Oh…..I do like to be beside the seaside?

Having been brought up in Britain and spending my teenage years in Llandudno in North Wales, even going to school there, it was amazing to go back recently to visit the town and discover a buzzing, vibrant community, doing very well economically, with Llandudno having become the premier town of the North Wales coast, offering an extensive range of shops, shopping malls, superstores, theatres and new, exciting and very busy boutique hotels. 

Before we visit one of the best, the St Tudno Hotel, located righ on Llandudno’s traditional and very well preserved and protected Victorian promanade, let’s look at the history of this stunning seaside restort.

Llandudno si the largest seaside resort in Wales and is described as Queen of the Welsh Resorts, takes its name from the ancient parish of Saint Tudno, the name Llandudno meaning – the church of St Tudno.

[Pictured below: Llandudno Bay from the Great Orme.]

Llandudno developed from stone age, bronze age and iron age settlements over many hundreds of years on the slopes of the limestone headland, known to seafarers as the Great Orme and to locals as Creuddyn, with by 1847 the town having grown to a population of a thousand, the great majority of the men working in the copper mines with others employed in fishing and subsistence agriculture.

In 1848, Owen Williams, an architect and surveyor from Liverpool, presented Lord Mostyn, the local landowner with plans to develop the marsh lands behind Llandudno Bay as a holiday resort with between 1857 and 1877 much of central Llandudno developed under Felton’s supervision.  This is the area on the right in the picture above.

The ancient parish church of Saint Tudno [pictured left] still remains on the Great Orme though two miles, 3 km from the present town, and it was established as an oratory by Tudno, a 6th century monk, but the present church dates from the 12th century, with services [pictured left] still held there on summer Sunday mornings.

Llandudno is only a few miles way from the North Wales Coast railway line which was opened as the Chester and Holyhead Railway in 1848 and became part of the London and North Western Railway in 1859, then part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923, with a branch line opened in 1858 from Llandudno Junction to Llandudno.

Llandudno was designed and built as a Victorian “watering place“ holiday destination for the mill owners and workers of Northern England, including Liverpool and Manchester then a long train ride away, but now only a little more than an hour by motorway.

Llandudno is best  recognised for the Great and Little Ormes connected by the terrace of curving well preserved Victorian hotels on the promenade, but is also very well known for its award winning and well preserved pier built in 1878 which is 1,234 feet (376 m) in length and a Grade II listed building. [Pictured right]

A unique feature of the town is that it has two beaches or shores, on either side of the sandy isthmus on which the town sits, with the proemande [pictured below] being on the North Shore and the West Shore a much quieter quiet beach on the estuary of the River Conwy.  

It was on the West Shore in a house called Pen Morfa at the time and then latterly the Gogarth Abbey Hotel, that Alice Liddell, of Alice in Wonderland spent long childhood summer holidays between 1862 to 1871 leading to Llandudno’s apparently now according to some, mythical claim that Alice in Wonderland was written in Llandudno.

Contrary to that apparent myth, others claim that Alice Liddell did not meet Lewis Carroll, nor was she told the Alice stories in the town, but it is just possible that she may have first read the Alice books in print while on holiday in the town.

Nevertheless, Llandudno rightly claims Alice in Wonderland as its own and why let accuracy get in the way of a good story……..and there is even an Alice connection at the superb St Tudno Hotel where we stayed in Llandudno.

It is claimed that in 1861, Alice came to stay in the house still on the site of the St Tudno Hotel, with her father the Rev Henry George Lidell, the dean of Oxford’s Christ Church, bringing along with him his wife, five children, footman, lady’s maid, nurse, nursery maid and governess, and of course Alice all travelling to Llandudno for Easter!  Now were they valuable tourists!

The St Tudno Hotel is superbly located right on the promenade on the North Shore opposite Llandudno’s Victorian Pier, the hotel taking up its slot in one of the spectacular Victorian terraces, with the award winning St Tudno enjoying an international reputation as one of the most outstanding boutique seaside resort hotels in Great Britain. 

Martin and Janette Bland having purchased the empty ex-convalescent home in April 1972 within days of being married, with the improvements to the property carrying on ever since!

I was delighted to have the opportunity to interview Martin for TravelMole TV and to hear what he had to say about running the St Tudno Hotel visit: http://www.travelmole.tv/watch_vdo_preview.php?id=14537

For the first 10 years Martin did virtually all the cooking and although he had little training, the hotel earned a reputation for good honest food with the Garden Room Restaurant [pictured right] opening in April 1982 along with other significant improvements and the awards starting to roll in!  

Martin has now employed a team of first class chefs, with menus featuring the finest ingredients in season, excellent local produce include lobster, crab, mussels, sea bass as well as the now well known Welsh Black Beef and the very famous and deliciously sweet local Welsh hill lamb.

Janette ran the front of house and the marketing, becoming recognised as one of the UK’s top boutique hotel operators and marketers.  Sadly Janette died in July 2005, but Martin continues to run the hotel, now in its 37th year telling me that has no plans to retire!

The food at the St Tudno is superb, with the restaurant having been awarded 3 AA Rosettes, become Welsh Restaurant of the Year, received the Egon Rony Dessert of the Year Award and even the Taste of Wales Award for having the Best Cheese Board.

International Wine Magazine named the restaurant a “Wine Lover’s Paradise” with a 5 out of 5 rating and the restaurant is also proud to be the recipient of the AA Wine List Award for Wales for the years 2000 and 2004.

Other awards include:

MOST EXCELLENT COASTAL HOTEL 2003/4/5 – Johansens recommended Guide

AA Top 200 Hotel in Great Britain and Ireland 2005/6

AA Wine List Award – Winner for Wales 2000, 2005

Two AA Rosettes

RAC GOLD RIBBON – One of only 91 Hotels in the UK

Good Food Guide 2006

Bottle Symbol for outstanding Wine Cellar – Commended Award, one of only two in Wales Five out of ten rating

Hotel of the Year – Johansens Recommended Hotel Guide, Presented by the Minister for Tourism

Best Seaside Resort Hotel in Great Britain and Ireland – Good Hotel Guide

Hotel of the Year – ‘Seaside Stunner’ – Which? Hotel Guide

Welsh Hotel and Restaurant of the Year – Awarded by Life Magazines

MBE Award to Mrs Janette Bland – For Services to the Hotel Industry and Tourism in Wales. Presented by Her Majesty the Queen in July 1999

Gold Award Winner – Family Welcome Guide – Voted one of the top 5 family hotels in Great Britain

Runner-up 1996-99 Top Tea Place of the Year – Awarded by the British Tea Council

Best Loos in Great Britain – Won twice – Awarded by the Tidy Britain Group – Presented by the Minister for Tourism

Warmest Welcome Award – Awarded by the AA.

[Pictured below: the view across Llandudno Bay from the St Tudno’s bar lounge.]

National Award for the Top Two Star Hotel in Great Britain

Good Hotel and Good Food Guides

So if you or your clients fancy a few days by the seaside in Wales during a trip to Britain, do not miss the St Tudno, it is a top quality seaside experience you will never forget. 

What else do you need, great views, great food, great rooms, great personal service……and all in Llandudno, North Wales at the award winning St Tudno Hotel.

For more information on the St Tudno, visit: www.st-tudno.co.uk

St Tudno is also member of Welsh Rarebits marketing group of hotels and for more information on Welsh Rarebits visit: http://www.rarebits.co.uk/StTudnoHotel.php

An on location from Europe report by The Mole