Bluestone Wales – Our First Family Holiday

As a couple we have only ever been on 2 holidays – one of which was our honeymoon. As a family we have never been on holiday, besides trips to stay with friends. So, when we were asked whether we would like to have a 4 night stay at Bluestone Wales we were thrilled!!! It would be our first family holiday and a much needed break for us as a couple.

 A little about Bluestone

• Bluestone Wales opened in July 2008 and now has over 300 luxury lodges, cottages and studio apartments. All of these surround a private village with everything you need for your stay.
• The resort is built over two valleys in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.
• Something that really impresses me is the fact they care about the environment- not only is recycling encouraged on site but they also boast solar-heated water in some of their lodges and the Blue Lagoon pool is heated by using local crops in the biomass centre! Impressive!!

Our holiday

We left home on Monday morning and managed to do the 4 hour journey with no breaks. Both girls were fab and slept most of the way thank goodness! We arrived at 2pm, just in time to hire our buggy- I would totally recommened hiring one as it is very cold this time of year and the last thing you need is to be trekking up and down the hill with children! We got ours for £65 but I know of a couple of others who got a deal for £40 so keep an eye out online!

Once we had our buggy we sped off to find our lodge! We were in Carn Menyn which is fairly close to ‘The Village’ and not far from the pool or adventure centre either which was handy. We weren’t allowed into the lodge until 4.30pm so we sped off again to check out the shops.

The Amenities

‘The Village’ is so quaint, the little cottages look like something you would see on a postcard. There is a general store, a bakery and a toy shop plus a few others. There is also a pub ‘The Tafarn’ and ‘Farmhouse Grill’, just 2 of the 5 places to eat in the park. None of the shops compete with any of the others so the general store does not sell any bread that you would be able to buy in the bakery. I like this, it takes you back to the days before supermarkets. (We did have to travel off-site to find a Tesco as Mr F forgot to pack Baby L’s suitcase! It was a 20 min drive into Haverfordwest so not too bad if you do need something you cannot find on-site.)

Next stop was the Adventure Centre! There is quite a bit to do in here and most of it is free, there are a few extras you can pay to do but you could quite easily spend all day busying yourselves with the complimentary activities. Both girls enjoyed playing in the soft play area, there is a ball pit for the younger ones and a small climbing area with a whirly slide for the toddlers.

Enjoying the ball pit

There is a great Lego area with a big wall to create pictures or write your name in Lego. We spent a fair bit of time there early one morning and had the place to ourselves!

Investigating the Lego area

Building a tower

Might have had a little go myself…

There is a larger climbing frame for the older ones- I am afraid of heights so Mr F took Little G to the top. She has no fear bless her but wouldn’t have been able to do it on her own as the height between each level is a bit too high for her to climb.

Up high on the climbing frame!

There was plenty of other activities to keep us busy too, we enjoyed a game of connect 4 and then had a game of crazy golf. Little G has no concept of playing fairly and just picked the ball up and plopped it into each hole!!

The best thing by far has to be their swimming pool ‘The Blue Lagoon’. We went there all but 1 of the days, even choosing to stay a little longer on our last day to have one last swim! Unfortunately there are no cameras allowed in the pool area so you will have to believe me when I say it is amazing!

So where to start? There are several water slides, both Mr F and I had a go and enjoyed whizzing down into the water. Some are lower so not as scary for the little ones- there is a 1.1m height restriction though so not all children can go on them.

Photo courtesy of Bluestone Wales

The lazy river is great as it takes you from one side of the pool, outside into the open air and then back in the other side of the pool. As you can imagine it is quite cold  freezing at this time of year so be prepared for the cold air to hit you in the face as you rush into the open air. As long as your shoulders are under the water it is fine though and the kids love it!

Our favourite part was the wave machine!! They give you plenty of warning by blowing 2 whistles before the waves are about to start. It is up to you whether you head up onto the beachy area or brave the deep end. We actually found that it was safer to be in the middle of the pool, bobbing in the waves, rather than at the break of the wave which would crash onto the beach. I have to say though, the strength of the waves can vary, sometimes they were fairly calm and yet other times even I had to admit defeat and swim back to shore. One thing for sure though is it teaches you how important it is for kids to learn to swim!

There is also a baby pool, although it was very shallow water and so we found it to be better in the main pool where our shoulders could be under the water keeping warm. Both the girls had wetsuits on and I cannot recommend them enough in this cold weather! Others had their babies in normal swimming costumes but had to get out when they got cold, whereas we spent over an hour and a half in the pool.

Baby L wore a Splash About Baby Snug which is designed to keep baby warm. Little G is wearing the amazing Splash About Float Jacket- I cannot rave about this enough! She was so confident in the water and I knew she would be safe to swim around on her own. I will be writing about these very soon but believe me, they are a must!!

The Accommodation

Wow! Not much impresses me but I absolutely love the lodges! Everything looks brand new! The furniture is all high quality and the decor is clean and bright. We were greeted to towels on the freshly made beds and a welcome pack on our coffee table. There was also a starter pack for washing up which contained a couple of dishwasher tablets, a mini bottle of washing up liquid, a tea towel and a dish cloth.

We stayed in a Ramsey lodge- otherwise known as an ‘upside down house’ as the living area is upstairs. A great idea as you can look out on the lovely views. One thing I will say though is there are no locks on the windows downstairs and I did feel a little uneasy about the girls being in a  different room to us. Obviously they cannot be opened from the outside but we had a video monitor on them at all times anyway which helped put my mind at ease.

Our lovely room- both rooms ad en suites which was great! One bathroom and one wet room.

The well stocked kitchen- it had everything from a potato peeler to egg cups! They have really thought of everything!

Stair gates meant the girls were free to play around in the living room. 

A high chair comes as standard so meal times were a family affair.

Towels are provided which is great- although they do say to bring your own to take to the pool. The girls enjoyed a lovely bath the first night, although the plug didn’t seem to keep the water in so it was showers after that!

It did rain for part of our stay which was a shame but we had anticipated this and brought games and DVDs with us to keep us occupied. It never rained for long though and we often braved the rain and made a dash to the pool or the activity centre!

The Food

The lodges are all self catered and so most of the meals we ate were those we had prepared ourselves. There is a fridge with a small freezer compartment at the top, perfect for keeping perishables stored away for the week.

On the second night we had a lovely meal in the Farmhouse Grill, we got there fairly early so had the place to ourselves to start off with. The staff were very welcoming and brought over a highchair for Baby L. They have a great menu and also a kids buffet which is great- they can go up as many times as they like and have a good selection to choose from. I will say though that Baby L struggled as nothing besides the chips was dairy free. There is a salad bar though and so she happily munched on tomatoes and cucumber.

For starter both Mr F and I had a cucumber and red pepper soup- it was absolutely delicious and I am going to try and make this at home!!!

For main I had a chicken burger and Mr F had the steak. He really enjoyed his and said it was cooked to perfection- something he rarely says and as you can appreciate steak can be a tricky thing to get right for each individual.

For dessert we both chose the Cadbury Mania sundae- again, totally delicious! It has little chunks of Curly Wurly and Crunchie- YUM!

Activities

There are a number of activities you can pay to do although most of these are geared towards older children- archery and zip wiring etc.. However, there were a couple of activities we liked the look of- sensory play and messy play!

We went along to toddler sensory play on the Tuesday, I would say it is for younger toddlers as Little G, being 3, was more interested in riding on the rollercoaster. However Baby L loved it and toddled around the different area. She especially liked the bubble machine at the end! The host Georgina was really good with the children and kept them all entertained throughout the session.

The assault course in the Circus Zone

The sensory area where we sang songs and played with the parachute.

Little G on the rollercoaster- such a cool toy!

Baby L having a fab time!

The second activity we tried was messy play, something I have never been brave enough to take either of my girls to, so was a bit apprehensive. They were both as good as gold though and had a great time- I will definitely look out for messy play groups near us!

Enjoying the jelly and custard!

Baby L playing with Baby (Youbabymemummy) they are so cute together! 

Making a cake!

Painting!

Both activities were £7 per child which I didn’t mind paying seeing as we had been gifted the holiday. However I am not sure I would have wanted to pay so much otherwise- especially for the sensory play as actually you can go up and enjoy the Circus zone for free!!

Out and About

We ditched the buggy one afternoon and went for a lovely walk around the site. We never really get a chance to go on walks at home but both Mr F and I agreed we should make the effort to go on more as a family. It was great to be out in the fresh air- even if it was a bit bracing at times!

Baby L having a ride in her sling

Muddy puddle splashing!

 We spotted some great carvings while walking through Camp Smokey- how cool are these?

As you came out of the woods you arrived at the lake- those lucky enough to stay in those lodges would have had an amazing view each morning!

 Meeting other bloggers

Of course I was also there as a blogger so was excited to see some of the other fab bloggers that were there the same week. I bumped into Ryan from Dad Creek at toddler sensory, was at the same restaurant as Michelle and the whole Crowther clan– although didn’t find out until afterwards, and had a lovely afternoon with my good friend Aby from You Baby Me Mummy at messy play. We also went round to Aby’s lodge and met up with Hannah from Budding Smiles which was really lovely!

There were others I would have loved to have met but time flew by and before we knew it our holiday was over!

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Things to note:

IMPORTANT! They require every child under the age of 4 to wear a swim nappy. Little G has been toilet trained for a year already so this made no sense to me but be warned!

Bring a mattress for the travel cot or a thick blanket as there is not one provided with the cot they have in the lodges.

Bring an extra tea towel to wipe the buggy seats when it rains (if you hire one).

They provide a tiny bottle of washing up liquid so make sure you bring your own. There is a dishwasher but some things we preferred to wash by hand.

Don’t bother with a pushchair if you are going to hire a buggy, we didn’t use ours the whole week. We used a sling for our walk in the woods.

Hairdryers are not included

Children have to be a minimum of 18 months old to ride in the bike trailers

Free wifi across the whole site

Bring a blanket to snuggle on the sofa with as at times it can be a bit chilly

If you are in the middle of baby led weaning then I suggest you bring a mat or move the table off the carpet onto the tiled floor in the kitchen.

If you have little ones with wandering fingers then you may want to bring some plug protectors! 

Remember plates, bowls and cutlery for children

You will need £1 for a locker in the Blue Lagoon

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The whole holiday was fantastic from beginning to end and we were so sad to leave! It wasn’t the best weather but we created some long lasting memories as a family, which is the most important thing! I have already convinced my mum to book a holiday there as we often went to that part of Wales when I was a child and she wants to go back! If you are looking for a great place to go with your family then Bluestone Wales has it all!

 We were invited to stay at Bluestone Wales as part of their blogger program but all words and thoughts are my own.