This past week, the husband, Lucy and I were away in Tenby to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary in Welsh style.  Since we took the baby and sampled several different hotels I thought I'd share my thoughts on the baby-friendliness of the places we visited. All hotels were booked at the very last minute!

Day 1: The Park Hotel, Tenby - we paid £100 for a twin room with ensuite and breakfast
This hotel is situated at the highest point in Tenby and has spectacular views of the town and the bay. We had a great experience here despite booking last minute. The staff were really helpful, friendly and accommodating (for this one night we had hubby's family with us including dog!).

The room we had was small but we managed to fit the travel cot ok. Very clean rooms - Lucy enjoyed her bath as they had a non-slip mat.

We ate dinner in the bar because of the dog, but the food was really nice and reasonably priced.  Because we'd left Lucy in the room we had the baby monitor but it didn't work past a certain point in the room so the lady at the bar kindly kept an eye on it for us just in case.

At breakfast they'd printed a lovely personalised welcome note and had set up a table ready for the whole family, including a booster seat for Lucy. Despite it not being a buffet where we could help ourselves, they were happy to bring a Weetabix and fill Lucy's cup with fresh water for us.

There was an outdoor swimming pool too and in the morning we saw a few kids splashing about, but we weren't brave enough as it would have been too cold for Lucy.  All in all a great place to stay and we would definitely come again.

Day 2/3: Begelly Arms, Kilgetty - we paid £67.50 for a double with ensuite and breakfast
When we first pulled up to the car park our hearts sank. There were tons of dubious looking people milling about outside including one young girl who looked like she was touting for business through a car window! It turned out though that the hotel's function room was booked out for a gypsy funeral for which a hundred people had turned up. Naturally, our first thought was 'shit what valuable stuff did we leave in the car?'

However, once inside the hotel we could see that it had recently been refurbished with a really smart reception and bar/restaurant area and separate bar with tv and pool table.  The hotel manager who checked us in was super friendly and gave us a larger room when he saw we had a baby.

The room we had was large and clean with decent basic facilities. It also had free wifi and full Sky TV (not just a few channels).  Breakfast was buffet style with two choices of cereal along with a Full English option. The food was very good and there was a highchair for Lucy. Every member of staff we met was lovely, including the cleaners who arranged all Lucy's teddies in a row inside her cot :-)

The only downside was our room faced the main road, and while it wasn't all that noisy from cars, it did mean that we got smoke from people sitting on the pub tables directly below the window, and on the first night we were treated to a show - two of the travellers engaging in a fist fight!

All in all we really liked it at the Begelly and decided to stay two nights instead of one.





Day 4: Llwynygog Guesthouse, Aberystwyth - we paid £70 for a double with ensuite and breakfast
This was in a nice location near the beach and the town and the owners were lovely people - very friendly and helpful. Unfortunately their standards of cleanliness for their guesthouse aren't quite as lovely. The worst was the suspicious crusty stains on the bed sheets and the mouldy shower but there were many other small things that meant we wouldn't come here again. Plus the breakfast was awful.
It's a shame because the room was big enough for the cot and the owners were great with letting us store the buggy in their private sitting room so in theory the place is baby friendly.

Needless to say this experience put us off staying away from home any longer and so I'm writing this from the comfort of my own sofa with a nice cuppa and nice memories of all the lovely people we met in Wales. I really believe it is the friendliest place in Britain. Even the gypsies seemed nice!

RL xx