Within a few miles of the village:

• The Greenwood Forest Park - an excellent and award-winning centre for children of most ages - is just outside the village (about a 10-minute drive) . Their own website gives lots of details including admission prices and directions.
• The Anglesey Sea Zoo is a quite wonderful place: they have re-created sea-shore and tidal areas magnificently here, with crashing waves in the tanks themselves, so that sea-shore life can thrive. It is about a 20-minute drive - follow signs for Bangor until you pick up Holyhead signs, then you go just across the Britannia Bridge onto Anglesey, turn left and follow the signs for the Sea Zoo.
• Caernarfon is the home of one of the best (if not the best) preserved castles in Europe. It was built by King Edward 1 around 1283.
• A real contrast is Penrhyn Castle in nearby Bangor. This may look mediaeval, but is in fact Victorian, commissioned by Lord Penrhyn and built with the wealth created partly by his workers from Bethesda in the Ogwen valley, and partly by slaves on his sugar plantations in the West Indies. The National Trust run the site now, or for a broader view of the place of the castle in the history of the area, try this section of the BBC website.

From 30 minutes to about an hour away by car

• For a fortified town with castle and town walls, take the half-hour's drive along the coast on the A55 to Conwy. You can follow the walls almost completely round the original town, and the castle itself is quite magnificent. This is really a place not to miss. In addition to the castle, there is the finest example anywhere of a mediaeval town house at Plas Mawr - a breathtaking Elizabethan house with an impressive history.
• Llandudno, just across the river from Conwy, is lots of attractions in one. There is a lovely website, written by a local person, which is an excellent place to begin exploring. In particular, the Bronze Age Copper mines which are at present being excavated, are a stunning tour.
• Slightly further away, (about 45 minutes by car) is the beautiful Italianate village of Portmeirion. This was built as a model village by the architect Clough Williams-Ellis. (For those of you as old as we are, it is the location for the sixties series 'The Prisoner' which starred Patrick McGoohan). The buildings and the village itself are fascinating, and you can also take some gorgeous walks along the beach, and through the woods.
• The LLechwedd Slate Caverns are at Blaenau Ffestiniog, about a 50 minute drive away, but well worth the trip. We have been on their tours (twice) and loved it both times. There are two trips you can take: one is on a surface railway into the side of the mountain, and the other takes you (also by train) deep into the depths of the earth. There isn't a lot of romanticised 'heritage' here - while the caverns are beautiful now to us visitors, you do get a pretty good insight into the real lives of the people who had to work them for a living.
• The town of Harlech is only about an hour's drive away. The castle is superb, and the town itself has lots of interesting shops. It's especially worth going to Cemlyn Tea Rooms, which have been voted best tea room in Wales in both 2003 and 2004. We have been there ourselves and can thoroughly recommend it.
• Finally, other Railways. There are two separate companies which both use the term 'Welsh Highland Railway'. The Welsh Highland Railway itself runs a short line within Porthmadog, and the Ffestiniog Railway runs from Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffesiniog, and again from Caernarfon to Rhyd Ddu(with a scheme in place to join the two). These are definite 'musts' for any railway enthusiast.