Best British Bus Journeys - Sunday Express

MOST BEAUTIFUL WELSH BUS JOURNEY S97 – BETWS-Y-COED TO PORTHMADOG I'm looking forward to setting off on my bus ride though Snowdonia, but the attractions of Betws-y-Coed are making it quite difficult to drag myself away. It's a beautiful little town, made up of gracious granite houses nestled in a wooded valley. It's been popular with visitors since Victorian times, when the railway was first built and in the row of shops beside the station there are plenty of opportunities for retail therapy. And if you'd like a fortifying pot of tea before setting off, the Buffet Coach Cafe attached to the Conway Valley Railway Museum on the far side of the station is recommended. It's converted from a 1950s buffet carriage and full of retro charm. You can even get a Welsh Tea there, with Welsh Cake and Bara Brith (a sort of buttered fruit cake) replacing scones, jam and cream. The bus stop is just beside the railway station, and I wait there for the S97 – the bus from Betws-y-Coed to Porthmadog. From the timetable I can see the journey takes about an hour and a quarter in total, but I'm planning on making a day of it and hopping on and off for walks and sightseeing. The S97 is one of the Snowdon Sherpa buses, a network of interlinked bus routes joining coastal resorts like Llandudno with various beauty spots in the Snowdonia National Park. A £4 explorer ticket will let you ride all day and you can either buy it on the bus or get one free when you pay for a full days parking at any of the Sherpa car parks. These buses aren't just for tourists though – they're very much used by local people. All the passengers getting on before me speak to the driver in Welsh – it's the language used by 65% of the local population, though fortunately the driver is happy to sell me my ticket through the medium of English! The journey out of town is a pretty one, winding through a wooded valley. Soon however the scenery becomes more mountainous and the bus reaches the village of Capel Curig, a popular destination with walkers and climbers. Just beyond that is the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel, which is where Edmund Hillary and his team trained for their 1953 conquest of Everest. Then the Snowdonia range looms in the distance, snow-capped even on this bright spring day. The view down the side of the bus, where the steep cliff face falls away is vertiginous, whilst beyond that a dramatic view of the Gwynant valley, a sweeping shape sculpted by huge glaciers during the Ice Age unfolds. The effect is jaw-droppingly gorgeous and it's wonderful to be able to just gaze at it without the responsibility of being at the wheel. The bus stops at Pen-y-Pass, the starting place for two of the main walking routes up Snowdon. I call in at the Information Centre and chat to Aled Taylor, one of the Wardens who gives advice to visitors. Aled has just retired from the mountain rescue team after 40 years, and his great-grandfather Moses Williams was one of the first guides who used to take visitors up the mountain on horseback in 19th century. 'It can be very difficult or even impossible to park here in the summer,' says Aled, 'so coming by bus is a great idea.' We talk about the walking options and as I've got two hours before the next bus he suggests I go up the Miner's Track as far as Llyn Lydaw, the second highest of the three lakes on this path. I set off and am pleased to find that this section is a very gentle upward slope which most people and children of reasonable fitness could do, though obviously it gets rather more serious further up. The views are amazing, a volcanic jumble of screes and cliffs rising to razor-edged summits, and the air is fresh and clear. It gets very busy in peak season but right now there are only a few other walkers, some sheep and a couple of wild mountain goats. By the time I get back it's lunchtime. There's a licenced cafe at Pen-y-Pass, but I catch the next bus and press on to Beddgelert. This is a picturesque village with an abundance of shops and cafes. I buy a sandwich, followed by an ice-cream from the award-winning Glaslyn Ices. There's enough time for a walk to the most famous landmark, Gelert's Grave, a memorial to a loyal dog which legend has it was mistakenly killed by his master, Prince Llewelyn in the 13th-century, before catching the bus again. This time we travel through countryside which grows gradually more gentle as we approach the coast. Porthmadog, where the bus terminates is a bustling town. I take the short walk from the bus station to the harbour area and The Cob. Walking along here it's possible to check out one of the most well-known and perfectly-framed views of the Snowdonia mountain range. In the foreground is the tranquil Glaslyn estuary and behind it the panorama of Snowdon, Cnicht, (sometimes described as 'the Welsh Matterhorn' because it has a pointed peak which is similar to the Swiss mountain) and the Moelwyn mountains. This is a view which travel writer Jan Morris describes as 'the classic illumination of Wales' and a great spot for a memorable photo. Then I visit Porthmadog station, the base for the narrow-gauge Festiniog Railway. It's one of the most famous railways in the world, originally intended to provide a cheap form of transport for roofing slates being quarried in the area. As the slate industry declined it became neglected but in the 1950s it was revived by volunteer enthusiasts and now it's a popular tourist attraction. It's worth calling in to see if one of the steam trains might be on the platform – and if you want an alternative route back to Betws-y-Coed it would actually be possible to take the narrow gauge railway as far as Blaenau Festiniog Railway and then change to the (Conway Valley Line train) main service for the rest of the journey. But instead I enjoy a glass of wine at the CAMRA award-winning Spooner's Cafe Bar attached to the station, knowing that I can rely on the bus to return me safely to Betws-y-Coed. MOST BEAUTIFUL WEST COUNTRY BUS JOURNEY NEWQUAY-PADSTOW 556 Sun, sea and surf make for a fabulous holiday – and they make for a fabulous bus ride as well! The 556 is just minutes out of Newquay bus station when I get my first stunning view of the Atlantic at Porth Beach. The bus stops so close by you could almost step directly from it onto the sand. This is a theme for the rest of the journey as the route hugs the coast, one minute riding high along the clifftops with the sea shimmering in the distance, the next dipping down into some delightful little village or sandy cove. My first stop is Watergate Bay, and I'm just in time to catch last orders for breakfast at Jamie Olivier's Fifteen restaurant. The menu at this time of day is very reasonably priced and covers all the bases from bacon sandwiches to fresh fruit smoothies. I sit at a window table, drink my coffee and watch the surfers before taking a walk along the sandy beach – a two-mile expanse at low tide. Then it's on to Bedruthan Steps. En route I get chatting to Mike and Chris Gaskell from Cheshire who are making the most of their over-sixties bus passes, 'I used to drive a lot for work,' Mike explains, 'so it's great to be able to just relax and take in the view.' The bus stops outside the Bedruthan Steps Hotel and from there it's a short walk to Carnewas, a National Trust property comprising of a car park, shop and tea-room. From here you can stroll along the coastal path to a viewing platform and look at the Steps - giant pinnacles of granite studding the beach. These rocks, together with the treacherous tides are responsible for numerous shipwrecks and one of the rocks is even named Samaritan Island after the ship of that name which foundered on the rock in 1846. At high tide they're surrounded by water, but at low tide it's possible to climb down to the beach and walk around them. Access is via a steep stone staircase, closed between November and February for safety reasons. The steps can get wet and slippery so you have to be reasonably fit to get down – and more significantly, to get up again. I find it well worth the effort though – the Steps are even more impressive when they're towering above you, and because of the effort involved in getting down there the beach is almost deserted. By the time I reach Padstow I've really worked up an appetite for lunch. But fortunately Rick Stein's Fish and Chip Shop is situated just opposite the bus stop and the hake and chips I have there are the best I've tasted in a long time. The centre of Padstow is a couple of minutes walk away. It's incredibly pretty and a real tourist honeypot in the summer months. There's a working fishing harbour surrounded by an beguiling jumble of inns, craft shops, galleries, and gourmet food shops and I wander round, indulging in some retail therapy. I time my return journey so I can travel on one of the double decker buses that run along this route on weekdays. The journey takes about an hour and twenty minutes and the views from the top deck are even more glorious than they were on the outward trip. It's fantastic to be able to see so far over the high hedges and experience the roller-coaster sensation when going down into the villages - a visual feast to rival the earlier gastronomic ones at Jamie Oliver's and Rick Stein's.