Just returning to the "Cardiff to Bangor or Caernarfon" journey, can any kind soul say how long--from practical experience--this journey takes by road, presumably mainly using the A470?
And overall what is the standard of this road?
Thanks
Righty-o, I'll talk you through a journey northbound from Cardiff to Bangor!
You'll start off driving north out of suburbia to the M4, by whichever route you choose, and then head northwards from J32 on the A470. If you avoid doing this part during rush hour, it's plain sailing. From here to Merthyr, it's a good two-lane dual carriageway, with grade separated junctions until Abercynon, then four or five roundabouts until you get to the far side of Merthyr. At this point, the road becomes a single carriageway, and you start gradually climbing the Upper Taff valley, slowing for a few villages as you climb up the Brecon Beacons.
At about 400m altitude, the road decends on the other side towards Brecon (magnificent views). A dual carriageway bypass of Brecon is your last opportunity to pass any lorries or caravans with ease. Now it's back to a fairly good standard of country A-road: gentle twists and curves that you can't see around on account of the hedgerows, but you only need to lift off by 10mph or so. The A470 bears left off the through road twice before you get to Builth, and there are as ever some more villages where you need to slow down to 40 or 30.
Builth Wells is a common pit-stop, as in addition to the outskirts of the town you drive past a Little Chef before the Showground. (Heavy traffic two weeks of the year, otherwise no trouble at all.) I tend to hold on a few more miles until the next town, Rhaeadr. Immediately north of Builth the road is recently improved with a new route cutting out a significant slalom session in days of yore. The narrow approach to the crossroads at its town centre can be tricky for HGVs, and you may find that you have to hold back to let oncoming traffic past. Out of the towns and villages, it's all rolling hills and countryside.
The road becomes a little harder on the driver from Rhaeadr onwards. Turns become a bit sharper, and the rolling hills start to encroach a bit more. Once again, there are several villages and small towns to slow down for, and another two occasion where you need to turn off to follow the A470. From Caersws to Cemmaes Road you'll be following the Cambrian Mainline westbound, and dancing over and under it at every opportunity. The overbridges tend to be perpendicular to the railway line, so you'll be slowing down for chicanes often. The villages and their speed restrictions feel more numerous here, too. Yet another roundabout where you have to be sure of turning the right way, as well.
The villages start to thin out again after Cemmaes Road, as you approach the foothills of Snowdonia. Having left Dinas Mawddwy you have a long hard climb up to Bwlch Oerddrws, as you cross the frontier into Gwynedd. It's a steep ascent in no higher than third gear, with some reverse bends at the top to make you second-guess whether you can keep going in your current gear or you need to change down. Driving a fully laden Luton Van this way while moving house was very, er, fun!
Dolgellau has a bypass running along the old railway line, but the town is well worth a visit if you want a pit stop or a little meal (and you didn't already call at the Little Chef south of the town). Due north of here used to be one of the worst parts of the entire drive, with a contraflow system in operation for months (or was it years) when the narrow twisty road's roadside barrier collapsed into the wooded river below. After much infrastructure spending, the black spot has been erased, but locals are now voicing concerns about the safety of the junctions either end of the town's bypass. That shouldn't trouble anyone driving straight through, though.
Having cleared the woods of Dolgellau, you'll feel you're driving along a mountain plateau on the way to Trawsfynydd. Good visibility, and long stretches of arrow straight road make this portion a joy. You now have a choice of route to take. Continuing ahead on the "trunk route" will take you onto the A487 through Porthmadog and Caernarfon. The approach to Porthmadog has a "seasidey" feel to it (with reason) and you get a chance to wave hello to the Ffestiniog Railway as you enter the town. Summer traffic can be bad here, but a bypass has recently been finished. I haven't driven past since it was built, so can't give any further info. Beyond Porthmadog it's a good country A-road, with most villages bypassed, until the last stretch from Llanllyfni to Caernarfon, where it's death by a thousand roundabouts. Recent improvements have given us a good, (single carriageway) straight road with a hard shoulder on each side, only to interrupt it every two miles or so with a roundabout for access to the local village. Then there's the town or Caernarfon to get through (long tailbacks here if you come through at rush hour) and the short link road to Bangor. The Felinheli bypass, with its crawler lanes, will be the nearest thing to a dual carriageway you've seen since Brecon!
Those new roundabouts south of Caernarfon really interrupt my "flow" while driving, so I choose to turn off after Trawsfynydd and follow the A470 proper. It's a hard road, thoroughly twisty-turny up-and-down as you make your way to Blaenau Ffestiniog, and then you have another mountain pass (the Crimea) to cross for all your trouble. I'm very comfortable with it as a road, but I don't recommend it for a novice driver at all. At Betws y Coed, you can join Telford's A5 for a well-engineered route down the Ogwen Valley for Bangor (gentle inclines designed for horse-drawn mail coach), or continue northbound through "pastoral" landscapes (rolling hills with white wrought iron fencing at the roadside) and yet more villages until you reach the Conwy estuary, and the A55.
And as for timescales? In my driving style, I'd budget for four and a half hours, excluding stops. I know some people who would regularly do it in four. Any quicker than that and you're probably disregarding speed limits. If you're aiming for the Rhyl-Wrexham area, you may choose to take the A483 from Builth, through Newtown, but I'm not familiar with that route. What I can tell you is that, contrary to the railways, it is far
slower to go through England along the dual carriageways and motorways. I took over five hours going that way late one night (with no traffic at all), and I burned far more petrol doing so too.