Llandudno is easy to get around on foot if you stay near the centre, promenade or Craig y Don. The town is compact enough to reward walking and old enough to punish laziness gently.

The main seafront, Mostyn Street, pier, station and many hotels sit within a manageable area. One may accomplish a great deal without moving a car, which is often a blessing for everyone nearby. The promenade itself is a mile and a half of level walking. The town centre is walkable in twenty minutes in any direction from the central seafront.

The Great Orme changes the matter. You can walk it, but gradients are real, despite what cheerful people in unsuitable shorts may suggest.

The Great Orme Tramway, running since 1902, is the principal mechanised ascent. From Victoria Station near the old town, it reaches the summit in two stages with a change at Halfway Station, taking approximately thirty minutes. The cable car from Happy Valley provides an alternative route from the pier end of the promenade.

Seasonal buses operate routes around the Great Orme and to the summit. These serve visitors who want the summit without the tramway or cable car, and give elderly or mobility-limited visitors access to the headland views.

The tramway, buses, taxis, Marine Drive and seasonal attractions help visitors who want the views without turning the day into a moral test.

For trips beyond town, trains from Llandudno station to Llandudno Junction connect with the North Wales coast line (Conwy, Colwyn Bay, Rhyl, Bangor) and the Conwy Valley line (Betws-y-Coed, Blaenau Ffestiniog). Services are reasonably frequent during the day. Check current timetables.

A car gives more freedom for Eryri, Anglesey and rural villages, but adds the complication of parking at both ends. In peak season, parking in Llandudno itself can become tiresome, and the freedom the car provides outside town is sometimes offset by the imprisonment it imposes within it.

The sensible strategy is to walk Llandudno itself and save driving for places outside town. Nothing looks more unnecessary than a car used to avoid a ten-minute walk along a seafront.

For day trips without a car, the train to Conwy (two minutes from Llandudno Junction) and the Conwy Valley line to Betws-y-Coed (fifty minutes) are the best options. Everything beyond these requires either a car or a more complicated public transport arrangement.