Porth Eirias roof terrace

Blowing away the winter cobwebs in Porth Eirias, North Wales

Becky blogs about her family adventures with her sporty 11 year old and lively 6 year old children. Her daughter has a rare metabolic condition, CDG Type 2, and she writes about their experiences of living with disability. In this article, Becky talks about their visit to Porth Eirias beach in Colwyn Bay highlighting stress free accessibility of the attractions.

We are lucky enough to live in a beautiful corner of the Welsh countryside within a short drive of the lovely North Wales coastline (yes I’m biased…). To blow away the cobwebs and emerge from a cheese and chocolate fog, we paid a return visit to the lovely Porth Eirias beach in Colwyn Bay. We last visited during the summer months, so thought we would take a trip during a different season and be woken up by a bracing breeze from the Irish Sea.

Essential coastal defence work on this stretch of coastline has resulted in the creation of a new ‘dry’ beach (which apparently is longer than the Copacabana in Rio!). This is complemented by the very modern Porth Eirias centre which houses a bistro, café, meeting rooms and Colwyn Bay Watersports Centre. Add to this a roof terrace with wonderful sea views and a beachside park, and you have the recipe for a great trip out. Porth Eirias also offers that rare nugget – a free family day out!

As you would expect with a new development, accessibility at Porth Eirias is excellent. There is plentiful parking alongside the flat, wide promenade; and a good number of blue badge spaces (free parking for badge holders). We had no difficulty finding a space even during our visit in the busy summer months. There is also a car park for patrons of the bistro and café, again with good accessibility.

The promenade in both directions is wide and completely level. Long winter or summer walks can easily be enjoyed. There are both steps and ramps down onto the sandy beach.

There is open access to both the park and roof terrace at Porth Eirias, with a very novel zig-zag path providing ramp access up onto the roof where you are rewarded with beautiful sea views.

Access into the centre is completely level with power assisted doors and there are disabled toilet facilities close to the entrance. There is a very wide and open feel to both the indoor and outdoor spaces at the Porth Eirias centre.

Having a meal in the bistro while taking advantage of the floor to ceiling windows that look out over the sea would have been nice, but on this occasion it had to be hot chocolate and a dog bowl al fresco…

Porth Eirias is a great day out for all ages and abilities, accessibility is great and you can enjoy a hot drink or cake on a chilly winter’s day. During the summer months there are also pop-up cafes and of course the summer must-have of an ice cream van or two.

On a surprisingly mild December day we had a fab few hours at the lovely Porth Eirias beach and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. It can sometimes be difficult for us to find somewhere suitable for all four of us (and of course our four-legged friend) so it’s a rare treat to go somewhere we can all enjoy and know that accessibility is going to be easy and stress-free. Happy surfing!

For more articles written by Becky, visit her blog, The flying bumblebee.

About the Motability Scheme

The Motability Scheme exists to give customers, their families and carers greater freedom to get out and do the day-to-day things they need and want to do, by enabling them to exchange all or part of their mobility allowance for leasing a car, scooter or powered wheelchair.

If you’d like us to send you more information about the Motability Scheme, request an information pack below or find out how to join.

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For more inspiration on days out around the UK, see other Days Out blogs

Find out how to download the brand-new edition of the Rough Guide to Accessible Britain

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