A good weekend in Llandudno begins with the seafront. Arrive, settle yourself, walk the promenade and let the bay do the introductions.

The promenade runs a mile and a half along the North Shore. Walk towards the pier (700 metres, opened 1877, Grade II* listed) and go to the end. Look back from the pier head. This is Llandudno’s best argument, and it should be seen before anything else.

Book dinner rather than drifting about at seven o’clock with a hungry expression and no plan. The better restaurants fill on Friday and Saturday evenings, and the town rewards forward planning rather more than it rewards optimism.

Use the Saturday morning for the Great Orme. Take the tramway (the only cable-hauled street tramway in Britain, operating since 1902) to the summit or as far as Halfway, then walk the rest. The mines below the headland, worked from 1700 BC, deserve at least an hour.

In the afternoon, walk some of the quieter Great Orme paths away from the summit infrastructure. The Kashmiri goat herd of approximately two hundred animals is often visible in the middle slopes.

In the evening, go to West Shore for sunset if the weather is kind. It faces the Conwy estuary, Anglesey and the mountains of Eryri: the view is substantial.

If it is not kind, find a decent pub or a show at Venue Cymru (the largest arts venue in North Wales) and stop sulking at the sky.

If you have another block of time on Sunday, add Conwy. The castle was built by Edward I between 1283 and 1289, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and shares this designation for good reason. Castle, walls, harbour and old streets make an easy contrast to the Victorian resort.

Do not overpack the weekend. Llandudno is best enjoyed with pauses, not a clipboard.

Return before the energy of the place (promenade, headland, pier, evening light at West Shore) gives way to the inevitable hotel checkout logistics. A good weekend in Llandudno ends with something still unfinished, which is the correct condition for a town worth revisiting.