Travelling to PORTMEIRON village in NORTH WALES (Part 1)

I took a trip to explore the wonders of North Wales including this amazing gem among the north Welsh mountains which is the village of Portmeiron.
Portmeiron is a village designed and build by the amazing Sir Clough Williams Ellis between 1925 and 1975. It’s inspired by Italian architecture and gained an amazing popularity due to it’s unique design among traditional Welsh surroundings.

The village is now owned by charitable trust and open to tourists all year round.
Due to its unique and almost fairy-tale design the village was used for production of various TV shows and films; including the famous TV show – ‘’The Prisoner’’ in 1960’s.

The architect and artist behind the village design, expressed his love for the Mediterranean and Italian Villages, he also incorporated fragments of demolished buildings, including works of other architects. The portmeiron grounds are massive, having anything from hotels, cottages, spa resorts, cafes, restaurants and also a massive trail of gardens surrounding the area, with numerous exotic plants from all around the world.

The place is very picturesque, with a pleasant romantic atmosphere. I think that spending a day isn’t enough to grasp the atmosphere and scale of this place, so if you’re thinking of a trip down…. Think about making it a two-day treat, to manage and absorb as much as possible from this place…. Which is definitely worth it.

While stepping into this place I was in awe… everywhere I looked seemed like a perfect photo opportunity and will definitely come back to gather more photos of this place in different times of the year!

The soft, pastel colours dominated the place, I felt like I was in a different world. There was an interesting contrast created between the picturesque fairy tale buildings and an old roman- style architecture. There was a lot of art scattered throughout the place… in forms of sculptures, wall art… everywhere you’d think to look basically.

I know the place was heavily influenced from Italian architecture, which is definitely visible even upon an arrival…. However I have to say I saw influences of other countries too. Such as the buddha tower or a Chinese garden… which all takes place there also.

I couldn’t possibly squeeze all the contents of the place into one post, so today I will mostly focus on the surrounding garden/ nature trail. And soon in the future I aim to make the post about the building contents in the place… like cafes, spa places, restaurants among many others….

The reason why I chose to focus on nature today, is because I’m a bit of a nature freak… and couldn’t wait to explore the contents of the different trails this place offers…. As well as the fact I got horribly lost…. And wasted a lot of time circling around the place trying to find my way back, which was very time consuming….. yayy to Marta and her ‘great’ navigation skills….

I have to say though that I’ve successfully managed to see all the ‘’perks’’ of different trails…. So Behold! For I will share them with you! And also, if you will visit the place in the nearby future… learn from my mistake and don’t rely on the maps this place provides you … they suck. Their accuracy sucks. The place is amazing, but their maps suck.

I was naturally drawn to the nature side of the village…as upon entering, almost immediately you are struck with plants out of this world. The confusion was surreal, I felt as if I’m travelling through continents just by walking in a single, straight line footpath. Asia, Europe, America… freaking Jurassic Park jungle… you name it.

There’s different length paths which take you through numerous routes…. It really depends on how long you want to spend exploring and how many things you want to see. Or you can do it the ‘Marta way’ and just head forward, get lost and actually miraculously manage to see all of it…. There’s also a train which takes you around the main route but it doesn’t really stop, so there isn’t really much time to take any photos or to really admire the views.

I walked down the path and noticed the ‘’hidden treasures’’ in form of art and architecture designs hidden all across the woodland walk. I felt as if I was exploring a magical and enchanted forest, seeing all sorts of plants and flowers.. paths and metal arches…. It was wonderful!

(My favorite self-portrait)

I hope you enjoyed this post,
PLEASE tune for the Part 2, which I will be posting soon!

Thank you for reading,

Cheers,

Marta x