It’s been a few weeks now since we got home from Bluestone, Wales. It’s a wonderful place to visit at Christmas as they have lots of festive activities running, the main one being the Kingdom of the Elves.
If you haven’t heard of Bluestone before then it’s a holiday park set in a valley in Pembrokeshire, Wales. There are 300 lodges, of different sizes, set around a little village area where there is a shop, restaurants and a park. The site is quite large and the adventure centre and swimming pool are located right at the top so to make it easier to get around you can hire golf buggies. We did this as Matt has a bad ankle, plus they are just really fun to drive around in. You can also hire bikes which would be fun, although for us, this would be more of a summer option. It was raining a lot during our stay and having to cycle up to the swimming pool would have been a mission!
You do need a driving license to drive the buggies, Matt forgot to take his so I had to be the driver, it was a pretty scary experience for everyone 😉
We were staying in a Skomer lodge which was amazing, so large and spacious. The bathroom had underfloor heating which was such a treat. The kitchen had everything we needed including a dishwasher, a holiday wouldn’t be a holiday without a dishwasher! The Skomer lodges have a little den area too which the kids loved sitting in to watch telly. Both the upstairs bedrooms have en-suites, with huge showers which was also a real treat as our shower at home is rubbish. The lodge was so warm, the heating picks up on movement and it kept it just right, I hate being cold so this was a really important thing for me, especially in winter.
One of the highlights of Bluestone for us is the swimming pool, it’s without a doubt our favourite pool as they have a wave machine and a rapid river which goes outside. This makes swimming really fun, usually we find it boring.
Another awesome part of Bluestone is the forest area which is also home to Camp Smokey. It’s where they run lots of adrenaline packed activities like zip wires and treetop walks. We went for a walk through the woods after Kingdom of the Elves so the kids were in their elf outfits. The Kingdom of the Elves is a really fun experience where you go through lots of different rooms and complete activities, the kids are given an outfit to put on and all the staff are dressed up and in character. It lasts for over an hour and the kids loved it.
It was so, SO windy during our time at Bluestone, and especially on this day. Some of the thinner trees were bending so much!
Cherry trying to pull Tiger out of a dragon’s mouth 😉
One of the things we were really pleased to find was that the restaurants at Bluestone have started offering vegan options, they have vegan menus available with a good range of choices. We picked to eat in The Oak Tree as they have pizza, and we all love pizza! Although having said that, Matt went for the vegan lasagne. My pizza was absolutely delicious, up there with one of the best vegan pizzas I’ve had. We also shared a chocolate & banana calzone for dessert, which came with vanilla ice-cream.
We ate in but if you have younger children who get tired or don’t want the hassle of sitting in then they also offer takeaway so you can eat back at your chalet, I think it’s great to have this option. This is the actual pizza although I did work some Photoshop magic on it because the tomatoes and rocket weren’t in the shape of a face and nor were the kids holding it!
On our last day the rain clouds broke just as we were about to leave and a beautiful rainbow appeared, I ran straight outside to take some photos of it..
Unfortunately ten minutes into our journey home our car broke down! We had to join the AA who thankfully were able to track down a part to fix it because otherwise it would have cost us hundreds to be recovered back to our house, it did mean a 2 hour wait in Starbucks for the kids and I, but at least we were at a Starbuck’s and not the side of the road in the rain!
We had an awesome time though and I would definitely recommend it, you can read all about the lodges, activities and resort here. Oh I forgot to mention about the spa, we didn’t make it there this time as we had the kids but we’ve been before and it’s AMAZING!!
You can also find out about their winter breaks, they are going to be lighting up the forest from New Year’s Eve which looks so good. They are also in the process of building a huge skydome, this will make a great addition to the Bluestone, Wales resort as it rains quite a lot!!
We were offered 4 nights free accommodation for the purpose of this review. We paid for the golf buggy, meals out and all the extras.
