Llandudno with kids is best kept simple. Start with the promenade, pier and beach, then add one proper adventure such as the Great Orme Tramway, the mines, Happy Valley or a walk to look for goats.

The Great Orme Tramway is typically the highlight for children of most ages. The cable-hauled tram climbing through the streets before ascending the open hillside (operating since 1902 and entirely unchanged in principle) gives an experience that does not require explanation or enthusiasm to work. Children understand moving vehicles travelling uphill through streets on cables.

Do not attempt to make every hour improving. Children on holiday require air, snacks, movement and occasional permission to be fascinated by something adults would have walked past.

North Shore is the easiest base because toilets, food, shops and shelter are close. Convenience is not glamorous, but neither is carrying a furious child uphill in the rain.

West Shore is better for space and sand at the right tide. It has fewer immediate distractions, which may be peaceful or disastrous depending on the child and the timing of lunch.

The Great Orme goats reliably interest children who have exhausted their patience with conventional visitor attractions. The herd of around two hundred Kashmiri goats (descended from animals given to Queen Victoria by the Shah of Persia) grazes freely and appears at unpredictable locations. A child who spots a goat on a road, in a garden or watching from a limestone shelf has experienced something that no managed attraction provides.

The Great Orme gives the day shape. The tramway feels like an event, the mines add depth, and the goats provide exactly the sort of unpredictable local celebrity children appreciate.

Alice in Wonderland connections give the town a different narrative thread for children who know the stories. The trail is playful, the statues are visible and the connection is genuine enough (Alice Liddell did holiday here) to hold up to reasonable scrutiny.

Do not cram everything into one day. Children will remember gulls, stones, wind, chips, a goat and whether you were cross. Plan accordingly.

For a two or three-day visit with children, the combination of promenade and pier on day one, Great Orme and tramway on day two, and a day trip to Conwy for the castle on day three covers the main ground without requiring military planning or diplomatic immunity.