Penmaenmawr sits on a shelf of land between the mountain that gives it its name and the sea, halfway between Conwy and Bangor. It is a small, quiet place, a granite quarrying town before it was anything else. It still has the feel of somewhere that works for a living rather than somewhere built for visitors.
6 places to stay · showing 1–6
Penmaenmawr, North Wales & Coast
A Penmaenmawr cottage with stunning Conwy Bay views, sleeping up to 9, with a woodburner and a sunset garden. Beach on the doorstep. Dogs welcome.
Penmaenmawr, North Wales & Coast
A cosy detached cottage near Penmaenmawr, sleeping 2, with vaulted ceilings and a private patio — an adults-only romantic bolthole near the beach.
Penmaenmawr, North Wales & Coast
A quaint single-storey cottage in Penmaenmawr sleeping 5, with mountain views over Conwy Bay, a garden and parking. Dog-friendly, near the beach.
Penmaenmawr, North Wales & Coast
A four-storey townhouse in Penmaenmawr sleeping 13, with sea views, three sitting areas and a courtyard, near the beach. Great for big groups.
Penmaenmawr, North Wales & Coast
A single-storey bungalow in Penmaenmawr sleeping 6, with sweeping sea and mountain views over Conwy Bay and an enclosed garden. Dog-friendly.
Penmaenmawr, North Wales & Coast
A grand house in Penmaenmawr sleeping 20, with a hot tub, a games-and-cinema room and a 28ft viewing deck. Made for big celebrations. Dog-friendly.
More places to stay nearby in North Wales Coast
Conwy, North Wales & Coast
A friendly family-run Victorian guest house on the edge of Conwy, with four en-suite rooms, a cooked breakfast and parking, overlooking the town walls.
Llandudno, North Wales & Coast
A townhouse of 1832 on Llandudno's North Parade with seven suites, most looking over the promenade and the bay.
Conwy, North Wales & Coast
A luxury B&B within Conwy’s ancient town walls — a gem in this medieval walled town.
Llandudno, North Wales & Coast
An elegant Victorian B&B in a prime Llandudno position with free parking — a comfortable seaside base.
Caernarfon, North Wales & Coast
A collection of beautiful holiday cottages on a peaceful smallholding near Caernarfon, with spectacular views, sleeping up to 20 in total. Dog-friendly.
Conwy, North Wales & Coast
A beautiful Grade II listed country house B&B in the Conwy Valley near Rowen — a historic, peaceful base.
Bangor, North Wales & Coast
A refurbished Welsh inn at Tal-y-Bont near Bangor with 11 rooms and a self-catering cottage, its own restaurant and a tavern bar, just off the A55.
Conwy, North Wales & Coast
A characterful boutique bed and breakfast in the heart of medieval Conwy, opposite the castle, with four individually styled en-suite rooms and breakfast.
Walk the beach first, then look up. The mountain behind the town was quarried for well over a century, and the terraces cut into it are still plain to see. Above them the ground rises quickly into the Carneddau, the emptiest high ground in Eryri (Snowdonia). The sea here was classed Excellent for bathing in 2025, as good as it gets on this coast.
Conwy and its castle are ten minutes east and Bangor about fifteen minutes west, with Anglesey over the bridge beyond it. The station is on the main coast line and the A55 runs behind the town through two tunnels, so getting anywhere along this coast is quick.
Penmaenmawr had 281 people at the 1801 census and 3,503 by 1901, and the reason was granite. Quarrying began on the headland in 1832, and a second quarry opened on Graiglwyd two years later; between them they kept close to a thousand men in work until the 1950s.
The stone went out as setts, the square blocks that paved Victorian city streets. What really made the town, though, was Gladstone: the quarry-owning Darbishire family brought the Prime Minister here on holiday in 1855, and he came back for forty years.
The quarry company is long gone, but the town is still here and a good deal quieter than Llandudno or Rhyl. Its sand-and-shingle beach sits below the promenade, and Aber Falls drops off the Carneddau a few miles west.
A signed path climbs from the top of the town to a Neolithic axe factory and the Druids’ Circle. The Circle is a Bronze Age ring of standing stones out on the open moor, with the sea at your back the whole way up.
Penmaenmawr is the quiet corner of this coast, ten minutes from Conwy and fifteen from Bangor, from £70 a night. The mountain is at the back door, the sand at the front, away from the resort crowds. See Conwy next door, or the whole North Wales coast, and book direct.
See all: North Wales Coast accommodation
Browse North Wales Coast by type: B&Bs & Guest Houses · Hotels & Inns · Cottages & Self-Catering · Lodges & Cabins · Caravan & Camping
Nearby towns: Llandudno · Bangor · Colwyn Bay · Conwy · Prestatyn · Rhyl
Nearby areas: Anglesey · Snowdonia · North East Wales
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