It has only taken me a lifetime to finally get around to visiting the beautiful Aber Falls, despite being under an hour away from home! But finally, this August bank holiday, we got up and out by 8.30am, which nobody but me was happy about and off we went!
Parking
Most of the reviews I read beforehand all identified parking as being an issue, one of those “make sure you arrive at sunrise else you’ll be doomed and have to go home” kinda places!….Well it wasn’t that bad, but I would try and be in by 9.45am on busy days if you want to be in one of the 2 official car parks, the ‘Upper car park’ and ‘Lower Car park’.
After turning off the A55 you’ll pass through the village of Abergwyngregyn (a single track road which gets very congested), from here keep driving and you’ll come to the first of the car parks, Lower Car park, where we managed to get a space.
Otherwise keep driving over the stone bridge and take the immediate right hand turn signposted ‘P’ & ‘Rhaeadr Aber Falls’ and this will bring you to the Upper Car park. Here, you’ll find the only toilets in the area and this car park is slightly nearer to the start of the path, although there isn’t much in it so just grab a space where you can.
Do note that both car parks charge £5 and only accept COINS!!
On the day we visited people were parking on the roads between the 2 car parks, I’m not sure if that’s allowed or not but I always prefer to play it safe and be in the proper car park.
The walking paths at both car parks converge at a little round hut which is the starting point of the walk
Instructions from Lower Car Park to the start of the walk:
Without a pushchair: Head to the far end of the car park (opposite end to where you drove in) and go through the gate with the information board. Follow this path up, down and over a little wooden bridge until you reach the starting point.
With a pushchair: If you have a pushchair don’t go through the gate at the end of the car park, instead stay on the road, veering to the left over the stone bridge then turning right on a road signposted ‘P’ & ‘Rhaeadr Aber Falls’. This road heads towards the Upper Car Park but don’t go that far, after about 170m there’ll be a fork in the road, take the right hand path and this will take you to the start of the walk.
Instructions from Upper Car Park to the start of the walk:
Without a pushchair: Walk to the entrance end of the car park and look for a left turn signposted in yellow ‘Aber Falls Walk’, follow this path over a wooden bridge and up through the woods to meet a path which goes down to the starting point.
With a pushchair: Walk back down the road you entered the car park on (following the green pushchair route sign), when you come to a fork in the road after 100m take the left hand path which will take you to the start of the walk.
Finally, one point to note about the car parks, if your kids are good at long walks then another option is to use the free car park in the village of Abergwyngregyn. When you come off the A55 instead of crossing over the road into Abergwyngregyn, turn left (sign posted ‘P Free’) and there are a number of spaces here.
The Walk to the falls
It’s a well maintained hard compact gravel path all the way to the falls so you could take an all terrain pushchair on the walk, but do bear in mind that it is ever so slightly uphill for most of the walk although it never gets super steep. From the little round hut all the way to the falls you just follow one long path, so you’d be very hard pushed to get lost on route!!
It took us about 50 minutes to do the walk. The kids were a bit moany the first part of the walk, I think they’d seen the sign at the start of the walk indicating it was 1.5 - 2 hours and that was deemed a step too far for them! But as soon as they spotted the falls in the background that spurred them on!
The Falls
One word for you here, Stunning….At a height of 37m the fall of the water is magnificent and you’ll certainly get a light spraying as it crashes down to the bottom. The kids loved playing on the rocks, crossing from one side of the falls to the other, you do need to be careful though and I wouldn’t let my five year old go far on them, but the older two explored to their hearts content with me trying to keep up behind them.
A few brave souls had brought their swimmers and entered the plunge pool at the bottom of the falls, so if you don’t mind the cold then go for it!
Just before the falls, there’s a little wooden bridge, where we sat down to enjoy a picnic and a paddle in the water.
Afterwards we walked 0.3 of a mile onto a second, smaller waterfall called Rhaeadr Fach, the path was narrow and very rocky so this is a big no no for anyone with a pushchair! To find the path, cross the aforementioned wooden bridge at the base of the falls so you’re on the right hand side of the waterfall (as you’re looking at it), go up the steps to the top (which is a great spot for photos btw) then follow the path to the right through the iron gate all the way to the falls.
Not many people venture past Aber Falls so it was nice to escape the crowds for a bit and the views of the Aber valley with the Irish sea in the background were impressive. You can’t get near the base of the falls here as they’re fenced off, but the kids had a play in the little stream and on the wooden bridge.
The walk back to the car park felt much quicker as most of it was downhill and so it only took about 40 minutes. Afterwards we stopped in Rhos on Sea for a well deserved ice cream and paddle.
