Motorhoming at Portmeirion

Here’s another video from Vanessa, who this time is motorhoming at Portmeirion in North Wales.

Vanessa: Hello and welcome along to another Motorholme diary and you could be forgiven for thinking that we are in Italy. Obviously the weather is not very Italian, but the architecture certainly is. We are actually at Portmeirion, which is the unique village that was started to be built in the 1920s and eventually finished in the 1970s, and it is a holiday village, but if you are motorhoming in the area you can come here for the day and it is well worth a look around.

Vanessa: With Hotel Portmeirion in the background I am joined by Operations Manager, Dylan, and Dylan what an amazing place this is. Tell us a little bit of the history of Portmeirion.

Dylan: It was bought in 1925 by Clough Williams Ellis and it was then known as Aber Ia, which is glacial estuary, and then in 1926 he commenced with his plan of creating an Italian village. He had been looking for many years for somewhere and he was quite fortunate to find this five miles away from his home up in Croesor.

Vanessa: And was it always his intention that it would be used as a holiday destination?

Dylan: It was his intention to show off his architectural skills and create a bit of a home for form buildings. As a result to generate the revenue and everything the hotel was opened and this building the hotel is in now was one of the original buildings that were here when he bought the estate. It was four buildings in total that are still standing today. There are a few buildings that he had designed that were never built and you never know one day.

Vanessa: And now as motorhomers sometimes we like to follow in the footsteps of famous films or TV programs and Portmeirion is famous for The Prisoner is that right?

Dylan: It is yeah. Patrick McGoohan found this as his site to film The Prisoner series and he actually stayed in White Horses, which is a self catering cottage just down the coast this way. So every episode was filmed in the village and obviously opens up the village to a lot bigger audience.

Vanessa: And is it busy here all year round?

Dylan: Yeah obviously in winter it does reduce and obviously it is a very seasonal place in terms of summer weather and everything, but yeah we have a quarter million day visitors a year without counting all the residents and we will get a fair few number of them at times of the year.

Vanessa: So what would your tip be to get the most out of a visit to Portmeirion? Just have a good old stroll around?

Dylan: Yeah make sure you see the woodland walks as well. We get a lot of visitors who dont actually make it up woodlands and there is 19 miles of paths there. There is a dog cemetery, ghost garden, Chinese lake, there is plenty to see there and some absolutely stunning views at the end of it. So it is a bit of trek in some places, but well worth the walk.

Vanessa: So a good day out for the whole family by the sounds of it?

Dylan: Yeah definitely, you can have always the morning in the village and the afternoon on the walks, makes the whole day.

Vanessa: Well thank you very much for talking to us and even in this inclement weather we can still see how beautiful it is and I can just imagine in the summer it must be absolutely stunning. It must be like you feel like you have come to the Mediterranean.

Dylan: Yeah well it feels like I am going a million miles away so it is fantastic for that relaxation and everything.

Vanessa: Brilliant. Thank you for talking to us.

If motorhoming at Portmeirion or anywhere else in Wales appeals to you, please get in touch and we will get you fixed up right away.

Topics: Motorhoming in The Alps, Motorhome in The Alps, Motorhome Invest, Extreme Motorhoming, Motorhoming at Dungeness, Motorhoming at Portmeirion, Motorhoming at Harlech, Motorhoming Off Season, Motorhome Hire