Tr avel report MID WALES A
LTHOUGH it is only around 150 miles from our West Yorkshire home to the Victorian spa town of Llandrindod Wells there’s a glorious feeling of being ‘in the middle of nowhere’ in this picturesque part of Mid Wales.
The traffic-clogged motorways around Manchester were soon forgotten as we motored through north Wales, in and out of Shropshire and to our hotel, the imposing 4-star Metropole in the centre of town.
It had taken us a ridiculous five hours to cover those miles thanks to awful Bank Holiday traffic so we phoned ahead to warn the hotel we might be late for dinner.
The staff were pretty laid back about our poor time keeping which calmed my fears that such a grand hotel might not be child-friendly.
As parents of two typically energetic children, aged five and three, we sometimes worry that we will spend our holidays being tutted at as we fail miserably to control our offspring.
Thankfully the Metropole wasn’t at all stuffy and our evening meal was a pleasant experience thanks to our waiter who helped entertain the kids and made them comfy. When a few chips and peas from the kids’ menu ended up on the carpet there wasn’t a panic.
Inevitably the following day dawned early. My diary says ‘Harry woke 5:50am.’ Sharing a family room can mean disrupted sleep and we normally prefer self-catering accommodation with separate bedrooms.
Pre-breakfast, five-year-old son and me had a wander around Llandrindod Wells. We barely saw a soul but we did enjoy looking at the super cars in the hotel car park, including the largest selection of Morgan sports cars I’d ever seen.
I later learned that the Morgan factory is in the spa town of Malvern, only 60 miles from Llandrindod Wells, and factory tours are open to the public.
It was clear from the presence of the Morgans that Mid Wales’ roads are a big draw for motoring enthusiasts.
Taking our cue from The Rough Guide to Britain we decided to explore the Abergwesyn Pass which is a tricky drive in a car never mind a Mazda Bongo Friendee campervan.
The track from Abergeswyn to Tregaron is very steep in places, crazily twisty and with jawdroppingly sheer drops - and few barriers.
The route over the Cambrian mountains follows an old cattle drovers’ road and took us a good hour of driving, often at 20mph or even slower.
If you enjoy remote places, and stunning scenery, we can recommend it. After negotiating the so-called Devil’s Staircase the track passes through wide open valleys. We lost count of the number of Red Kites soaring above us and even spotted one clutching a grey squirrel in its talons.
After reaching Tregaron we headed to the Elan Valley Visitor Centre at Rhayader, Powys, which took us a little over an hour to drive.
The centre is run by Welsh Water and is great spot to marvel at the engineering prowess of those clever Victorians who brought fresh water to our disease-ridden filthy towns.
Our guide, education ranger Fiona Wase, took us on a tour of the magnificent reservoirs with names I couldn’t pronounce (Dol Y Mynach, Pen Y Garreg, etc). Water is transported by the force of gravity via a pipeline all the way to Birmingham around 73 miles away; just imagine the shallowness of the pipe’s gradient for that to work.
Most of the dams are accessible by car - and you can even take a tour inside a dam wall - and there are trails for cyclists, walkers and photographers.
After a pleasant dip in the hotel pool we spent our final day exploring Llandrindod Wells, which the Rough Guide describes as “once the most chichi spa resort in Wales” but now a “pale imitation of its former self.”
We did notice a few smashed windows and run-down buildings but the town is a decent base to explore the area and the children enjoyed feeding the ducks and swans and eating ice cream beside the town’s lake.
No family trip away would be complete without a visit to a play centre. At nearby Newbridge-onWye we found Quackers which boasts the biggest drop slide in Mid Wales. The sandpit and go-karts were great fun.
We hopped back into the van and headed home, exhausted (as always) but happy to have discovered this lesser-known area of Wales.