A short visitor's guide to Porthmadog, Gwynedd: things to do, places to eat and drink, and what's on through the year.
Porthmadog, known locally as Port, is a small coastal town on the southern edge of Snowdonia in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It sits at the head of the Glaslyn estuary, a few miles east of Criccieth and south of Caernarfon, with the mountains of Eryri rising one way and the long sands of Tremadog Bay opening the other. The town grew in the 19th century as a slate-shipping port, and that working harbour still shapes the place: tall sash-windowed terraces, a busy quayside, the smell of salt and (often) coal smoke from a passing steam train.
Visitors come for the combination of mountain and sea on the doorstep. The Ffestiniog Railway climbs out of town towards Blaenau Ffestiniog on a narrow-gauge line laid for the slate trade; the beach at Morfa Bychan (Black Rock Sands) is wide enough to drive on; and the Italianate village of Portmeirion sits two miles round the estuary. The surrounding villages of Borth-y-Gest and Tremadog are part of the same community, and the town hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1987. It makes a natural base for walkers, families and anyone bringing a dog, with dog-friendly holiday cottages in Porthmadog running into three figures.
Porthmadog's headline attraction is its working steam railway, and three of the four top sights are clustered around the harbour within a five-minute walk of one another. If you've got even a passing interest in trains, the sea or local industrial history, you can fill a full day without moving the car.
The flagship is the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways at Harbour Station. The two lines together cover roughly 40 miles of narrow-gauge track between the slate mountains of Blaenau Ffestiniog and Caernarfon, and the locomotives are largely run by volunteers. The Ffestiniog itself is the older of the two (the company dates to 1832, which makes it one of the oldest railway companies in the world). Just up the road, the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway runs shorter family-friendly trips from its own station and has more in the way of footplate experiences and engine sheds you can wander through. Down on the quayside, the small Maritime Museum is squeezed into one of the original slate sheds and tells the story of the harbour in its 19th-century pomp, when more than a thousand sailing vessels were registered here. It's open from Easter through to autumn half-term and a quiet half-hour is plenty.
The big draw outdoors is Black Rock Sands at Morfa Bychan, a couple of miles west of town. It's a wide, flat beach you can drive on at low tide (within marked limits), with the Llŷn peninsula sweeping away in one direction and the mountains of Eryri in the other. Bucket-and-spade weather aside, it's also a popular spot for kite-flyers, horse-riders and dog-walkers (much of the beach is dog-friendly outside the high-season restricted zone). Beyond the beach, the Glaslyn estuary has a flat path along The Cob, the great 19th-century embankment that carries the road and the Ffestiniog Railway across the marshes; on a clear morning the view back to Snowdon is the one you want on the camera roll.
For a longer walk, the Wales Coast Path runs straight through Porthmadog, dropping south through the pretty village of Borth-y-Gest to the headland at Ynys Cyngar and on towards Criccieth. Northward it climbs into the Moel-y-Gest ridge above the town, an easy hour-and-a-half loop with a properly disproportionate summit view. Closer to the centre, Porthmadog Park is a small green space with a play area handy for letting children burn off energy, and Porthmadog Eisteddfod Stone Circle at the roundabout marks the 1987 National Eisteddfod with a ring of standing stones. Wet day, short attention spans? Crazy Golf off the High Street is the cheap-and-cheerful fallback. The Italianate village at Portmeirion is also a short drive round the estuary and works as a half-day on its own.
When the Welsh weather turns (and on any honest week of holiday in Gwynedd, it will), Porthmadog has a small but useful set of indoor options on the doorstep. The best all-rounder for families is Byw'n Iach Glaslyn on Stryd Y Llan, the town's combined leisure centre and library. The 25-metre swimming pool has a separate learner pool for younger children, and the building also takes in a fitness suite, a sports hall set up for badminton, two squash courts, an all-weather five-a-side pitch and a café. Parking is free for users provided you log your registration at reception (worth knowing; they do enforce it).
For something quieter, the Rob Piercy Gallery on Snowdon Street is a calm hour for anyone who likes Snowdonia landscapes; Piercy is a respected local watercolourist, the gallery is also a working framing service, and you'll usually meet someone who can talk about the pictures. A short hop up the road into Tremadog lands you at John G Rowlands, a smaller working studio on Heol Dulyn. If your idea of a holiday is keeping the gym streak alive, Pocket Rocket Strength on the Penamser Industrial Estate offers 1-1 personal training sessions in a private gym (book ahead; it's not a casual drop-in).
For a small town, Porthmadog has a properly decent spread of pubs, helped by the fact that it has its own brewery: Purple Moose on Madoc Street has been brewing here since 2005 and its multi-award-winning beers (Snowdonia Ale, Glaslyn Ale, Madog's Ale) turn up on hand-pull all over the town. If you want to see where they come from, the brewery shop is open weekdays. The pick of the harbour pubs is Tafarn Pencei at 17-18 Corn Hill, sitting right on the quayside with proper home-cooked food, dog-friendly tables and the best evening view in town when the tide is in.
On the High Street, The Australia is the busy all-rounder: a contemporary refit of an old town pub, hearty bar food, decent cocktails, the sort of place that's lively without being raucous. A couple of streets across, Y Llong / The Ship Inn on Lombard Street is the cosier nautical option, low ceilings and Welsh-speaking regulars at the bar. For something different, Clwb Llyn Bach on Snowdon Street is a local-language social club open to visitors, and almost certainly the highest-rated drink you'll have all week.
If you're staying with a dog, both Tafarn Pencei and the Station Inn (a wet-sales-only locals' pub a short walk from Harbour Station) actively welcome them. A short hop up the road into Tremadoc gets you to The Union Inn on Market Square, a classic stone-built village pub worth the ten-minute walk.
For sit-down dinners with a bit of occasion to them, the standout is Y Sgwâr on Market Square in Tremadog, a five-minute drive (or fifteen-minute walk) up the road. It opens Tuesday to Saturday evenings from 5pm and runs an Early Bird at three courses for £26 alongside a full à la carte; the Sunday roast (with a choice of beef or lamb, plus fish and vegetarian options) is the one locals book ahead for. Down on the harbour itself, MARINA LA CUCINA sits inside the Madoc Yacht Club at Pen y Cei: gourmet burgers, wood-fired pizza, fresh pasta and a terrace pointed straight at the boats. Yr Hen Fecws on Lombard Street is the dependable in-town restaurant-with-rooms, leaning into local Welsh produce and good for a quieter evening.
Casual eating in town is dominated, very pleasingly, by chip shops. The Creel on the High Street is a proper family-run sit-down chippy that's been there for decades. Allports on Snowdon Street is the takeaway equivalent if you'd rather eat them on the harbour wall. Chippy Dre in Tremadog scores fractionally higher and is worth the short drive if you're staying that side of town. For a curry, Sima Tandoori at 97 High Street and Glaslyn Tandoori on Lombard Street both do the traditional and contemporary ends of the spectrum respectively.
Daytime, The Port Cafe Deli & Restaurant on the High Street is the busy all-day stop for breakfasts, lunches and a deli counter to take back to the cottage. If you're after one of the hot tub holiday cottages in Porthmadog and fancy bringing dinner home, the deli is your best move.
For coffee with a view, head to Seaview Cafe Bistro & Coffee Lounge in Borth-y-Gest, a fifteen-minute walk round the headland from Porthmadog harbour. It's a small, well-loved place looking straight out across the bay; open Wednesday through Sunday in the daytime (10am to 5pm), with bistro evenings on Friday and Saturday. Book ahead in summer, especially for the terrace tables.
In town the busiest all-day cafe is The Big Rock Cafe on the High Street, which is the standard meeting-place for walkers off the Wales Coast Path and parents with toddlers in tow. Caffi Siop Fawr further along Stryd Fawr is the quieter, Welsh-speaking alternative and consistently rates higher on the cake. If you're getting on or off a train, Caffi RUSSELL'S sits inside the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway station building and is handier than you'd expect for a quick bacon roll before a steam trip. The slight oddity worth knowing about is Breaktimes on the Penamser Industrial Estate; it looks like nothing from the outside (because it's literally next to a tyre fitter), but the breakfasts have a near-cult following with locals.
For a sweet stop on the High Street, Cariad Gelato Kiosk make their own gelato in town using Welsh dairy and fresh fruit, with vegan and gluten-free options; Cadwaladers is the bigger, better-known ice-cream chain a couple of doors down if you've got fussier children. Newells bakery picks up the morning pastry trade.
By car, Porthmadog sits on the A487, the trunk road that runs the length of west Wales from Fishguard up to Bangor. The A487 Porthmadog, Minffordd and Tremadog Bypass opened on 17 October 2011 and pulled most through traffic out of the town centre, which makes a real difference in summer. From the bypass, the A498 branches north towards Beddgelert and into the heart of Snowdonia (one of the prettier drives in Britain), and the A497 runs west along the Llŷn Peninsula to Criccieth and Pwllheli. Allow roughly four hours from London, three from Birmingham, two and a half from Manchester or Liverpool.
By train, this is one of those towns with a slightly absurd embarrassment of stations: three of them, all within walking distance. The mainline Porthmadog station sits on the Cambrian Coast Line between Pwllheli and Machynlleth, with Transport for Wales services connecting through to Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton and Birmingham (one change usually does it from most English cities). At the south end of Stryd Fawr, Porthmadog Harbour station has been the Ffestiniog Railway terminus since 1865 and, since 2011, the southern terminus of the rebuilt Welsh Highland Railway running through to Caernarfon. The third station, the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway's main visitor centre, sits on the former Cambrian sidings opposite the mainline station near the north end of Stryd Fawr, with trains to Pen-y-Mount. None of the three are full substitutes for each other, so it's worth knowing which one your train leaves from before you book.
Buses, between Arriva Buses Wales, Gwynfor Coaches, Lloyds Coaches and Caelloi Motors, link the town to Aberystwyth, Bangor, Beddgelert, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Caernarfon, Criccieth, Dolgellau, Machynlleth, Morfa Bychan, Penrhyndeudraeth, Pen-y-Pass, Portmeirion, Pwllheli, Rhyd and Tremadog. Useful to know if you're staying without a car: the buses to Morfa Bychan (for the beach), Pen-y-Pass (for Snowdon walks) and Portmeirion (for the village) are the three you'll most often want.