Marine Drive


Starting by the pier, this one-way, 4-mile narrow road loops anticlockwise around the Great Orme, with immense sea vistas opening up on your right-hand side. There are few places to pull over along the loop, but you can take the branch road that heads up to the Great Orme summit a quarter of the way along.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Llandudno Cable Car

0.03 MILES

Britain's longest cable car runs a mile from the Happy Valley Gardens above the pier and, if it's not too windy, whisks passengers up to the summit of the…

2. Llandudno Pier

0.09 MILES

A trip to Llandudno isn’t complete until you’ve strolled along the Victorian pier, eating ice cream and shooing away seagulls. At 670m, it's Wales'…

3. Llandudno Promenade

0.33 MILES

Llandudno's iconic 2-mile promenade is one of its distinctive sights. It was here that Queen Victoria herself watched Professor Codman’s Punch & Judy Show…

4. Great Orme Tramway

0.34 MILES

Head to the top of the Great Orme without breaking a sweat in an original 1902 tramcar. It's one of only three cable-operated trams in the world (the…

5. Mostyn Gallery

0.58 MILES

A sensitively restored, heritage-listed 1901 terracotta-and-brick exterior hides the sharply angled innards of North Wales’ leading contemporary art…

6. Great Orme Bronze Age Mines

0.78 MILES

Sitting unobtrusively near the top of the Great Orme is the largest prehistoric mine ever discovered. Nearly paved over for a car park, this site of…

7. Great Orme Summit Complex

0.85 MILES

The summit complex isn't the most aesthetically sensitive addition to the Great Orme landscape, but it has picnic tables, a cafe and a gift shop.

8. West Shore

0.98 MILES

When the main beach gets too frantic, go west to this considerably less built-up Blue Flag beach on Conwy Bay. The views over Anglesey and the mountains…