Lovely old hotel situated in wonderful countryside. The owner Alan and his staff were very friendly and accommodating, providing a wealth of local information and excellent food, all dietary needs catered for.
Brilliant forestry walks from the hotel with amazing waterfalls a few minutes away.
This is an old Welsh house, slightly gone to seed, but comfortable if a bit quirky. It gets a big plus for breakfast and a bigger one for the mountain garden that surrounds it. We thought the sound of a waterfall was rain! It had rained in the night but the walk to much bigger waterfalls was lovely, if a bit rock strewn here and there. Dinner is basic in these covid times. Rooms are nice and there are lots of books to borrow, but the scenery stole the show.
We came to Snowdonia for some walking and stayed for three nights in the top floor Arram Family suite. (Double + twin room). The weather was unfortunately pretty bad so we didn’t venture far afield for our walks, but there were plenty of good short and long walks right outside the hotel door. It’s set right next to some a National Trust woodland so the setting is beautiful and wonderfully peaceful.
The hotel itself is in a striking gothic style country house. It is a little frayed at the edges in places, but it was comfortable, the breakfast was good and the owners(?) were extremely friendly and helpful. I don’t particularly like anonymous chain hotels so I liked its quirkiness and thought it was good value for money. The restaurant (which had a reduced ‘Covid menu’ was seriously limited for vegetarians/pescatarians (unless you you like pizza - which I don’t!), but the menu looked great if you like meat! The owners were so helpful that I suspect that if I’d given them advance warning they would have provided some non-meat alternatives, so I would suggest asking. Dolgellau is only a few miles away so there are plenty of eating possibilities within easy driving distance.
Beautiful location and a lovely old dowager of a property, with an interesting history file. Yes, it is a little tired in places but it’s very clean and well prepared for the covid holiday season, including a menu ‘a la covid 2020,’ proudly displayed in the hallway.
Breakfast was very well done and the sausages were amazingly good, as were the selection of pizzas, served up by the lovely Gaynor in the early evening. The staff are delightful and Alan goes out of his way to offer friendly advice and assistance to his guests. It’s a hotel for the price of a B&B, so keep that in mind and enjoy the experience, including the swarm of rare black bees in the walls around the Eden room. These creatures are safely contained and their honey is almost as good as those sausages from Dai the butchers in Bala.
We had some amazing drives into Barmouth, Betwsy-coed, Harlech, Portmeirion, the stunning Llanberis Pass and Horseshoe Pass. But forget all those scenic views and the hordes of masked hikers in woolly socks; those sausages were just amazing......
Very sadly our two night stay in this well situated and characterful house was completely marred by a failure to service either of the two rooms we had, coupled with the manager's denial of this situation (even though his lady colleague had admitted the error to us), a lack of any apology and his "I am right, you are wrong" attitude.
Neither room was serviced after our first night until I pointed the fact out when we arrived back to get ready for dinner. Even then all that happened was that our bed was made, but the bathroom was not touched, the bins were not emptied and essentials were not replenished (I had to source extra from the communal cloakroom).
A derisory discount was reluctantly given and still no apology. This is an establishment where very sadly the guest does not feel respected, something which is reflected in the property itself where the grounds, structure, furnishings and fittings all show signs of creeping neglect. An air of idleness pervades and this is borne out in the inadequate stocktaking of the larder which during our stay lacked key ingredients meaning that about a third of the already limited menu was unavailable. Pizza was offered as an alternative to anything with chicken (off), dragon sauce (off) or minced beef (off).
A stark contrast to the two hotels we subsequently stayed in on the same trip - similarly characterful and unique properties but in each case ones where the guest is well treated with courtesy and deference.
There probably is a market for the Fawlty Towers type experience, but this hotel markets itself out differently and without apology or any meaningful compensation for this bad service. For this reason I am posting these comments. Potential guests should be aware.
