St David's Park

Start off on the doorstep with St David’s Park’s own safe and clean sandy stretch about a minute’s walk from reception: stretch yourself out on a beach towel in this sheltered bay or go a-rockpooling: there are several shallow pools suitable for kids to learn the art. There’s a boat park and slipway here too if you’re lucky enough to own your own craft; if not, try some fishing off the slipway instead and dream of the day you get your mitts on your very own vessel.

Also within very easy reach (you’re on an island, after all), there’s the massive beach and small village of Red Wharf Bay, with a sailing club, pubs and cockles to pick from the sand. Just along the coast there’s Benllech Bay, a Blue Flag award holder since 2004 and with tennis court and bowling green in the village, then Conwy Bay a little further to the east with old walled town and Conwy Castle.

The Victorian town of Llandudno, the biggest resort in Wales, is five miles from Conwy and has two beaches, a Grade II-listed pier and the Great Orme Tramway, the only cable-operated street tramway left in Britain. Catch a tram from Llandudno Victoria station to the top of Great Orme, where there are views as far as the Lake District and the Isle of Man on a clear day. Great Orme is a designated nature reserve and has thousands of clamouring seabirds to spot as well as a couple of hundred feral goats whose ancestors are said to have been introduced to Anglesey by Queen Victoria (follow your nose to find them).

Part of the North Wales Coast Path runs along the Great Orme summit and you probably wouldn’t mine a look at the famous Great Orme Mines either, which go back to the Bronze Age and are thought to be the biggest prehistoric mine unearthed so far in the world. Or spend a few days overground at Snowdonia National Park to tackle the summit of Snowdon, go horse-riding or take a trip on the Snowdon Mountain Railway. There are lashings of watersports at the park too, or you can stay on Anglesey and dive into exploring the shipwrecks of the shoreline instead – there are thought be around 1200 of them. The island has several diving schools for all levels of divers including lessons for beginners.

If you want to go further afield for a day trip, you can reach Dublin in a couple of hours via the fast ferry from Holyhead, just off Anglesey on Holy Island.