Travel Tips
First and foremost, the best tip I can give anyone for visiting Wrexham is to try and make friends with some of the amazing people there before going. The friends we went to see and the friendships we built there truly made our trip a once in a lifetime unforgettable experience.
Need more help figuring out what to do while visiting Wrexham? Suffering from information overload? Download our helpful Wrexham Checklist and take it with you!
There are a few important things you will need to do and get before leaving for your trip. Some of those things can be confusing and often leave people asking a lot of questions. Here are some of my recommendations based on my trip to Wrexham.
Quick Tips
Getting around:
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Don't rent a car. Use taxi's, buses and trains. Parking is very limited
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If you need a taxi, just about any business will call one for you
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Some taxi's are cash only, ask for one that takes card or tap
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You can walk most places, if you take a taxi it will be about £4
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Busses don't just stop at bus stops, you have to wave them down
Restaurants and Pubs
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Make reservations for dinner, some charge £5 but it gets refunded
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They don't tip in the UK, tipping in an "American thing"
Travel
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Layover flights in the UK will require you to take all liquids out of your carry on and you are limited on how many liquids. Strongly suggest having no liquids in our carry on.
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Airports in the UK do not tell you your gate number until 30-45 minutes before your flight.
Other
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Just about all businesses offer free wifi
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The 1st floor is actually what Americans commonly refer to as the 2nd floor.
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Be prepared to drink a lot. Seriously :)
Transportation
Your first inclination might be that you need to hire (rent) a car to get around Wrexham and that is not the case. Most places in town are within a 15 minute walk of each other and for other places it is much easier to just get a taxi. Here is what i recommend based off all my research and personal experience:
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Download WhatsApp for your phone: WhatsApp can be used to make Wifi calls and text without needing to have an international rate plan on your cell phone.
Airport Shuttle
Airport shuttle:
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Local Business
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Contact: WhatsApp
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Phone: +44 7823 502145
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Gavin was extremely friendly, drives a clean comfortable taxi, has great communication through WhatsApp, his prices are reasonable (less than the cost of hiring a car) and he has a network of other drivers he can contact in case of an emergency. The service was impeccable and I give it 5 Stars.
Train
Wrexham General Railway:
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Local Transportation
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Timetable: Train Destinations
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Contact: WhatsApp
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Phone: +44 07790 952507
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Cost: Varies
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The train was really nice to take from Chirk Castle to Wrexham. It was fast, free wifi and it has toilet. Just one of many different forms of public transportation that we were able to use to avoid having to pay a lot of money to hire a car.
Taxi Service
Taxi Service:
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Local Business
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Contact: App
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Phone: +44 1978 286286
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Cost: Varies £4 ($5 US) for 1-2 miles.
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First and foremost, getting a taxi was easy. Every single business that we walked into was willing to call a taxi for us, including our hotel. During our trip we used several different taxi services and here are a few things to know:
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Getting from our Hotel to town was the only time we ever used a taxi (we stayed at the Ramada and walked often)
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Yellow Car was by far the most reliable, they have an App and a shop location next to the bus station. Premier was also another good one.
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When calling for a taxi, make sure to ask that the taxi accepts card, tap or Apple Pay and get the cost up front (we didn't carry cash). On several occasions we were told cash only, their card reader didn't work or they didn't have a card reader. We had some great taxi experiences but we also experienced some shady taxi drivers as well.
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Hiring a Car
Hire a car:
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Enterprise Car & Van Hire in Wrexham
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Local Business
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Hire a car online
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Trains and busses don't go everywhere, so this is where you might want to consider hiring a car. For our trip, we found that we could go just about anywhere we wanted by combining bus and train rides, it just took longer than if we had a car.
Bus
Bus Service:
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Local Transportation
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Timetable: Bus Services
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Phone: +44 01978 298990
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Cost: Varies £4 ($5 US) round trip to Chester.
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I strongly recommend traveling outside of Wrexham and seeing the sights, there are a lot of beautiful places to see in North Wales. Taking the bus was easy, it had free wifi and we got to sit on the 2nd level and see the beautiful countryside. Only £4 ($5 US) got us to Llangollen and back.
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Pay for your ticket on the bus
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Apparently buses there don't stop at every stop, it took us a couple buses to figure out that we needed to wave one down to get it to stop for us. :)
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Things you will Need
Cell Phones
There are 2 ways to use your cell phone in Wales:
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Contact your carrier and request a temporary international plan for the days you are traveling. Some carriers are as low as $10 per day.
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If your phone uses a physical sim card, you can remove that sim card and temporarily replace it with a sim card from a phone company in Wales and pay their rates.
Passports
Make sure to give yourself plenty of time to update your passport if you are traveling. Some passport changes are taking 3-4 months, so make sure to plan accordingly.
Power Adapters
In Wales, the power plug sockets are "Type G", the standard voltage is 230v and the frequency is 50Hz. With most "electronics" such as cell phones & tablets, you do not need to worry about the voltage, you just need this socket/plug adapter.
For charging other products like hair dryer, straightener, razor or electric toothbrush you will need a "power converter". (See the next item)
Medication
Traveling internationally with medication can be tricky, especially if you have layovers in different countries. The first thing you should always do is check with your destination's embassy (United Kingdom) and the embassy (all others) of any country that you will have a layover to make sure your medications are permitted.
Read more:
Power Converter
To charge products like a hair dryer, straightener, razor or electric toothbrush you will need a "power converter". These items to not have built in converters like your cell phone and tablet do, so they require this "special converter". Do not confuse this with a "power adapter", they are 2 different things.
VAT Refund
VAT is essentially sales tax. Some merchants (not all) will have a Tax Free form you can fill out or they might offer an instant refund and mail your forms for you. Bring your purchases, receipts and refund forms to the VAT offices at boarder crossing in the airport. If they don't offer it, hey, can't hurt to ask!
Read more:
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