My heart sank. Surely they're not talking about my hometown, that's home to a university, a cathedral and was once known as "the Venice of Wales"? I looked up the survey and indeed they were. Bangor had been voted the 'worst seaside town in the UK' according to 4,744 members of the consumer magazine Which?'s online panel.
It had scored just 42% in a survey, half of the winner, Bamburgh in Northumberland. I was quietly outraged, firstly because Bangor had been referred to as a 'town' when in fact it's a city, and secondly, that 4,744 people could get it so wrong. I was born and raised in Bangor, like generations of my family before me and, having moved away, I still miss it.
It still feels like home and I have nothing but fond memories of endless hours playing in the fields with my siblings, shopping at the local centre, Christmas concerts at the cathedral and even of spectacularly failing my first driving test. I still try to go home as much as I can, despite the four-and-a-half hour journey. And I always feel a sigh of relief when I reach that roundabout that tells me I'm home.
Looking at readers' responses to the survey's results, I was glad to see that people felt the same way. Some described it as "mad", others had called it "unfair". But some took the opportunity to lambast my home city even more.
Granted, Bangor doesn't have sandy beaches or fancy hotels but it has so much more than that. In 2022, Bangor's Garth Pier was named 'Pier of the Year', the 1,500ft long Victor.
