A Wales of a time

FOR a taste of 'Welsh rarebit' guaranteed to whet the appetite, a short break with Wallace Arnold Coach Tours to Llandudno could have you doing an Oliver Twist and asking for more.

Widely acclaimed as the queen of Welsh resorts, Llandudno combines tradition with modern entertain-ment to suit all tastes, from theme parks to modern shopping in attract-ive Victorian streets, and the main street can even boast not one but two branches of Marks and Spencer.

The North Wales Theatre is situated in the town and this offers year-round entertainment, from West End musicals, opera, drama, ballet,top groups and comedy to orchestral concerts.

A morning or evening stroll along the splendid promenade with its Victorian pier is a delight, as the sweeping panorama of the bay is enhanced by its guardians, Great Orme to the west and Little Orme to the east, and looking at the natural formation it is easy to see why centuries ago the Danes, sailing out of the mist, thought they were being met by monsters!

The top of Great Orme can be reached on foot, by cable car or, best of all, by a ride on the Victorian Tramway.

Close to Llandudno at Rhos-on- Sea, the 6th century St Trillo's Chapel, which is situated on the lower level of the promenade and can only accomodate eight people, is well worth a visit for its history and antiquity.

Built over a holy well, it is said that from this point (and after obtaining a blessing, no doubt), Madoc ap Oswain Gwynedd set sail in the 12th century and reached the coast of America some 322 years before Columbus.

Also in the vicinity and near to Colwyn Bay is the popular tourist attraction of St Margaret's - the Marble Church - where 116 Canad-ian and British soldiers from a close-by army camp were buried in 1919, and many stories surround the cause of their deaths, which appears to remain a mystery to this day.

A real sense of the past mingling with the present can be felt on a visit to Conwy, a walled town with a mighty castle, built by Edward 1 towards the end of the 13th century and reckoned to be the most imposing of that monarch's many Welsh fortresses.

During my 5-day break with Wallace Arnold Tours, I stayed at the company's Court Hotel where prime comfort, excellent food and enter-tainment which includes a weekly recital by award winning and broad-casting harpist Dylan Cernyw, were all enhanced by the hotel's enviable location on the promenade.

Half-day and full day tours of the area are included in the holiday, and the first took us to Angelsey with its 125 miles of coastline dotted with cliffs, caves and sandy beaches with Puffin Island offshore.

Angelsey has the largest granite quarry in the UK along with copper mines and the National Trust-owned former home of the Marquis of Angelsey, who was second in command at the Battle of Waterloo.

Reached from the mainland by the Menai suspension bridge built by Telford, the famous Scottish engineer born in 1757, the isle holds a wealth of beauty and interest in its towns, villages and holiday resorts.

Beaumaris, the capital of Angelsey, is a truly beautiful town with pleasant shops and streets featuring old half-timbered buildings and elegent Victorian terraces. The jewel in the crown is Beaumaris Castle, on which building began in 1295, and this was the last of the many castles built in Wales by Edward 1, the monarch responsible for the unification of England and Wales.

Angelsey also boasts the town with probably the longest name in the world, known locally as Llanfair PG, and the visitor arriving at the coach/car park is greeted by a lady in national costume who can not only pronounce the 58-letter tongue twister, but who will also translate it!

Another point of interest in the pleasant little town is the small hut where the first meeting in Britain of the now influential Women's Institute was held in 1925, following in the footsteps of the women of Canada who had formed the organisation 10 years previously.

A full day spent in Snowdonia was a spellbinding excursion through the 'Land of the Eagles,' as it is known to the Welsh. Driving through the beautiful Snowdonia National Park with its range of majestic mountains reigned over by Mt Snowdon, the second highest peak in the UK next to Ben Nevis in Scotland, there is a sense of being in another world.

The scenery is overwhelming with sparkling lakes, waterfalls, rivers, valleys and forest walks, and the Swallow Falls and Faerie Glen are not to be missed.

Snowdonia provides all the angling, mountaineering, trekking and scenic beauty that anyone could wish for and also has its holiday resorts, including the forest-surrounded village of Betws-y-Coed and Llanberis, a lakeside village at the foot of Snowdon.

A great point of interest at Flestiniag are the slate mines where there is a visitors' centre and conducted tours of the mines.

There is so much to see in North Wales that it makes a coach holiday the ideal way of travelling, as the visitor can be sure of seeing all the well-known attractions along with the lesser-known and also be given snippets of information, history, legends and folklore from Wallace Arnold's Welsh-born and Welsh-speaking drivers.

They know the area so well that they can point out such things as the home of Lawrence of Arabia and the hut which was the base for Hillary and Tensing, as they used Snowdon as a training ground for Everest. These are among the little touches which add atmosphere to a holiday.

Wales may not be the Land of My Fathers, but I want to go back there.

l The cost of the 5-day breaks at the Court Hotel vary between now and May 2001 and the price includes dinner, b&b, entertainment and two excursions. There is no single room supplement for holidays within the UK and there are near-to-home pick up points, full luggage handling service and travel in air conditioned coaches. Brochures available at travel agents.