Tilstone Boutique Guest Accommodation

Tilstone sits a street back from the seafront in Craig-y-Don, at the quieter eastern end of Llandudno, and the combination of keypad entry, a park round the corner and the whole length of the promenade for morning walks makes it an easy base for a dog. The rooms are apartment-style with their own kitchen area, so there is no reception to walk a dog through and no fixed breakfast time to work around.

Dog owners are consistently warm about the place, and being able to bring a dog is the reason many of them booked it. The location does much of the work: North Shore beach and the prom are a short walk, there is a park a street away for a quick last trip out at night, and the surrounding roads are quiet enough to use after dark. The decor is the other thing guests single out, a vintage and modern mix that is considerably more appealing than the signage outside suggests.

Two things are worth knowing before booking with a dog. The lower windows are not frosted, and guests leaving dogs in the room have had to keep the blinds down because passers-by stop and look in; one or two rooms also face a bus stop, which is noisy from early morning. And because the building welcomes dogs throughout, other people's dogs are audible - guests have been woken in the night by a dog moving about in the room above and by barking from a neighbouring room, and a lingering dog smell has been reported in one of the rooms.

The building is old and has had its share of maintenance grumbles, including drains, a faulty shower head, damp in one room and rubbish left around the entrance, and some rooms are up three flights of stairs, which matters if you have an older dog to carry. Best suited to dog owners who want a seafront-adjacent base with a kitchen and a flexible arrival time, and who do not mind sharing a building with other people's dogs. It earns a 4.6/5 paw rating.