Pencaerau Pods

The smell of the salt marsh drifts up from the estuary below, and on clear mornings you can watch the mist lift off the Cambrian peaks inland.

This is proper North Wales camping — grassy pitches for tents, campervans and caravans spread across a quiet hillside site in Gwynedd, where you're close enough to Snowdonia for mountain days but far enough out to feel properly away from it all. It suits anyone after a straightforward, no-frills base: walkers tackling the high ridges, couples touring the coast road, families who prefer space to entertainment. The landscape does the heavy lifting here — big skies, old stone walls, the kind of countryside that makes you leave your phone in the van.

There are toilets and showers onsite, and you'll need to ask about campfires when you arrive. It's a calm, unpretentious spot that gets on with what it does well — giving you a pitch, some decent facilities, and the rest of Gwynedd spread out around you.