Apologies it has taken me so long to getting to the second route on my list. Unlike the first route, I do not know the roads of this route so well and have only ridden about a third of them. Thus some of the detail may be a little lighter than the last, I will endeavour to give a more detailed account of the route once I have ridden it all which is now booked in (government announcements allowing) to happen between the 4th and 6th of June.
2 | Welsh Coast 400 (WC400)
Broad Brush Strokes
My plan is to do route in a day with a couple of similarly enthusiastic friends, which at 412miles and 10hr is completely possible. However it will be a challenging days ride the majority of the route should be fast sweeping welsh A roads, connecting destinations that require a few tight twisty, single track lanes.
Overall this should make a nice weekend ride, starting on a Friday night after work with heading to a hotel or Airbnb near Cardiff. Setting off on the Saturday morning after a sturdy breakfast to complete the route before finishing the day in a hotel or Airbnb in Llandudno, finally using the Sunday to make out way home down either the middle or east of wales before heading our separate ways.
In a little more detail…
The start of the journey will see us making some fast progress taking advantage of the smooth flowing M4, though this is a little boring versus some of the surrounding roads it is a necessary evil for us to make good time and get to the better roads that will be more enjoyable after Carmarthen. If we I were splitting this route up over more days then it I would plot a path up towards the Brecon Beacons first before then going across to Carmarthen which would make the ride a lot more interesting.
Our first more interesting location is Tenby, I have not in my adult memory been here before however when looking at the map it made a nicer looking more coastal route and gave some twisty roads away from the A40. There is nothign wrong with the A40 but after sitting on the M4 and the start of the A40 I figured a change in scenery and style of riding would be good. It also connects nicely with a location I have been to, Dale, which is a lovely quiet costal village tucked on the inlet of a headland with some wonderful wiggly roads. I figure the A477 should be an easy ride across from Tenby to Pembroke and then across the estuary towards Dale, if the weather is nice we should see some stunning sites from these roads.
After Dale we will continue to follow the costal road which is single track and winding through Little Haven and Broad Haven, it is here that it become “welsh road” literally that is the name of the road. In the image below you can see that the default route would be to take the faster roads (dark blue) however having ridden this section is is a worthy detour with the fantastic little hamlets being great places to get a photo, in particular if you end your day in this area there is some great sunset photography locations along this road. This get’s us to newgale and a lovely set of uphill hairpins with camber a plenty, before the fast headland road winds us into Solva another picturesque village with some lovely little shops and a brilliant restaurant called the Cambrian. After Solva the road opens out and is fast with some bends thrown in at random intervals all the way to St Davids.
St Davids is a wonderful place and a fantastic holiday location, it is a mini bustling city perched on the south western tip of Wales. It has coffee shops and character a plenty and depending on how the gang are holding up we will likely stop quickly for fuel both for the bikes and the bodies. We will however likely skip the trip out to Whitesands bay which will no doubt be busy and focus on making fast sweeping progress up the coast.
We will use step in from the costal road here to use the fast sweeping and fantastic A487 here however we will dive off to keep minds awake down to Abercastle, it is to pretty to miss.
Cutting back to the A487 by Mathry and then cutting up to join the A40 into Fishguard. Our next target for stoping is Llangrannog so we will keep the progress hard and the hammer down continuing on the A487 when I road it in Decemeber it was a fantastic bit of road with fast sweeping bents and the odd tighter bend to keep you awake. Making progress on it was just joyful and it has some brilliant spots for overtakes. Continuing after Nevern, note though the B4582 is tempting and the more direct route it doesn’t have the same momentum and by this point I suspect the pack will be in full synchronised swing and thus making hay whilst everyone is together will be crucial. Continuing until Brynhoffnant where we turn towards Llangrannog…
Down to Llangrannog
The B4334 into Llangrannog is a beautiful road that leads steeply over brow and then down into a beautiful scenic village, the bends pictured above are an extremely steep downhill and on tree covered roads and very much a technical riding challenge. If you are not comfortable with steep hairpins and performing near enough U-turns on inclines then you may find it better to head further north and come in on the B4321.
I would suggest going right down to the harbour front to park however be aware that the harbour car park is ANPR and there is no designated motorcycles slots so you will need to pay for parking. This is a bone of contention with the locals they are extremely friendly and hate that this carpark which was acquired with the pub next door is run by a generic parking firm in Birmingham who do not care about the village.
If you want to know more about the village I suggest taking a look at the classic simple website they have created here
For us as a group this will be about halfway and thus we will intend to stop in Llangrannog not only to take in the beautiful scenery but also to grab lunch at The Beachhut, I stopped there for lunch on a training ride with TVAM back October 2019 and the food was fantastic. If however you want a faster stop for something sweet there is an icecream parlour right next to the harbour car park.
If however you want to keep momentum then the next leg of the route below has several good location to stop, including passing right by the edge of the bustling Aberystwyth where there is no end of places to stop and get a bite. This will be the backup plan for us, if the group want to keep moving or the Beachhut isn’t open then we will head on to Aberystwyth and try and make a timely stop.
This next leg is where my personal knowledge of the roads runs dry although I have done the section fo road from Llangrannog to Aberystwyth I just remember it being busy. Therefore I have stuck mainly with the larger A roads for continueing up the west coast, adding Porthmadog in not for a fully stop but for a passing Photo and because I remeber there being some good roads around there. (The Imp Club national 2011 was in Bangor and we did a day run out to Porthmadog)
From Porthmadog we head out onto the peninsular to Uwchmynydd, however that is pronounced… I have not seen this area before so it will be interesting and I am hoping there is a good photo spot that we can stop for a quick leg stretch and evening photo. Maybe if we a lucky a coffee shop where we can get some caffiene to keep us going as I suspect by this point some people will be feeling it a bit being roughly eight and half road hours into the journey. From here we will head up to Anglesey and the race circuit…
I have been up to Anglesey Circuit before and although not the most visually fantastic place its still pretty cool, If we are lucky there might even be something going on round the track for us to take 10 and have a watch. If however the weather is crap and the riders are tiring this is the leg we will most likely cut off and instead head straight a long the fast easy A55, after all the miles whilst not the most picturesque road it will be a welcome sight and a nice way to finish. Cutting north up to Llandudno where with any luck we will have a hotel by the sea front so that after unloading, showering a meal and a beer we will be able to take a stroll and stretch the legs along the front.
Link to route on TomTom – where you can view, edit and download the GPX file. And if you fancy joining us on the route or just a section of the route get in touch…
LazyModernTraveler 