Wales does not ask for much. A free weekend, a light bag, somewhere honest to sleep, and a car that thrives on texture rather than trophies. We based ourselves at the excellent Plas Weunydd Hotel in Blaenau Ffestiniog for a Friday-to-Sunday escape. Friendly faces, secure parking and strong coffee set the tone. Slate, sheep and sky followed, along with cambers, crests and puddles so big they deserve names.
This was a “less is more” trip by design. I brought a 718 Boxster S and nothing to prove. Wales rewards that mindset. The roads are tight and often bumpy. Vision comes and goes with hedgerows and weather. Big power is wasted when you are rattling cattle grids and reading damp patches. What matters is placement, compliance and feel.
There is poignancy here as well. With production of the entire 718 range now concluded, this weekend doubled as a farewell tour. Across a decade of variants, the 718 proved that balance, usability and precision can trump brute force. A last drive on the right roads only underlined the point. It helped that I found myself with friends and with very special mid-engined sixes, and more exotic exhausts notes. The 981 Boxster Spyder and GT4 are some of the best attainable drivers’ cars of the platforms back catalogue.
The Boxster S fits the brief beautifully. Mid-engined balance makes every input count, while the excellent PDK keeps the tempo where you want it. Short paddles, crisp logic and clean downshift blips let you focus on your line. The turbocharged flat-four won’t win Grammys, but its torque is the right kind of useful here. Out of uphill hairpins and across wind-polished straights, it filled the mirrors of six-cylinder friends with steady inevitability, despite their fifty per cent advantage in cylinder count.
Practicality matters on a quick-fire trip. Two boots, with a generous front and a useful rear, swallow a weekend without drama. CarPlay keeps navigation and playlists tidy, which proves valuable when the A470 hands you off to something narrower and knottier. Roof down between showers, the Welsh rock faces return the intake’s growl and the odd crackle on the overrun, not from the Boxster S, but the sonorous Spyder and raspy GT4. Roof up when the clouds decide otherwise, the Boxster stays civil and snug.
Our rhythm was simple and civilised. We never drove before breakfast. We lingered over coffee, planned a loop, and set off late morning. The hotel is perfectly placed, minutes from great roads and a hot shower when you have run out of superlatives for the view down the valley. The staff looked after the cars without fuss and seemed pleased to host people who arrive muddy-arched and grinning. We even played mini-golf on site, a surreal and brilliant experience deep underground in the old mine.
What lingers is not speed, it is conversation with the car and the road. The Boxster’s steering is honest. It is quick off-centre, nicely weighted, and accurate enough to sit the front tyre on the paint and keep it there. The chassis breathes with the surface rather than fighting it, which is everything on roads that move under you. You drive with your fingertips and eyes, not your ego. It is satisfying rather than showy.
Wales adds the rest. One minute you are flanked by slate tips and mist. The next you are on open moorland with sheep conducting their own risk assessments. Surfaces swing from billiard-table smooth to rally stage within a village sign. That variability lets the little Porsche shine. It never feels brittle and never bored. You settle into a pace that respects what you cannot see and enjoy what you can.
There is a temptation to overcomplicate road trips with bucket lists and border crossings. This was the opposite. Two nights, one base, one car. The 718 Boxster S showed that “enough” is often perfect. Enough performance to stay in touch, enough torque for the climbs, enough civility to arrive rested, and enough space for a change of shoes and a raincoat. As the curtain falls on the 718 era, this felt like the right goodbye: a small adventure on great roads, and a reminder that simplicity still wins.
