So we ended up walking up Snowdon on Bank Holiday Monday even though we never planned on doing it at such a busy time!
But it was thoroughly enjoyable and worthwhile.
Forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday wasn’t good and pretty sure we wouldn’t have seen anything on either day plus it would have been wet, windy and cold. Thursday may have been ok but as it was our last day we weren’t going to risk waiting. So it was up there with the crowds on a glorious sunny day - though not too crowded to start as we did as planned up Rhyd-ddu and down Snowdon Ranger, both of which were fairly quiet for a BH. It was only at the top that we encountered crowds of people, though I can imagine it got much busier later, as we arrived at the summit at 11.15 and we could see the line of “ants” heading up the Pyg and Miners paths. Can highly recommend the Rhyd-ddu path, great views across to the summit and the scramble near the top is easily manageable. In fact I think our “practice” walk the day before (Moel Hebog, Yr Ogof and Lefen) was more challenging, so in hindsight not the best preparation as my legs were really feeling it! We even parked for free, as we arrived at the Rhyd-ddu station car park about 8am (it was probably less than a quarter full then), a couple of people had just arrived back from seeing the sunrise and gave us their ticket. As someone mentioned, the path back from the ranger path is pretty boggy; not always visible either though we could mostly see the marker posts, but in mist would be quite tricky. We didn’t see anyone in flipflops but lots in trainers and carrying barely anything. Not sure what they were drinking but by the time we got back I was nearly through all my 2 litres ( I’d also taken an emergency bottle as it was hot). I did notice that we seemed to have the largest rucksacks! We still carried all that we would usually carry for a day in the mountains, obviously everyone else “knew” the weather was going to be great all day! Other observations - a lot of dogs, which is fine if they’re used to it but some looked even less fit than their humans (and the dogs didn’t have a choice,) and why do people need to have music playing for all to hear while they are walking? You can tell we’re not used to walking amongst casual walkers/tourists!
Can highly recommend the cottages at Perthi Farm in Beddgelert where we stayed. ( we survived the drive along the farm track fernman!) And we had good meals at the Saracens Head and Tanronnen Inn.