Bodnant Garden (National Trust)

Bodnant Garden is one of the great gardens of Britain -- 80 acres of formal terraces, woodland dells, water gardens and meadows overlooking the Conwy Valley towards the Carneddau mountains, with a plant collection assembled from around the world over five generations of one family. It is Grade I listed, cared for by the National Trust since 1949, and about eight miles south of Llandudno along the A470.

The garden was established in 1874 when Victorian industrialist Henry Davis Pochin bought the Bodnant estate and began reshaping it with the help of landscape designer Edward Milner. Pochin sculpted the valley sides, planted North American conifers, created the romantic dell walks and water gardens, and laid out the famous Laburnum Arch -- still one of the most photographed garden features in Wales, at its spectacular peak in late May and early June when the tunnel of golden blossom is in full flower.

The five formal Italianate terraces, designed in the Arts and Crafts style between 1904 and 1914, are famed as the finest rose garden in Wales. The garden holds five National Collections -- rhododendrons, magnolias, Chilean fire bush, eucryphias and Bodnant hybrid rhododendrons -- along with Wales largest collection of UK Champion Trees, and some of Britain earliest magnolias introduced from China in the late 1800s. There is said to be a rhododendron in bloom every month of the year.

The canal terrace features a Pin Mill originally built in Gloucestershire in 1730, dismantled and rebuilt here in 1938. New areas have continued to open -- the Winter Garden, Old Park Meadow, Yew Dell and the riverside Far End garden all opened in 2012, with Furnace Wood and Meadow following in 2017. Allow at least half a day. The number 25 bus from Llandudno stops at the gate.

• ✦ Highly rated by our guests
• ✦ Easy to reach from The Rosedene
• ✦ Suitable for all guests