The route featured on Pilgrimage: The Road Through North Wales with Christine McGuiness
A route through North Wales has been named on a global travel bucket list for 2026. The respected National Geographic has compiled 14 ‘Wellness Experiences’ for travellers to try this year.
It features locations across the world’s continents. This includes a trek across North Wales which dates backs centuries but is also growing in popularity right now.
Centuries ago, pilgrims in their thousands were finding their way to Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island), drawn by stories of the special peace to be found at the edge of the western world. Now the tradition of pilgrimage is being rediscovered and reinvented for a new age.
The North Wales Pilgrim’s Way is a 135-mile-long walking trail across North Wales from Basingwerk Abbey, near Holywell, to Aberdaron and on to Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island).
In 2024 it featured on the BBC series Pilgrimage. National Geographic is now putting it in the spotlight again for a global audience.
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They said: “For our Best of the World Wellness Experiences list, we hope to inspire you to slow down. From seaweed bathing in Ireland to silent walks in Tanzania, or a traditional hammam experience in Istanbul, these experiences — handpicked by National Geographic’s global community of explorers, photographers, and editors — go beyond the spa, encouraging you to immerse yourself in local cultures, communities, and sustainability while focusing on wellness.”
They say now is good time to go on the Pilgrim’s route as sections of the trail have been recently updated with clearer way markers and home and chapel stays are opening up along the route.
Writer Charlotte Wigram-Evans said: “Pilgrims traditionally walked this 136-mile route across north Wales to visit the sacred sites that pepper the landscape between Basingwerk Abbey and Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island), known as ‘the island of 20,000 saints’. Today the trail is being rediscovered as a pilgrimage for the soul.”
She joined the North Wales Pilgrim’s Way trail near Conwy, walking over three days down to Criccieth.
She said: “Over three days, I walk only a fraction of the route, yet time seems to stretch and slow. Freed from the rush of daily life, I settle into a steady rhythm, each step like an exhale. Birds sing from hedgerows, chapel ruins glow green with moss, and clouds shift from pewter to cobalt in a heartbeat. At dusk, I meet locals tending community gardens or lighting candles in small stone churches.”
