The Welsh town named best place in UK to retire
A study of the best places in the UK for a relaxing retirement has named a north Wales town the winner.
Llandudno, Conwy, beat Glossop, Tynemouth and Ilfracombe to top the 2025 list of best places for retirees to spend their later years.
The study, conducted by care alarms provider Taking Care, took into account local life expectancy, house prices, care home spots, and other lifestyle factors such as green spaces and bingo halls.
Seafront
Llandudno, a coastal town with a scenic Victorian seafront dotted with palm trees, often draws praise from its ten million annual visitors.
The pier was named one of the best in the UK by the National Piers Society in May 2025. Additionally, the town won the Gold award at the Royal Horticultural Society’s 2023 Britain in Bloom competition.
As well as Bronze Age settlements and museums, there are several coastal walks that pass through Llandudno, offering stunning views over the Irish Sea.
Llandudno’s residents also describe it as an exceptionally safe town, with Ray, an 80-year-old retiree telling The Telegraph: “Living here is like going back 50 years. The older ladies still dress nicely. You can go out for walks after dark. There are no rough gangs going around swearing and fighting.”
Llandudno has previously made it onto the Which guide for cheapest seaside holidays, particularly for its affordable fish and chips.
However, when it comes to purchasing a property, the town actually has some of the highest asking prices in north Wales according to a report from Online Marketing Surgery and Cardinal Steels.
As well as large numbers of tourists, another drawback is that though there are several shops, restaurants, and pubs in Llandudno, the selection is limited compared to other towns in the area.
Day trip
Locals suggest a day trip to neighbouring Conwy, which offers a much wider variety of shopping and eating establishments.
Helen Parkes, who moved to Llandudno with her family, told The Telegraph: “It’s lacking in terms of retail and culture – Conwy next door has had more spent on it and has more independent shops – but living here, you do realise life’s not all about spending.”
While Llandudno topped the list of best places in the UK to retire, Scotland’s towns and cities fared much worse according to the study’s metrics.
Edinburgh ranked last on the list, with an average life expectancy of 79, annual care costs averaging out at almost £40,000, and an overall lifestyle score of just 3.8/10.
The full study is available on Taking Care’s website.
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And remember how it was built – by evicting the native Welsh people from their houses following the passing of ‘land enclosure acts’, and building fancy hotels and a settlement town for people over the border. No more colonists please!!
Price the locals out of their communities, move over, slate the Welsh for having their own government, don’t bother learning any of the language, vote reform, kill Wales.
We all get the plan now. Perhaps the awful British media needs to stop these “best places to retire” articles. They’re killing communities.
Red dragon with a white and green background. English are the immigrants ok!
Unfortunate then that every older new arrival doesn’t arrive with appropriate funding from central government so ends up clogging up healthcare and social services.
How many Welsh people can afford to live there its an Invasion by elderly Englishwho are a Burden on the Welsh N H S if Welsh people complain about the English they are deemed by the likes of the Daily Mail Torygraph Daily Express and the Right wing Tory propaganda channel G B News as being RACIST but when you see the low life in England not all but the Drunks Drug addicts and those wearing Masks who have to hide their faces according to those mentioned English right wing Media they are not Racists
Reading these comments below. I totally agree that families shouldn’t be priced out of their local area and should be able to live together. What makes me laugh is as detailed as “the English” moving in clogging up the NHS etc. If “the English” move into your area, I think you will find that we can fund our own retirement, we don’t see “the Welsh” refusing to take our money. We are happy to become part of the community. Unfortunately, it’s people like you that make a unnecessary devide If you have this outlook then “the Welsh” should stay in… Read more »
No need to be so uppity, the point about clogging up the system is simply an accountancy point. According to Nuffield Trust, an average person in their 80s consumes the healthcare resources of seven middle-aged folks. But funding from Westminster is based on what an average person in younger, wealthier and healthier England costs to look after. So for every new retiree, seven locals lose their healthcare funding and have to queue behind the new arrival.
Look at any drs waiting room or hospital appointment waiting area. Loads of retired English. If they brought in the extra cash to treat them then fine but they don’t
The Welsh Government receives from the UK Government £120 for every £100 given to Authorities in England – more than enough to pay for any extra costs on Welsh NHS caused by English Retirees.
How does that start to make a dent in it when older people cost seven times more to look after? And that’s before you consider the high numbers opting out of the NHS and state education in the home counties meaning more for the rest.
I have friends with an apartment in Llandudno. They used all local companies when renovating property. They use local shops and restaurants and they pay 3 times council. Tax
This article is about retiring in Llandudno, not second homes.
Still makes them migrants displacing locals, also changes demographic and voting patterns