North Wales this Spring

[seasider]

Going on a cycling tour of North Wales this Spring and whilst looking at how to cross the Menai Straits was intrigued by the Ferry from Y Felinheli . Is it running? Is it just a Summer service?.If not, is there a cycle friendly way to use the bridges ? Also we planned to ride around Anglesey, can it be fitted into a days riding for a group thats capable of 70-80 miles in a day. If we have to cut corners which are the bits we won't miss seeing? Thank you.

[Wowbagger]

The old suspension bridge is very cycle-friendly. Drivers are told specifically not to overtake cyclists and the lanes are quite narrow. There's also a jolly convenient Waitrose on the Anglesey end. "No overtaking, except bicycles by bicycles."

[Jasmine]

There's no ferry across the Menai Strait. There used to be one many years ago, but not now.

You can cross the Menai Bridge either on the carriageway or on the pavement/cyclepath. Cycling is only really allowed on the pavement on one side (west side - left side as going to Anglesey), but people ride on both sides. As Wowbagger says, it's narrow enough to prevent any overtaking at all - you won't be squeezed as the arches are very narrow. The bridge is undergoing maintenance work as it was found to be structurally unsound in the summer. It was closed to motor vehicles Oct-Jan, but is open to under 7.5t vehicles now.

The Britannia Bridge is safe to ride across. Although dual carriageway on the A55, it's single lane each way on the bridge, with little loss of width, so lots of overtaking space.

You can get round in a day of 80 miles, but that will result in either riding main(ish) roads around the coast (reasonably fast, but boring), or missing half the island.

[Wowbagger]

I'd try to avoid the A5 if you can - and you can. We rode from Bangor to Holyhead one horrible wet day* in 2019. There were 5 of us and we had booked reservations of different trains. Mine was the earliest so I let the others potter round whilst I "got on with it" but I got off the A5 as soon as I could. It's fairly narrow for an A road and of course has a lot of heavy lorries on it all heading for the ferry.

Edit: I thought I'd written a ride report about this tour, and I had clearly planned to because of https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=111447.msg2379718#msg2379718 .

But the day I arrived home, I immediately realised that Aunt Phyllis was ill, and she subsequently died about 6 weeks later, so I had a lot of other stuff on my mind at the time. I may have our route somewhere in the depths of a garmin.

*It was so wet that all the trains from Chester to Shrewsbury had been cancelled because they were in danger of sinking. The replacement bus driver had no qualms about taking a fully laden touring bike in the hold.

[seasider]

Thank you for the info. We won't waste time looking for the ferry. It's a shame because it's not a tour without a ferry. After reading your post Wow I remember your account of the Great deluge.

[Kim]

It's not a proper Wales tour without a deluge...