywi (your Day 1).

[SmilerFTM]

samsul89 said:

B4560 - Llangynidr to Garnlydan. You won't regret it!

Will change the route so its on, do you reckon continue along that road to Talgarth or turn off onto the B4558 and head up towards Brecon?

[SmilerFTM]

Claude455 said:

I'd consider taking a slight detour to explore the dams and reservoirs of the Élan Valley.

I was thinking about that but was worried day 1 will get too long in the saddle. Its already just under 8 hours according to Google Maps

[tuffer]

Red Devil said:

tuffer said:

Nice pic. That's Llyn Brianne on the Afon Tywi (your Day 1).

Yep, great drive. Also caught up with a nice Blue 4S going through the woods on the far side.

[SmilerFTM]

So me and my mate are heading back to Wales again this coming May but have decided to do three days driving around instead of two. The 2 routes on the 1st post are exactly what we did last year and we are going to keep most of the good roads but as mentioned as we have 3 days this time we can easily add in extra. Elan Valley is obviously one area we'd like to drive around (any road recommend to hit or miss?), what other areas and in particular roads should we be looking at?

[jmorgan]

Elan Valley is OK but scenic rather than fun I think, take it as an aside from a straight out driving day. Stunning views and if the dams are full then views are better, if that is your thing but it means stopping and the parking and photo opportunities are pretty good. There are not many places for large groups to stop on the road, you can manage it but with small gaps for passing traffic. Many of the dams have decent parking (not all).

The cafe at the start of the Elan Valley has plenty of parking and not bad fare. Nice place to get up the side of the dam for a few shots if you want that sort of thing.

We went up there last year in the Fiesta and to be honest, would not wanted to have taken the Tiv up there. Damp roads in the shade, some places where the road is a bit bumpy etc.