North Wales Stag Do Advice

sfichele

Hi!

A friend is planning to have his stag do in North Wales, and wants to go mountain biking. Can anyone suggest any good trail centres that will be suited to beginners, and that are "close" to Llanberis. Am I right in thinking that the Marin trail from Betws-y-coed, and the trail from Penmachno are way too tough for beginners? Would Coed-y-Brenin be the best option?

Cheers

ddraver

Basically, Yes....

Llandegla would be the next "easiest" option, although is probably further than other alternatives as the crow flys

Where re you planning on staying btw...? I have to get my arse in gear about one up there too?!

welshkev

there are no trail centres near llanberis really, even coed-y-brenin is about an hour away

sfichele

Yeah, was looking at Llandegla after reading some other forum posts, but its too far away really. In that respect Brenin would be the better option as it's only an hour away.

@ddraver, Not sure of the exact location of where we are staying yet.

ste_t

Marin is lots of fireroad climbing so not good for getting anyone interested in mtb, Penmachno would most likely be too challenging to really enjoy. The new blue minotaur, at Coedy, is supposed to be fantastic and has proper onsite facilities including bike hire, which the other two don't. The post ride cake is perfect aswell!

milko9000

I've seen plenty of beginners enjoy the Marin but in a stag group I would imagine you'll always have some grumbling about the climbs. The technical parts aren't that hard really, if people take them at their own pace they should be fine.

welshkev

yeah but the marin is DULL, and at least at coed y brenin there's the vistors centre where some people could wait and have a drink or whatever if they do a shorter trail, last time i was there i did the Cyflym Coch trail which is 11km as i didn't have much time and it was great, good to do all together and then others can ride more if they like

http://www.mbwales.com/en/content/cms/c ... renin.aspx

milko9000

Yeah CyB is loads better. Its just not particularly near Llanberis is all. If they're up for that part too then sure, go for it instead. (I do actually think Gwydyr/The Marin is a bit underrated these days but that's another topic really)

sfichele

Cheers for all the responses - my friend is gonna hold it at Coed-y-Brenin

Nick Cod

Enjoy, I did my stag in Afan Valley last year. My old man on his 53rd birthday, never really done mountain biking conquered The Wall at Afan. He's now looking for his first mountain bike

TrailGuru

Hi

Yeah I agree with others about CyB being the best all round option to keep everyone happy. You'd be lucky not to have some grumbling on the Marin, especially if the weather is dodgy.

Check out my website if you like for loads of info on mountain biking in North Wales - http://www.trailguru.co.uk/

Hope you have a great time, best way to have a stag do!!

Cheers,
Kev

sfichele

Cheers guys! We all went to CyB this weekend and had a great time. Definitely a good place for a stag do, as there was plenty of bikes to hire and there was reasonable choice of the trails since you could do sections of red, blue, and bail out on green if you needed to. Everyone got round ok despite not doing any biking before, including the two girls, with us all wearing women's cloths + tweed jackets .