Vale Park Hotel

Sharon, Christine and Gerald were so welcoming and looked after me so well. It felt like chatting with friends. The room was modern and extremely clean, and it's only minutes from the airport. A great spot for an overnight stay. Big thanks to all three of them. X

We missed our flight and needed somewhere for the night, on a UK bank holiday when every hotel seemed full. The Vale Hotel really understood our situation and found a brilliant answer: a caravan for sale on their camping ground that we could use for one night. In the morning they drove us to the airport. Such kind owners, with a great sense of humour and zest for life. What a lucky find.

If you want a large, commercial chain hotel, this probably isn't the place. I was unsure about booking the park and stay package after reading earlier reviews, but I was completely wrong to worry. The people running it take hospitality seriously and make things feel personal. It's clean and tidy, and they genuinely want to make your stay easy and friendly.

The setting was far noisier and tighter than the photos suggested. The pitches are close together, with roads behind the hedges, and our corner spot was right by a junction on a busy road. We could barely hear each other speaking from about a metre away. The area where we let the dogs out also had litter and cans. It was overpriced compared with anywhere else we stayed during our week in Wales, and I wouldn't recommend it. We arrived late afternoon for two nights with our camper, awning and two dogs. The camper and tent area with electric hook-up looked overcrowded, so we stayed in the van to see if there was another local option with more room. The owner came over and asked if everything was okay. We explained we'd not realised the space would be so small. She replied, 'well how much space do you need anyway,' and came across as defensive. My husband said it wasn't personal, we just wanted more room for the dogs. She said they had to be kept on leads, which we already knew. We'd been using dog training rope so they could move around safely while attached. My husband asked for five minutes to look elsewhere. The owner said we wouldn't get a refund, though we hadn't asked for one. Comfort mattered more to us. She walked off, then came back and showed him a patch of grass without electric hook-up. We moved the van there, since our solar power and leisure batteries meant we didn't need electricity. We tried it out with the dogs on short leads, but noticed all the rubbish. My husband was only a metre or so away and I couldn't hear him over the traffic. If the owner hadn't taken our concerns about the location so personally, I probably wouldn't have written this, as I've never had to before. I should've read more reviews and checked the maps to understand the surroundings. Lesson learned.