Family holidays call for compromise, especially with pre-teens in tow. So for every agreeable National Trust villa, there must be a sandy beach. For every picturesque cliff top, a theme park. Ideally, the adult attractions must be palatable to the kiddies and vice-versa. Squaring that circle ... Read review
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Advantages: Plenty of attractions, spectacular countryside and coast Disadvantages: Slightly sad towns
Family holidays call for compromise, especially with pre-teens in tow. So for every agreeable National Trust villa, there must be a sandy beach. For every picturesque cliff top, a theme park. Ideally, the adult attractions must be palatable to the kiddies and vice-versa. Squaring that circle is demanding enough. Finding a corner of the country where you can do it is a challenge.
The fact that we managed it by sheer fluke is little ... ...in south-west Wales at a month's notice was foolish. But find one I did (thanks to recommendedcottages.co.uk). At £320 for a week we didn't expect much. But we were pleasantly surprised by the spacious, well-appointed flat on a horse farm in Llandysul, 15 miles inland from Cardigan. This gave us a good base for touring the area outlined by the diamond on the map below.
Although this op is under the category of 'Wales' I can speak only ... more
Family holidays call for compromise, especially with pre-teens in tow. So for every agreeable National Trust villa, there must be a sandy beach. For every picturesque cliff top, a theme park. Ideally, the adult attractions must be palatable to the kiddies and vice-versa. Squaring that circle is demanding enough. Finding a corner of the country where you can do it is a challenge.
The fact that we managed it by sheer fluke is little short of a miracle. Hoping to find a self-catering cottage in south-west Wales at a month's notice was foolish. But find one I did (thanks to recommendedcottages.co.uk). At £320 for a week we didn't expect much. But we were pleasantly surprised by the spacious, well-appointed flat on a horse farm in Llandysul, 15 miles inland from Cardigan. This gave us a good base for touring the area outlined by the diamond on the map below.
Although this op is under the category of 'Wales' I can speak only of the chunk of the Principality I covered in a week, and then only about the specific places visited. Nevertheless, I got a flavour of a part of Wales, some of which has come recently to the idea of welcoming visitors, but which has a lot to offer.
Llandysul itself is a Royston Vasey-esque settlement on the river Teifi. The river plunges into a narrow rocky gorge as it passes through the town. This makes it an appealing destination for white-water canoeists. Slalom markers hang permanently between trees by the town's bridge.
A few miles downriver is Cenarth, a tourist honeypot by the standards of the area. Its main attraction is the falls. Although these are not spectacular, you can clamber safely over rocks right into the middle of the river and stand inches from the frothing cataracts. There's also a pleasant riverside walk for a mile upstream. A Coracle Centre provides a history of the traditional rowing boats: we saw a young woman paddle a coracle across the river then stride off with it on her back as blithely as one would cycle down the shops.
Places like Cenarth are well-versed in catering for the visitor: there's a tea-room, pubs serving food, car parks and toilets, even in this tiny, isolated village. The area's towns are a different matter altogether.
Cardigan once thrived as a port. Sadly that was long ago. Now the town has a shabby, down-at-heel air. The main street was under repair when we were there, which may point to some regeneration. But the town's castle, like many in Wales, is derelict. On the day we visited, it had been opened by enthusiastic volunteers who are campaigning for its renovation. It has featured in the BBC series Restoration. You can only hope they succeed, as a restored castle would give Cardigan a much-needed focus for visitors. Its waterfront area could be attractive too, but is merely a Somerfield supermarket car park.
Carmarthen is larger and busier than Cardigan, but has a similar neglected feel. It too has a castle which, anywhere else, would be a tourist magnet, but it isn't currently doing much to attract visitors. It was the only town where we heard people conversing in Welsh on the streets. This helped give a sense of being in another country – even if they were saying "don't go home and disparage our town, you supercilious English bastard".
Those experiences made me dread visiting Tenby. I imagined a hellish mix of the vulgarity of Blackpool and the pound-shop paradise of Scunthorpe. The fact that it is tasteful, even chic, was a surprise. The broad and sandy North Beach is clean and relatively empty. This is because everybody congregates in the town centre. Here you'll find an eclectic choice of gift shops, attractive wine bars and bistros, as well as the more traditional seaside rock shops and chippies. The old town walls remain in places and there are fine views over the bays and out to Caldey Island, to which there are frequent boat trips.
A few miles west of Tenby is Wales's biggest theme park, Oakwood. Fans of white-knuckle mayhem probably think Oakwood is tame, but I found it a quaint, low-tech park, with a family atmosphere. It specialises in self-powered rides: pedalos; a bungee jump (there's an extra charge for this); a bobsleigh run (on a long metal slide rather than ice). Its newest feature is a whirligig ride in which riders steer planes on cables by swinging large wooden 'sails'. Even its rollercoaster (the only ride for which there was a sizeable queue - of about 25 minutes) is made of wood.
Such frivolities out of the way, we were allowed a few more sedate days out. The area is bounded in the west by the Pembrokeshire Heritage Coast. This is traversed by the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, where I would have been happy to spend a whole week. Sadly my wife suffers a peculiar brand of agoraphobia which induces panic if she ventures out of sight of a car park. So nine-year old Sophie and I strode off up the precipitous cliff path around Dinas Head to sample the awesome views over the azure blue waters and Fishguard ferry port across the bay.
Following the coast north, you come to the seaside towns of Aberaeron and New Quay. The former is a slightly surreal grid of brightly-painted Georgian houses around a small harbour and a rocky beach. It seems to be a major draw for visitors which paradoxically rob it of any lingering charm.
A couple of miles inland from Aberaeron is the National Trust property of Llanerchaeron. You can spend an enjoyable few hours sampling this rare surviving example of a late 18th century self-sufficient gentry estate. The house (designed by John Nash of Buckingham Palace fame) is beautifully restored. There is, for such a modest house, a fascinating mini-industry of kitchens, gardens, farm, dairy, laundry - even a brewery.
Talking of which, New Quay is famed as home of the poet Dylan Thomas. He lived there for only a year, but it was a very productive time during which he wrote some of his finest poems, such as Fern Hill. He was forced out of the town after some unpleasantness involving accusations of a menage à trois, a sten gun and a grenade.
The town remains much as Dylan must have left it, the inspiration for Llareggub in his play Under Milk Wood: a steep hill to which grim little houses cling. A small row of gift shops and eateries sit high above a couple of unremarkable beaches and a harbour. In the bay below, dolphins obligingly frolic.
As I spent most of the week driving, sadly I didn't make the most of the countryside. It preserves the archetypal multicoloured patchwork of fields which have disappeared from large areas of Britain. Around Llandysul and the Teifi Valley you wind endlessly through wooded gorges and emerge into breathtaking vistas over equally endless hills. The most stark and impressive of these are the Preseli Hills, named after Elvis, who came to live in the area after his death.
Though the hills were often obscured by low cloud, preventing any sightings of The King, we managed to take in fine views from the neolithic burial chamber of Pentre Ifan - four apparently precarious standing stones which have nevertheless stood for thousands of years.
More recent man-made attractions can be found at the National Botanic Garden of Wales, a few miles east of Carmarthen. It has been open only a few years, but already encompasses an impressive range of habitats, including the vast dome of the Norman Foster-designed glasshouse. This avoids the steamy tropical atmosphere of most glasshouses in favour of simulating the dryer, but no less diverse 'mediterranean' regions, from Australia to California. The gardens as a whole are very kiddy-friendly, including a 'maize maze', a small animal farm, pond-dipping area and a newly-built adventure garden. You could easily spend a day exploring, and at only £14 for two adults (under-12s went free when we visited) it's a real bargain.
My general impressions were of an area rich in interest, with attractions to suit all ages and inclinations. There were several things I'd like to have seen but didn't have time: an Iron Age settlement, a gold mine, steam railways, trout smokeries, boat trips, coastal paths. Yes, the weather, even at the end of July, was reliably damp: a sunny day in Tenby was terminated by a Biblical downpour. But the sun shone most days too. And say what you like about Welsh councils, they cater for one's bodily needs: no car park, however small or out of the way, was without a public toilet. Though I'm no connoisseur of such things, Mrs S was in her element.
Advantages: Superbly Pretty Mediterranean-Style Village On the Welsh Coast... Disadvantages: Half the fun is getting there... or perhaps not.
Warning: this review is somewhat unorthodox, in that it includes an account of my journey to Portmeirion as well as my experience of the destination itself. Those of you that are interested only in Portmeirion the destination are therefore advised to skip my preamble & proceed directly to 'THE DESTINATION' (see below). THE HOUSEGUEST… It was the Thursday before the August Bank Holiday, 2003.
It had been an inauspicious week, but we had finally managed ... ...to Gatwick, and he'd jetted back to Thailand to take up where he'd left off eight weeks earlier, teaching his unique patois to unsuspecting natives. An untidy pile remained when we returned, a small and rancid reminder of the houseguest's visit, and amongst it was the tent he'd recently brought back from Glastonbury. The following morning, my husband announced that he had made a decision. Apparently, we were going to Portmeirion, and we were leaving ...
snowbunni 12.12.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of General: Wales
Advantages: Peaceful, beautiful & unspoiled in a lot of areas. Disadvantages: None found yet.
Ahhhhh… Finally I get my chance of a short holiday. Any time away that involves 3 nights not sleeping in my own bed, is a holiday for me! Due to a recent visit to the Wye valley, I was now hooked on Wales, and vowed to go back as soon as possible. I had a bit of spare cash, due to a nice little Ebay sale, so the holiday door, seeming to be permanently closed, has now opened for a brief tick in time, till the funding sends me back to the land of making ... ...if your into S.T.T.N Generation. Hey…if I had a holodeck, I never leave the bloody place for sure.
Our destination was New Quay in Cardigan Bay (Ceredigion) on the mid west coast, about 20 miles south of Aberystwth.
The other half had been scanning the internet for places to stay in Wales etc, and New Quay (not Cornwall) was one of the places she saw. I looked at the one image on her computer and thought…. errmm well, looks Ok I spose, hell, what ...
mr.blue.sky 24.10.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of General: Wales
Advantages: Wonderful rolling scenery - interesting roads - plenty to do Disadvantages: Take a Good Pub Guide, you'll need it.
Yet another of my ‘not so much a guide, but more a list of what I did on my hols’ opinions.
Another school holiday comes around and it’s time for the Nibbles’ to get outta town, this time to a cottage in North Wales.
The area we chose was off the beaten track, quite literally, since it was up a two-mile farm track, in between Bala and Llangollen.
We’d both been camping here in ‘previous lives’ as Mrs. Nibbles terms our former marriages, she having ... ...I still have this image of waking to potentially fine days, but my tent’s proximity to the Bala Lake-side shrouding me in a dense mist (or was it just beer fumes from the tent?).
GETTING THERE
Both Llangollen and Bala are on the old coaching route to Holyhead from London, now more prosaically known as the A5. Once past Shrewsbury, this becomes a bit of a drag, nonetheless scenic, especially if stuck behind a ‘shed dragger’, aka caravan tower.
...
BNibbles 05.06.2004 (06.06.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of General: Wales
(an educational holiday)
Some years ago my husband and I bought a Rover coach ticket for one week which allowed us to roam around Wales as much as we wanted to; together with the ticket we got a map with all the existing routes in Wales. What we didn't get was a timetable and so we learned our first lesson the hard way, i.e. what discoordination means. If the word doesn't exist, it must be invented. It happened more than once that we wanted to go ... ...to the map, but got stuck in B, because the one coach which went from B to C hadn't bothered to wait for us, but left an hour or so before our arrival.
The one town I have vivid memories of and will never forget is Cardigan on the river Teifi. Why did we chose it? We wanted to go to the coast, and when we saw the name on the map, we just knew that we had to go there. Cardigan! Would there be Pullover nearby? Teifi, indeed! Teifi is a funny German ...
MALU 28.09.2002 (19.06.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of General: Wales
Advantages: Away from the coast road with plenty of historical interest. Disadvantages: Really need own transport to get there as public transport leaves a lot to be desired.
Ruthin - Denbighshire I recently visited the small town of Ruthin to do some shopping at the new Tesco’s and meet up with some old friends from school in St. Peter‘s Square. Ruthin is approximately 7 miles from Denbigh on the A525 and is set in the Vale of Clwyd and overlooked by the Clwydian range and the Hiraethog Moors. The town was built on a hill to provide a strategic lookout over the River Clwyd. The streets of this town are steeped in history ... ...sieges. Having done the shopping I made my way to St Peter’s Square to meet my friends by the Clock Tower which stands proud in the middle of the square. While I was waiting for their arrival I looked around at the different buildings on view and I was very impressed by the different historical architecture this place has to offer. Considering this place isn’t far from where I live I thought I would share some of the delights this small town has ...
colliedog2 27.10.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of General: Wales
Value for Money
Sightseeing
Shopping
Nightlife
Ease of getting around
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