The Best Beachy Mini-Break (& Perfect Blogger House) | North Wales with Menai Holiday Cottages

I keep wanting to type ‘my long Winter weekend in Wales’ then remembering it was actually a midweek break, and wasn’t wintery in the slightest.  I think this indicates how much the last few days have thrown me.  Literally feels like I’ve been somewhere much further away and am adjusting to jet lag, not just a short trip to the Welsh coast.

And that’s precisely what I love about the UK.

(Rants about rubbish weather will be suspended for the duration of this post)

You can feel like you’ve been somewhere totally different and feel refreshed, after just a couple of days somewhere a couple of hours away.  Helps when the weather’s freakishly warm, mind you.  But even if it’d thrown it down the entire time (which let’s face it, it often does on UK breaks) I’d have still absolutely loved it.  Ahh the sea air does wonderful things <3

The cottage we stayed in somehow managed to tick all the boxes of being bright and open and airy, having stunningggg sea views, being warm and cosy, and also being literally the perfect blogger house.  Seriously.  More on that in a bit.  We were lucky guests of Menai Holiday Cottages, have a pretty wide selection of North Wales holiday cottages (read: it’d be impossible to choose) and our last-minute break was to the wonderful Ty Glyn, in Criccieth.

Yes, that is me chilling outside in a t-shirt.  No, I’m not a lazy blogger who actually went to Wales in June and only got round to writing about it now.  I’m as bemused as you are by t-shirt weather in October, seriously.  I’d packed all jumpers and scarves and mittens for goodness sake!  And it didn’t even rain once.  I mean, I’ve learnt the hard way not to get your hopes up about UK weather at any time of year, but jeez I didn’t expect to spend Halloween bare-armed without at least an alcohol blanket keeping me warm.

Everything the outdoorsy gal could want

Please don’t tut at me for not being really outdoorsy and only wandering along the coastal path.  I would’ve done if I’d been there longer, promise!  We had an almost-empty beach right there, the coastal path (which runs 870 miles along the whole coastline, don’t you know) and weren’t far at all from Snowdonia if hill climbing is your thing too.

No I wasn’t trespassing on live train tracks – anyone who knows me and knows my fear of level crossings could confirm there’s no wayyy I’d do that!  However, the coastal path does actually have you cross the railway a couple of times completely legit.  So I took a snap as I scurried across.  The track ran right behind our cottage, and hearing trains trundle past was actually strangely relaxing.

T-shirt weather didn’t quite last for 3 days, but I was bloody boiling in a jumper and scarf when usually by November I’d be wearing a coat too.  Weird weather!

The perfect blogger house

Now I doubt this was what they had in mind when designing this holiday cottage with seaviews, but whoever designed it did a good job anyway!  Pale grey and white walls everywhere… open plan living area with tons of space for photos… speedy WiFi… massive wardrobe with space to tuck excessive amounts of clothes away… tons of plug sockets… and underfloor heating so that ugly radiators don’t ruin your #OOTD shots.  Absolutely certain that was the no.1 priority.

To make the most of the views Ty Glyn is an ‘upside down house’ – felt slightly odd at first to go downstairs to bed and upstairs to the kitchen and lounge but we quickly got used to it!  And much as I love my metal frame bed at home I gotta say it’s nice having a kingsize bed to yourself to starfish on once in a while.

Sometimes I like to prop walls up with one hand y’know.

Fab food just next door

Had our stay in Criccieth been longer we’d have sampled more of the cute cafes that Google and a quick wander informed me were on offer, but with only a mini break we tried out the restaurant approximately a 10 second walk from our cottage.  The shot below was taken from our balcony!  We’d heard good things about Dylan’s and I really really really liked the Deco style so gave it a whirl for lunch.

Food sure didn’t disappoint. 🙂  As a gal who eats salads all the time at home I rarely actually order them when out (too many disappointing bowls of leaves with a sprinkling of tomatoes tbh) but the winter warmer salad sounded positively hearty.  Turned out to be right up my alley!

The best running location ever

You know me, I like to make an effort to keep up my fitness game whilst I’m away.  And considering the amount of cake, chocolate and bread I ate this week, I definitely needed to!  Wasn’t exactly difficult to motivate myself to lace up my trainers and head for a jog along the coastal path though.  Some things I learnt on my morning runs:

— Don’t ‘run’ in photogenic places if you don’t fancy stopping every 20 seconds.  The views will be too tempting and a distance that should take 30 minutes will actually take 70.

— Welsh people are incredibly friendly.  At least every dog walker I met on my morning jogs was!

— The sea is NOT warm, despite what the ladies in their swimming cossies taking an 8am dip might make you think.

The beach literally on your doorstep

OK so by ‘literally on your doorstep’ I mean ‘literally across the car park from your doorstep’ but you get my drift.  Ahh the luxury of having the beach just there.

My attempts to capture the crashing waves (some whoppers of about 3 inches, that is) kinda failed because I was too nervy about my camera, but as sunsets go, I’d say pink skies behind a castle over the sea is a pretty good one.

Perched on a rock watching the sunset was a pretty sweet way to spend a Tuesday afternoon.  And hey, I even managed sensible footwear this time!  Might have been wearing a less-than-practical skater skirt but whatever.

Panoramic views

I don’t just mean the panorama function on my phone that I seem incapable of using in a straight line – our balcony had fab views all the way from one side of the bay to the other.  Without leaving the cottage you could watch both the sunrise and sunset over the water and the castle – how cool is that?

This post’s already turned into an epic but just one more thing I gotta mention – I love staying in places that have a personal feel to them, and after reading the welcome book written by Menna the owner, you could really tell how special this place was and how much attention had gone into all the little details.  Felt very personal and lovely and all those good feels that make you want to go back to a place over and over again. 🙂

My stay at Ty Glyn was complimentary of Menai Holiday Cottages, but all words and opinions are of course my own.

lily kate x

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