Llanberis:
Llanberis has a world renowned name for attracting serious walkers and climbers as well as weekend walkers and ramblers. The Llanberis pass road has become something of a tourist attraction in its own right as it curls and climbs like a plant up the shoulder of Snowdon.

The gentlest - if not the shortest - of the many paths that lead to the summit starts at Llanberis itself, though a much easier option would be to take the Snowdon Mountain Railway. This narrow-gauge line, the only public rack-and pinion railway in Britain, steams meanderingly up 4.5 miles to the summit - on a clear day you can see as far as the Wicklow hills of Ireland and as far south as Aberystwyth. For those who do not have a head for heights there is the option of the little Llanberis Lake Railway, another delightful narrow-gauge line running 2.5. miles along the lakeside of Llyn Padarn

.

Another important visitor centre if at Electric Mountain, where you can learn how the massive 1980's engineering task of hollowing out a mountain and basically turning into a giant turbo was achieved - the size of the task has to be seen to be believed.

A narrow strip of land between the two lakes has the strategically important Dolbadarn castle - a native fortification built by the medieval ruler of all Wales, Llywelyn the Great.