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Shopping in Snowdonia National Park

While there are no major cities or towns in the Snowdonia region which reflects in a shortage of major shopping centres, there are more intimate communities and smaller, independent shops which can offer a more personal and focussed experience. The main thing to remember here is that a population of less than 30,000 people is spread across more than 830 square miles. The results are more novelty and souvenir shops rather than high street names.

The most popular shopping town away from the coastal area has to be Betws-Y-Coed. This has a good mix of outdoor shops and gift shops as well as the smaller 'chain' stores for every day items. Further to the south, Bala has a concentrated shopping area with everything on one street (watch out for the traffic in peak months).

Towards the coastal areas, Conwy offers more independent clothing stores as well as the usual Welsh gift shops, the same could be said for Porthmadog which has more places to snack or grab a takeaway.

All in all, do not expect to be blown away by big glitzy stores in Snowdonia. Instead be prepared to find pleasant surprises and expect to pay more for goods in the abundant, visitor-centres scattered across the many tourist sites. A step back in time is not unusual in some places due to lack of investment from the low population figures. These shops are very enchanting and can reveal real treasures at very low prices.