Tag: North Wales

An exclusive preview of the new Adventure Parc Snowdonia attraction

The new Indoor Adrenaline experience at Adventure Parc Snowdonia opens tomorrow.

But we were there a couple of weeks ago [pictured above] for an exclusive preview of the new adrenaline attraction, researching an article for The Guardian in the family travel section.

Here’s a preview of what we found:

Now rebranded as Adventure Parc Snowdonia, this converted aluminium factory in the Conwy Valley started life in 2015 as Surf Snowdonia with its inland artificial surf lagoon.

But it has expanded for the summer holidays with the opening of its Adrenaline Indoors adventure experience.

Think the TV series Ninja Warrior on steroids.

It’s an action-packed adjunct in a new building opposite the surf lagoon with activities including an artificial caving course, a parkour trail and freefall jumps, plus a soft-play area for younger siblings.

A 106-bedroom Hilton Garden Inn Hotel is due to open late 2020 with a restaurant and spa.

Adventure Parc Snowdonia

Read the full Guardian Travel story here.

How To Raise A Glass To North Wales’ Real Ale Trail

I joined a real-ale-themed tour of North Wales recently for Guardian Travel.

It was a trip around the hidden-gem rural pubs and microbreweries [pictured above] often overlooked by the stampede down the A55 towards Anglesey.

Based around Caernarfon, it highlighted the rise of community pubs at a time when our traditional village hostelries are struggling to survive.

There has been an explosion of local microbreweries and craft-ale pubs in recent years with The Albion Ale House in Conwy one of my favourites.

Here’s a preview of the article.

As the afternoon gave way to dusk, I was nursing a pint of Clogwyn Gold from the Conwy Brewery at The George in Carneddi, near Bangor, currently the Gwynedd a Mon branch of CAMRA’s Community Pub of the Year.

It was a tiny, no-frills bar with cheese rolls on the bar, beers stains on the carpet and a queue of people for the pool table but, an early Saturday evening in spring, it was bustling with a mix of regulars and ale-trail day trippers.

Landlord Dewi Sion says: “I still believe that serving a proper pint of local ale in a proper pub can create a place where a community comes together.”

Read the full story coming soon in The Guardian.

 

Northwest hotel reviews for The Hotelegraph

Foodie escape: Northcote, near Preston, Lancs
Foodie escape: Northcote, near Preston, Lancs

I’ve seen a lot of hotel rooms in some 16 years of travel writing.

And I saw a whole lot more over the summer months on a journey that took me from a castle in North Wales to a country haven for foodies in rural Lancashire [pictured above].

The reason? Telegraph Travel has been beefing up its hotel coverage and I picked up a fair few of the reviews around the Northwest and North Wales.

The bulk were in Liverpool and have been appearing steadily — digital first, of course.

The home to the majestic, Unesco-listed waterfront offered a colourful range of properties from budget basics to a Titanic-themed hotel.

But the stand out place was a night at 2 Blackburne Terrace, a hidden-gem boutique guesthouse in the city’s Georgian district.

Here’s a sample of what I said about it:

Set in a late-Georgian townhouse, this is very much a bespoke experience with frissons of flamboyant design and theatrical flourishes from the hosts to foster a very personal ambiance.

And here some of the reviews.

2 Blackburne Terrace

30 James Street

Epic Apart Hotel

Doubletree by Hilton

Aloft Liverpool

For autumn I will be packing my reviewer’s notebook for Carmarthenshire and Hull.

Please drop me a line with any suggestions.

More from: The Hotelegraph.

The rocking horse

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New year makes me nostalgic.

Not for new years gone by – I’ve not had a stand-out new year’s eve for years now.

Indeed, the last couple of years of have done little to inspire new-year cheer. I’m relieved in many ways, frankly, that 2013 has shuffled out the door at last.

But, as I take down the decorations and put out the detritus of the holidays for recycling, a nostalgia for childhood still brings a warm glow.

It’s a yearning, I guess, for a time when life was less complicated and new year was a time of purely innocent expectation.

The horsey in the playground at Rossett (pictured above), North Wales, still brings me that nostalgic glow.

I was back there again over the holidays with Maya and Olivia, working off some toddler energy after lunch in a nearby pub by pin-balling between the slide, the swings and the rocking horse.

I’m pretty sure this is the very same horse I used to clamber upon as a child when we lived nearby and used to visit the village for lunch with my granddad.

It looks, after all heavily weathered and probably hasn’t seen a lick of paint since the mid Seventies.

These days, my horse has become the preferred rocking horse for Maya and Olivia.

On a dark winter’s day, seeking signs of light as I gather my resources to square up to another year, something about passing on the innocent joy of Rossett’s stoic stallion still brings me a sense of comfort.

Times change but the horsey rides on.

How do you feel at the start of a new year? Post below.

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