Tatum Ellis, who is known for documenting her travels across the UK, recently visited the seaside town for the first time and she ventured to the local Wetherspoons
13:50, 03 Nov 2025Updated 13:51, 03 Nov 2025
She thought the town was stunning (stock image)(Image: Manuta via Getty Images)
However, the attraction that caught her eye might just surprise you, as the travel vlogger shared her experience on TikTok, leaving some viewers amused by the one aspect she found particularly “gorgeous.” It seems that when it comes to breath-taking views, Wales certainly has a lot to offer both visitors and locals.
At the start of her video, she began by exploring some local charity shops. A fan of a good bargain, she seemed delighted with what the shops had to offer.
Tatum discovered two gold rings in one shop, which she snapped up for a mere £5.00 each. She was over the moon with her purchases, describing them as “super pretty.”
She continued her exploration with her partner, but it was a specific pub that grabbed her attention. Upon spotting a Wetherspoons, Tatum was quite taken aback, impressed by the décor.
According to her, the local Wetherspoons is particularly “gorgeous” and offers “stunning views.” Who would have thought a simple pub could make such an impression?
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Tatum said: “We love a good Wetherspoons. Guys, take a look at this Wetherspoons. Have some of you ever seen anything like that? I sure haven’t, so let’s get some food right now.”
She also praised the stunning scenery surrounding her, describing it as an exceptionally beautiful location. The pair then made their way to the beach and clearly had a brilliant time.
Tatum thinks Llandudno is absolutely worth a visit, saying they adored it and found plenty to explore. The clip has racked up more than 3,000 views since being posted, sparking a flurry of responses.
Viewers had plenty of opinions to share. One wrote: “You are so lucky to find a table in Wetherspoons.”
Another added: “I love Llandudno.” A third replied: “I live here and love how you have shown the town.”
Meanwhile, a fourth commented: “This is my home. So glad you enjoyed it.” Someone else also chimed in with: “I can’t believe you passed so many brilliant pubs on the way to Spoons!”
For those unfamiliar with Llandudno, it’s a coastal town in North Wales, frequently dubbed the “Queen of the Welsh Resorts.” The Victorian-era holiday hotspot is renowned for its extensive promenade, historic pier and golden beaches.
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There will be a natural history trail, venturing through parts of the nearby countryside as well, and a visitor centre with information boards.
Proposals were first submitted two years ago by Burlington Slate, which owns Elterwater slate mine and Zip World.
In the application, the mine said: “The proposed experience at Elterwater will provide a blend of heritage-based adventure through the caverns and offer a unique immersive experience within an underground mine that dates back to the middle of the 19th century.”
However, the first proposals were rejected.
A year later they were resubmitted and approved.
The proposed park isn’t without its controversy though as campaign group Friends of the Lake District has attempted to stop the project.
The group claimed that the planning permission has been wrongly granted and that the new experience would “take us a step closer to a Lake District of noise, chaos and degraded landscapes”.
However, this month, judgement from a judicial review was published and ruled in favour of the Lake District National Authority – meaning that the zipline was still allowed to go ahead.
Michael Hill, CEO of Friends of the Lake District said: “This ruling is a setback for the Cumbrian landscape, but in our 90 years’ history Friends of the Lake District has seen many of those.
“We remain unbowed in our determination to campaign for a Lake District that is tranquil, rich in cultural heritage and environmentally healthy and for protections in law for this and other National Parks to be maintained and strengthened.”
However, the project received a lot of opposition before it was finally approvedCredit: Getty
The International Council on Monuments and Sites – which is an advisory board to UNESCO – has also commented that they are opposed to the planned zipline.
The council explained that the zipline “would transform the quarry or part of it into a theme park and would trivialise the experience of an important aspect of the Lake District’s heritage”.
The ultimate worry is that the attraction could lead the Lake District losing its UNESCO World Heritage Site status, which is what happened to the Liverpool Docks in 2021.
The lake itself reveals a heart shape when the water levels drop, also exposing the 500million-year-old rock.
The site of the new attraction is a 40-minute drive from Windermere and an opening date is yet to be revealed.
I visited the UK’s biggest underground ‘theme park’ in caves – it’s twice the size of St Paul’s
TRAVEL writer Catherine Lofthouse recently visited one of Zip World’s other locations – here are he thoughts.
Zip World Llechwedd in North Wales is a bit different from your average theme park – and not just because of its location.
This vast cavern is twice the size of St Paul’s Cathedral and although there are no rollercoasters, it’s still crammed with exciting activities from an 18-hole underground crazy golf course and an adventure course that relies on wires, rope bridges and tightropes to a mega zipline above the quarry.
There’s even a deep mining tour that uncovers an underground lake at 500ft below which relies on a cable railway to get back to the surface.
My boys were most excited for Bounce Below, though – a sprawling and cavernous trampoline park which features nets set at different levels for adventurers young and old to explore.
You need to arrive about half an hour before your time slot to get checked in, but that gives you plenty of time to discover the site on the surface before you venture inside the mountain
The boys had an absolute blast underground, exploring all the different levels of nets and the twisty slides that connect them.
Obviously the caves are a bit cold and damp, so you need to wear warm clothes and sensible shoes, preferably not your Sunday best.
In other attraction news, these are the top 15 in the UK including six which are totally free.
I’d come for the sunrise but I quickly discovered three things that can ruin even the most beautiful moment
There’s nearly always a queue for a selfie at this remarkable beauty spot(Image: Portia Jones )
It was just gone 5am when I arrived very tired and ready to tackle a scenic sunrise hike at one of the UK’s most popular peaks. But looking around, it appeared I wasn’t the only one who had this marvellous idea — despite the time, the car park was starting to fill up.
I could make out the faint glow of iPhones as early risers emerged from cars, clutching coffee and camera tripods, shivering in the dark. From here, the route to the summit of Pen y Fan, the highest peak in south Wales, is one of the most straightforward ways to the summit and is often described by locals as a “motorway”, so it shouldn’t have been a huge surprise to find myself surrounded by other keen walkers.
Pen y Fan rises 886 metres (2,907 ft) above a landscape of rolling high hills. It’s one of several flat-topped summits in the area, and the dramatic peak was once a mountain for the committed: avid hikers, the British Army on training exercises and reluctant school kids dragged up for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. These days, it attracts anyone with a phone and a sunrise, with viral social media clips turning the picturesque summit into a must-visit backdrop for selfies.
Interest in the UK’s beauty spots has surged since Covid-19 restrictions began in 2020, when an hour’s exercise was a brief escape from lockdown life. In recent years, reports of national parks, beaches, and hiking trails being overrun with crowds, litter, and queues have become almost routine as more people head for the hills, clutching their smartphones.
We set off from the car park in the dark, joining the steady stream of hikers snaking up the trail. The ‘motorway’ path was well-trodden and wide enough in parts to accommodate the crowd without too much jostling. My companions, seasoned hikers with well-worn gear, moved with practised efficiency, while I kept pace, observing the scene unfolding around us.
The trail was a mix of gravel and uneven stone, occasionally slick with dew, and the dawn light had not yet hit the high, rolling green hills, verdant valleys, and grassy mountain plateaus.
Headlamps and iPhone lights dotted the landscape like fireflies, and it was hard not to slow down and take in the absurdity of what felt like hundreds of us all crawling up the same path, multiple dogs running loose, phones flickering, and me, trying not to become part of someone’s Instagram Live.
As we crested the final rise, the line of hikers slowed to a crawl, everyone funnelling toward the summit marker. The Pen y Fan cairn, a large pile of stones that has stood since the Bronze Age, marked with a National Trust plaque and topped by a trig point, was already commanding attention. People had formed an orderly queue, patiently waiting for their turn to stand beside it for a photo.
Even in the soft pre-dawn light, it looked like a scene from a theme park: polite shuffling, polite muttering, everyone clutching phones and cameras, some even doing little TikTok dances.
Watching the strange scene, it was hard not to think about the meteoric rise of ‘TikTok travel’, the phenomenon of visiting somewhere not to discover it, but to make the place a backdrop for your own carefully choreographed content.
Don’t get me wrong: I love a good selfie. But queuing for a picture, or orchestrating an hour-long photoshoot solely for social media, is not something I have patience for.
And yet, despite the absurdity of it all, the sunrise we had come to see was spectacular. The first golden rays of light struck the ridges, catching the Llyn Cwm Llwch lake in a soft, golden glow and providing expansive 360-degree views of the surrounding countryside, including the Black Mountains, Carmarthenshire Fans, and the Cambrian Mountains to the north and west.
A thin mist lingered in the valleys below, and a “dragon’s breath” cloud inversion spread across the landscape, curling around the peaks like smoke and catching the sun’s pink-and-gold light. Even the most devoted TikTokkers paused for a moment just long enough to gape at the extraordinary panorama.
The way the glacier-carved peaks glowed, the soft light spilling over the valleys, and the atmospheric ‘Dragon’s breath’ are why Pen y Fan draws so many, why we brave the crowds, and why, inevitably, you find yourself taking a quick selfie, trying to preserve the moment without letting it slip away.
I’d come for the sunrise, but I quickly discovered three things that can ruin even the most epic mountain moment: crowds, dogs running wild off lead, and litter. None of them is enough to spoil Pen y Fan entirely, but together, they’re a reminder that our growing love for the outdoors can have unintended consequences.
I’m also self-aware enough to know I’m part of the problem. I came for the same thing as everyone else, a photogenic sunrise shared with my hiking pals.
I could have chosen one of the many quieter peaks or valleys scattered across Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) — there’s no shortage of them. But here I am, trudging up the most popular route with everyone else. The lure of dawn light is hard to resist, even when you know exactly how crowded it’s going to be.
As I sipped my coffee and surveyed the summit, it was impossible to ignore the consequences of Pen y Fan’s popularity. The cairn, once a quiet marker of the highest point in south Wales, had become a pivot point for human activity.
Every so often, discarded rubbish or a stray dog poo bag would catch your eye, small but persistent reminders of the mountain’s rising footfall.
Even the Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team has had to intervene, “downing tools” during training sessions in the National Park to clear up litter, including disposable barbecues, something they described on social media as increasingly common and, heartbreakingly, unnecessary.
Another complication was dogs off-lead. Bounding freely, they sometimes disappeared from view entirely, prompting panicked calls from their owners and, presumably, even more posts in local hiking Facebook groups about missing pets.
On a slope like Pen y Fan, it’s a worry: not just for the dogs (which I love to be clear) but also for wildlife and the growing problem of erosion and mess along the most popular paths.
For all the talk of crowds and chaos and poor pet management, though, I know most people who come here care deeply about the mountains.
I’m a member of enough hiking groups to see how much affection there is for these astonishing landscapes. Most walkers are respectful; they don’t drop litter, keep dogs close, and tread carefully. A small minority spoil it with blaring music, buzzing drones, or abandoned dog poo bags. Perhaps that’s why this behaviour feels so jarring; it isn’t the norm.
What’s needed isn’t less enthusiasm, but more awareness. Simple, consistent reminders of how to “leave no trace,” and a bit of encouragement to explore beyond the same three or four photogenic peaks, might go further than any warning sign ever could.
Of course, awareness is easier to preach than practise when the sunrise forecast looks promising, and so, here I am. It turns out that it’s easy to grumble about the crowds until you realise that you’re one of them. And maybe that’s the paradox of places like Pen y Fan, they’re loved to the point of being over-loved.
The Ivorians, who return to the World Cup finals for the first time since 2014, went through the entire 10-game group campaign without conceding a goal, one of two nations on the continent to do so alongside Tunisia.
Ivory Coast and Senegal join Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Ghana, Cape Verde and South Africa in booking their ticket to next year’s World Cup finals.
One more side – the winners of next month’s continental play-offs – could join that group if they emerge from an inter-confederation tournament in March next year.
Cameroon, DR Congo, Gabon and Nigeria finished as the four best-ranked second-placed sides across the nine groups and one of those sides will have the chance to become Africa’s 10th representative at the expanded 48-team World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
The Confederation of African Football is yet to announce a date for the play-off draw.
There are times when you want a vacation that challenges you. But there are other times when you crave a familiar scene, a traveler’s version of comfort food.
What is it that brings people back to the same destination again and again?
Charlotte Russell, a Manchester-based clinical psychologist and founder/editor of the Travel Psychologist blog, didn’t see value in visiting the same place twice when she was in her 20s, but as she got older, her opinion changed.
Now one of her most frequent destinations is Seville, a short, direct flight from her home airport. However, her travel cadence is strategic. “I don’t want to spoil the connection I have to the place by visiting too frequently,” she says. “For me, once every few years seems to be about ‘right.’” Once there, she savors “the beautiful buildings, the orange trees, the smells and flavors of the food,” enjoying the chance to get to know the culture more deeply than a one-time visitor might.
Then again, Russell acknowledges, maybe we can never truly visit the same place twice.
So says psychology professor Andrew Stevenson in his 2023 book “The Psychology of Travel.” In his view, “places change all the time, and so do we. Yes, we can visit the same location again, but are likely to experience it in a completely different way when visiting again, as the place becomes more meaningful, more full of memories, more vital, each new time we arrive.”
We asked Southern California readers to tell us about their most prized repeat destinations. The answers took us all over — Hawaii, Utah, Arizona, England and Hermosa Beach, for instance — for all sorts of reasons they share with us below.
