Conwy is a walled market town on the west bank of the River Conwy, facing Deganwy across the water, and the administrative centre of Conwy County Borough. It lies 4.9 km from Llandudno in a straight line; the Wikivoyage guide to Llandudno puts it “just 5 miles away”. The name comes from the old Welsh cyn, chief, and gwy, water — the river was originally called the Cynwy.
The reason to make the trip is that the walls are still there and still enclose the town, railway station included. Castle and walls were built on the instructions of Edward I between 1283 and 1289, as part of his conquest of the principality of Wales, and together they form part of the World Heritage Site Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd. The walled town is small: the community, which also takes in Deganwy and Llandudno Junction, had 14,753 people at the 2011 census, but the ward on the west bank of the river had 4,065. People born within the walls are nicknamed “Jackdaws”, after the birds that live on them.
Conwy Castle is the most-reviewed place in this guide’s area by a wide margin, at 4.7 from 21,840 Google reviews. It withstood the siege of Madog ap Llywelyn in the winter of 1294–95, sheltered Richard II in 1399, and was held for several months by forces loyal to Owain Glyndŵr in 1401. Reviewers climb the towers and walk the battlements, and their warnings are consistent. A visitor in March 2026 wrote, “There is however a lot of narrow staircases to navigate so if you are unsteady on your feet this might not be for you.” One in May 2026 removed a star because “half of the wall walk was under maintenance”. Not everyone finds the inside as full as they expected, either: a visitor in April 2026 wrote, “what was lacking was there is nothing much to see inside the castle apart from two to three historical facts.”
The town walls have their own listing, at 4.7 from 211 reviews, and part of the circuit is free — Wikivoyage says to “Walk the town walls for free, many stairs leading up to them are throughout the town.” The oldest structure in Conwy is a piece of that circuit: at the southern end of the east side, one wall and the tower of a llys, a court house belonging to Llywelyn the Great and his grandson Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, were built into it on a rocky outcrop.
Conwy was the original site of Aberconwy Abbey, founded by Llywelyn the Great; Edward’s troops took the site and moved the monks up the valley to Maenan, and the parish church of St Mary & All Saints still retains parts of the abbey church in its east and west walls. Plas Mawr, an Elizabethan house built in 1576 by the Wynn family and refurbished to its 16th-century appearance, is in Cadw’s care and rates 4.8 from 661 reviews, the highest of any Conwy entry here. Aberconwy House, National Trust, is the town’s only surviving 14th-century merchant’s house.
The Smallest House in Great Britain stands on the quay, 3.05 by 1.8 metres, named as such in the Guinness Book of Records. It was occupied continuously from the 16th century until 1900, when the owner — a 6-foot fisherman, Robert Jones — was forced out on grounds of hygiene, the rooms being too small for him to stand up in. His descendants still own it, and it is ticketed. At 4.5 from 3,030 reviews it is the lowest-rated of the named sights here, and the reviews explain why: the visit is brief and there is usually a queue. A visitor in June 2026 wrote, “Only about two persons allowed in at a time. To get upstairs the ladder is almost vertical.” It shuts for the winter — a visitor in January 2026 found “It was shut (winter)”.
Conwy Suspension Bridge, designed by Thomas Telford to replace the ferry and completed in 1826, crosses beside the castle with its towers shaped to match the castle’s turrets. It carries pedestrians only, is looked after with the toll-keeper’s house by the National Trust, rates 4.6 from 354 reviews, and is free to cross. Reaching it can be awkward: a visitor in April 2025 wrote, “Approaching from the harbour, I had to cross a very busy main road before entering through a little gate to follow the short path to the bridge.” A two-star review in October 2023 was unimpressed: “No information available, it was just a normal suspension bridge.”
Two other crossings sit alongside: Robert Stephenson’s tubular railway bridge, its first tube completed in 1848 and the second in 1849, still carrying the North Wales Coast Line, and the A55, which passes under the river in Britain’s first immersed tube tunnel, built between 1986 and 1991. The RNLI has run a lifeboat station on the quay since 1966, and Sightseeing Cruises and Boat Trips Conwy work from Lower Gate Street, at 4.7 from 70 reviews.
The RSPB reserve on the estuary flats rates 4.7 from 1,640 reviews. A visitor in July 2026 called it a “Mature RSPB reserve well established after building Conway tunnel”; there are hides and viewing screens, a shop and a café, and reviewers put the circular walk at about two miles on flat, well-signed paths and boardwalks. It is ticketed and free to members. Dogs are not admitted — a visitor in November 2025 noted “they dont allow dogs” and walked the path towards the castle instead. The A55 is audible, though a visitor in July 2026 found it “A little noisy near the main road on one side but didnt spoil the birdwatching”. On Boxing Day 2025 the car park and all amenities were shut.
Conwy Morfa, the marshy spit on the west side of the estuary, was probably where golf was first played on Welsh soil, and it was where Hugh Iorys Hughes developed and then built the floating Mulberry Harbour used in Operation Overlord. Its beach rates 4.7 from 980 reviews: dunes, sand once the tide is out, pebbles at the top, dogs allowed, and a free car park that is the weak point. A visitor in July 2025 wrote, “It’s an incredibly small carpark, that fills up extremely early”, with cars then left on the road and the bend, and a height limit applies. Reviewers disagree about facilities: several report a café, toilets and an ice-cream van, while others found no toilets and, in February 2026, the coffee shop closed. That February visitor called the beach “reachable by a 40min/1h coastal walk from Conwy”. In August 2023 another advised, “Just be careful west end of the beach where the rocks are not to be cut off”.
Buses are the straightforward link. Services in Conwy are run mostly by Arriva Wales, with some by Llew Jones Coaches, and the routes connect the town with Bangor, Caernarfon and Llandudno. A CitySightseeing Llandudno and Conwy bus also operates, at 4.2 from 65 reviews.
Conwy station opened in 1848 and sits inside the walls, on the North Wales Coast Line, with Transport for Wales services west to Bangor and Holyhead and east to Chester via Colwyn Bay, Rhyl, Prestatyn and Flint. From Llandudno the interchange is Llandudno Junction, one of the busiest links from Llandudno’s own station at 66 trains a day; a search result in the pack puts Conwy two minutes further on, which is worth confirming for the day you travel.
On foot or by bike, a flat, car-free path runs between West Shore Llandudno and Conwy and is also suitable for pedestrians, on National Cycle Network Route 5 — though a campaign source in the pack describes Route 5 as still unjoined through Llandudno itself, so check the town-centre end before setting off. By road, Morfa Bach pay-and-display on Llanrwst Road rates 4.0 from 228 reviews and has designated campervan and motorhome bays. Arrive early on a fine day: a visitor in October 2023 advised “better come early 8-10 am because quite crowded”.
The village and what is around it, at walking scale.
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Background on Conwy draws on its Wikipedia article, text there being available under CC BY-SA 4.0.