No affiliate links in this one. Every site, pub and beach below was paid for with my own money, and the verdicts are exactly what I told Suzy in the van afterwards.
It was about 3am and I was doing the maths on a tank of diesel. Not for any good reason. Just one of those nights where the brain will not switch off and a calculator feels like company. The number was not pretty. Which is roughly how I arrived at a decision that has shaped our whole first season in the Giottiline Giottivan 60T: stay close to home.
We are lucky. Home is within an easy run of North Wales, so close-to-home still means mountains, coast, castles and some genuinely good pubs. Over six weekends between March and May we worked our way through six sites, most of them within an hour or so of the front door. Some were superb. One I will never repeat. Here is the honest account of all six, in the order we stayed at them, so you can copy the good ones and avoid my mistake.
A note before we start. Along the way I also learnt a fair bit about actually living in the van. We ditched the sleeping bags we used to throw in the old VW Transporter and switched to a proper duvet, which made an absurd difference to how well we slept. We also worked out which board games are any good for two people in a small space without taking up half a cupboard. Both of those deserve their own write-up another time. For now, the sites.
1. Rhuallt Country Park, Saint Asaph
We started gently, with Suzy, at Rhuallt Country Park just off junction 29 of the A55. It is an adults-only touring site and it is immaculate. Clean, well maintained, spacious hardstanding pitches, and the kind of quiet that makes you remember why you bought the van in the first place.
The bonus here is the White House, the site’s own pub and restaurant, a couple of minutes’ walk from the pitches. We had a lovely meal there. It is dog friendly in the bar section, which matters to us because Cujo and Blaze come everywhere, and the food was a proper cut above what you expect when something is this convenient to where you are sleeping. If you want an easy, polished first night somewhere, or a low-stress base for exploring Conwy and the coast, this is a very safe bet.
2. Bron y Wendon, Llanddulas (the one I would never repeat)
The next weekend was just me and the dogs, as Suzy was away with her sister. On paper Bron y Wendon is a winner. Clean site, well run, and a genuine sea view. I was looking forward to it.
And then there is the A55. The noise from the expressway is relentless. I was pitched on the far side of the site, as far from the road as you can get, and it was still a constant roar. Not a hum you tune out after an hour. A roar that was there at midnight and still there at six in the morning.
What genuinely amazed me was that there were caravans pitched right up against the hedge on the road side, almost touching it. I cannot imagine how anyone sleeps there. They must have been driven half mad by it.
The redeeming feature is the walk. I took the coast path along to Old Colwyn, had a pint, and walked back. It was a genuinely surreal experience. On one side of you the sea is doing its beautiful thing. On the other, the A55 is roaring past about as close as a motorway can be. Lovely and maddening at the same time. The walk I would do again. The site, never.
3. The Drovers Arms, Rhewl (a Brit Stops night)
The following Friday I tried something different: a Brit Stops night at the Drovers Arms near Ruthin.
If you have not come across Brit Stops, it is worth knowing about. It is an app, which is a big improvement on the old printed guide, listing hundreds of pubs, farm shops, vineyards and attractions across the UK that will let you park your motorhome or campervan overnight for free. There is no pitch fee and no electric hookup. The unwritten deal is simply that you give them your custom: have a meal, buy a few things, support the business that is hosting you. For a one-night stop on the way somewhere, or just an easy Friday escape, it is brilliant value and it takes you to places a campsite never would.
The Drovers Arms is a great example of why the scheme works. Great welcome, genuinely good food, and loads of space to park the van properly rather than wedging it into a corner. There is also a beautiful riverside walk that starts directly across the road from the pub, which is the perfect way to walk off dinner or start the morning before you move on. Exactly what a Brit Stops night should be.
4. Ty’n Yr Ardd, Rhuallt
Back to Rhuallt the next weekend, but a completely different sort of stay. Ty’n Yr Ardd is a small Certificated Location, just five vans, adults only, no facilities on site at all. And it is all the better for it.
The views are genuinely stunning, looking out across the countryside towards the Clwydian hills. With only five pitches it is properly peaceful in a way the bigger sites cannot match. If you are self-contained in your van and you do not need a shower block, this is exactly the kind of place that reminds you why small sites are often the best ones.
One important practical warning. Approach it on the A55. Do not let your sat nav bring you in from the Rhyl direction, because the lanes that way are very narrow, with almost no passing places and some very tight corners. Fine in a car, stressful in a van. Come at it from the expressway and it is straightforward.
It was Easter when we stayed, and the owners had left a little Easter gift hanging on the van door when we arrived. The kind of small, thoughtful touch you only get at a tiny family-run site, and exactly why these places win.
There are two pubs within walking distance, which for a site this size is a real treat. The first is the Blue Lion. We did not eat there this time, but the food coming out looked superb and it is dog friendly, so it is firmly on the list for next time. The second is a stunning walk over to the White House, the same pub from the Rhuallt Country Park stay, which is well worth the stroll. We had a drink in both. We will be back to the site and to both pubs.
5. Maes Carafanau, Hendy (near Caernarfon)
For this one I took a climbing mate along. Maes Carafanau at Hendy Farm is a nice little site near Caernarfon, well placed for a weekend with a bit more going on than a quiet walk.
The main event was a session at Beacon Climbing Centre. Good climbing, but a word of warning if you are used to a smaller local wall: the walls here are quite a bit taller than we are used to, and you notice it about halfway up. Humbling in the best way.
Dinner was at Marina Cei, a nice restaurant down by the water, and crucially it is dog friendly, so nobody had to be left in the van. A good, varied weekend base, and Caernarfon itself with the castle is right there if you want a proper day out.
6. Dolgellau aire
The last of the six, in mid-May, was a two-night stay at the aire right in the middle of Dolgellau. This one was personal. I have childhood memories all over this part of the world, and pulling the van up in the middle of the town brought a lot of them back.
An aire, if the term is new to you, is a simple, low-cost overnight parking spot for motorhomes, common across Europe and slowly spreading here. No frills, just a legal, convenient place to stop. Being right in the centre of Dolgellau meant everything was on the doorstep.
We drove out to Fairbourne beach, which some of you may recognise as a location from the television series Under the Salt Marsh. Then, the highlight, we walked a stretch of the Mawddach Trail down to the George III pub for a pint. The Mawddach estuary on a decent day is one of the loveliest walks in Wales, and having a good pub as the turning point is exactly the sort of plan that works perfectly from the van.
Dog-friendliness, scored (added retrospectively)
This roundup was written before our eight-point dog-friendly scoring system existed, so most of it was not captured with the checklist in mind. Rather than guess, here is what we can honestly confirm for each site, with the gaps left as gaps rather than filled in with assumptions.
Rhuallt Country Park: confirmed dog-friendly pub two minutes’ walk (the White House, bar section). Whether there is a dedicated off-lead field on site is honestly not something we can confirm without a return visit. Other criteria not evaluated.
Bron y Wendon: no dog-specific facts confirmed either way. Already ruled out for us regardless, on road noise alone.
The Drovers Arms (Brit Stops): confirmed riverside walk directly across the road, and pub walkability is trivially yes since you are parked at the pub itself. Other criteria not evaluated.
Ty’n Yr Ardd: no facilities on site at all by design, self-contained vans only, so there is no ramp-versus-steps question to answer here. Confirmed dog-friendly pub (the Blue Lion) within walking distance. No water access confirmed. Off-lead field not confirmed, though with only five pitches and open countryside around it, it is a fair guess this matters less here than at a bigger site.
Maes Carafanau: confirmed dog-friendly restaurant (Marina Cei) within reach. Other criteria not evaluated.
Dolgellau aire: confirmed walkable route (the Mawddach Trail) to the George III pub, though we cannot confirm the pub itself is dog-friendly. No facilities, it is an aire. Other criteria not evaluated.
Ty’n Yr Ardd, Rhuallt Country Park and the Drovers Arms remain the three we would actually send someone to. If we return to any of them, they will get the full eight-point treatment properly, in person, rather than reconstructed from memory.
What six weekends taught me
Staying close to home because of the diesel maths turned out to be no compromise at all. North Wales has more good campervan stops within an hour of us than we could get through in a season.
If I had to rank them: Ty’n Yr Ardd and Rhuallt Country Park for a proper site with the bonus of good pubs nearby, the Drovers Arms for an easy and brilliant-value Brit Stops night, and Dolgellau for the walks and the memories. Bron y Wendon is the only one I would actively steer you away from, and only because of the road noise, which is a genuine shame given the sea view.
The bigger lesson is the one I keep relearning at 3am. The best weekends were not the ones furthest away or most expensive. They were the small, quiet, well-chosen ones close to home. If you have a van and you are tempted to always chase the dramatic long-haul trip, do not overlook what is on your own doorstep. Mine has kept me busy for a full season and I have barely scratched the surface.
More on the van itself, including the kit that has actually earned its place, is in the Giottiline Giottivan 60T review and the quick wins post. The duvet-versus-sleeping-bags verdict and the two-player board games are coming soon.
Closer to home, I’ve also written up a five-mile riverside walk from Chester’s Little Roodee car park, proof that you don’t need to drive to Wales for a decent day out with the van.
Further into the region, Lake Vyrnwy and its drowned village makes a proper day trip, and Henstent Park was the first site to get the full eight-point dog-friendly scorecard treatment in person, worth a look if you want to see the framework applied properly rather than reconstructed after the fact like the scoring above.
Long weekends in a camp chair take their toll if you’re tall. I finally sorted mine out with the Vango Hampton DLX reclining camping chair, tested on this exact trip.
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About the author: I’m Pete Harrison. I’m 55, I run a business, and I have a mild case of insomnia that means I spend a lot of time at 3am reading about gadgets, gear and ways to make life work better. Things I Learnt at 3am is where I write honestly about the things I’ve actually bought, tested and lived with. No fluff, no rehashing the spec sheet. Just the real verdict from someone who uses this stuff every day.
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