laugharne-park

Laugharne Estate

A perfect work in progress

Now I’ve been to two other seasons owned resorts over the past few years…one of which was Whitbarrow village located in the Lake District and the other was The Clowance Estate which is based in Cornwall. Both these estates were truly beautiful. Out of the two, I’d say Clowance was my favourite, merely because of its size and setting. Whitbarrow is reasonably sized with brilliant facilities and accommodation. But Clowance is 3 times the size. It has an enormous surrounding area for the family to go and explore. You don’t really need to leave the estate if your not one for sightseeing as it has plenty to offer there.

Recently I went away with my family to the Laugharne estate in South Wales for a week. The weather was in the 30’s for our entire stay. Now, this site is going through some much-needed redevelopment. It’s old worn out apartments are undergoing a facelift. Some of the apartments are just having their interiors redecorated and modernised whilst others are being completely transformed into 5 star luxury getaways…inside and out. These new 5 star apartments are named the Dillon’s and will be amongst the most expensive investments on the site…even more so than the park collections. But after seeing them myself I’ve realised that it would be worth it.

Along with the new accommodation; builders will also begin work on a 5 star spa and clubhouse within the coming months… along with a new reception building containing a games room. These buildings were badly needed as its sister resorts e.g. Clowance, Whitbarrow and club Tahiti have already undergone facelifts or are coming towards the end of theirs., Also there are plans to include wifi connections in every apartment which will be a plus.

Now this resort may not boast the surroundings on site that Clowance did, but it has views that a better by far.

Seen from every apartments front, is the estuary which spans for miles and miles. This can be accessed via a lower road. But when the sun is out, it casts a beam of light over the water causing it to glitter and shimmer from the distance. This was a beautiful site to wake up to every morning along with the sunset every evening. Now the town of Laugharne is unique. It is home to Laugharne castle which has been around since before the rule of Elizabeth 1 (1500’s). This castle is at a 65% stage of ruin but is fantastic to look around. The town and estuary around is also brilliant hosting a number of hotels, restaurants (the Portreeve), cafes (the owl and the pussycat) and shops (choices) . All a 2 minute drive from the resort.

The estuary is a 10 minute maybe 15 minute walk towards the famous Dillon Thomas boathouse which houses a cafe and small museum along with his writing shed. This attracts people from all over the world. Surrounding beaches include Pendine, Tenby and Saundersfoot. All of which a beautiful days out. Swansea is a 57 minute ride from laugharne and hosts a famous market and world class botanical garden. There are many petrol stations around, there’s a local post office which is the only place you can withdraw cash in Laugharne and there are 2 reasonably sized shops for food and papers.

My only issues were with the wifi and that maybe one or two plug sockets were in awkward places e.g. Behind the dresser where it was almost missed…but that was easily fixed. And the main bathroom in the Pembrokeshire’s only had a bath whilst the master rooms en suite had a shower. I found that a little odd as I had to use my grandparents shower every morning. But this was all minor and no other problems presented themselves for the entire stay. The site is also set on a roman burial ground so the long thin twist road and path up must always remain like that. It’s an easy one way system once you’ve been there a day or two just as long as you don’t go done when a cars going up. The staff (at reception especially) and towns people were all extremely kind and well mannered too. All in all I would love to come back when the work has been completed as I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Thanks