Groes Inn

Croeso (welcome) to the oldest licensed pub in Wales, which opened its doors in 1573, and whose rustic bar, with its low beams, rough-stone hearth and fire, feels little changed since then. This family-run coaching inn has 14 rooms, all light and peaceful, with a sense of space and proportion. They are tastefully decorated in a palette of olives, dove greys and taupes, with painted wainscoting, patterned wallpaper and vintage dressing tables. Tea, coffee and mineral water are complimentary. The pick of the rooms have terraces overlooking the hedgerowed hills, while Tesla charging points ramp up the inn’s sustainable credentials. You’ll for sure want to pull up a chair in the bar after a bracing hike in the hills. Here you’ll find an excellent selection of regional beers and the pub’s own Dragon’s Fire ale on tap. The vine-draped conservatory serves attractively presented pub classics and more sophisticated dishes, including their signature cheese-and-onion pie with chunky chips and staples like slow-braised lamb shank braised pork belly. If you book for Sunday lunch, try the sharing platter for two. The setting is pretty special, too, with the peaks of Snowdonia rippling away to the west and the nearby River Conwy twisting north to the Irish Sea. Conwy, Britain’s most impressive medieval walled town, capped by one of Edward I’s phenomenal 13th-century castles, is a couple of miles’ north.