Druids, Celts, Castles and Kings

Up to now, most of my columns have concentrated on London arrivals and departures and it’s high time I looked further north to the user-friendly Manchester gateway (airside curbside in less than 45 minutes).  It really will work for you if you have clients who have been to the UK before and can use the nonstops from Atlanta, Chicago, JFK, Newark, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. 

Why would they want to do this?  If your customers are interested in Druids, Celts, 13^th-century castles, world-class gardens and privately owned stately homes and a two-country experience, offer them a couple of leisurely nights in the Roman city of Chester before spending 3-4 more in neighbouring North Wales.  You could make it a three-country trip by using the fast ferry from Holyhead to Dublin for a few days in Ireland. It works equally well with a start in Dublin before crossing the Irish Sea for the Wales England portion.

North Wales offers huge potential for customized tours and some of the options include:

- Castles and Kings which can include an upstairs downstairs look at the National Trust owned Erddig and a visit to Britain’s smallest cathedral at St. Asaph, before a pick and mix choice from seven ancient castles with those at Chirk, Conwy and Caernarfon probably topping the list.

- A garden lover’s delight with morning coffee at a privately owned home lived in by the same family for over 500 years and a visit to the stunning internationally renowned garden at Bodnant and one of the finest gardens in Britain. 

With a ride on the Great Little Train from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Minffordd it’s a short hop then to a “pinch me is this for real” hour or two at the Italianate village of Portmeirion where the cult television series The Prisoner was filmed.  It’s a great place for lunch prior to a visit to the nearby garden at Plas Brondanw. 

National Garden Scheme properties abound in this neck of the woods and as they only open when they’re at their best, whatever your choice, it’ll be a good one.

- If sketching and painting are on your client’s agenda, they’ll be pleased to know that the great 18th-century watercolorist J M W Turner rated the area very highly and today you can sit almost exactly where he sat and paint a landscape that has changed little over the intervening 200 years.

Other options for you to consider include an evening with a Welsh Male Voice Choir, a medieval banquet at Ruthin Castle, nostalgic narrow-gauge train ride on the Tallylyn and the Snowdon Mountain Railway and a close encounter with Victorian law and order as you see a felon being tried and sentenced at the Beaumaris Courthouse before experiencing at first-hand what he then went through as he entered Beaumaris Gaol.  I did, and it’s genuinely frightening.

As far as the timing of your visit is concerned, there’s a very long season of great festivals that can be worked into the itinerary with the big one, the annual Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod, perhaps being the star attraction in July.

You can do all of this with a London arrival, but make it easier for your valued customers by flying them into the great northern gateway of Manchester where the access is a whole lot quicker and the prices are often a great deal less expensive.