September is one of the months I like to travel. It’s shoulder season so the kids are back at school, and holidays tend to be cheaper, but you still have nice weather. It’s the sweet spot. Of course, things are quite different in 2020. I’m not going abroad anytime soon. I don’t want to go where the crowds are because COVID. (Devon and Cornwall I’m looking at you.) But I still wanted to have a little getaway with my little gang before the summer sunshine disappeared. It’s been a long ol’ slog of a year, let’s face it, and mama needed to see somewhere outside of Milton Keynes in 2020. So we decided on a jaunt to Wales.
I’ve been to Wales a few times. I visited Cardiff for Traverse, a travel blogging conference, back in 2016 and got a chance to see the castle and explore the city a bit. Then I went to Festival No. 6 in Portmeirion, which is gorgeous by the way, including a lovely drive through Snowdonia enroute. The latter showed me how pretty Wales actually is and it’s been on my bucketlist to explore more of this fab country ever since.
So seeing as I was after a UK staycay, what a wonderful time to tick off an adventure to Wales with the fam!
When travelling with a toddler, I’m always pro AirBnb. It means I can do dinners at home and I can do a nice bedtime routine with the girl, followed by a glass of wine on the sofa. Which just doesn’t feel possible in a hotel room. And now we live in a coronavirus world, Airbnbs feel like an even better option. Safer. You can clean the place yourself if you want, you know no-one else will be using that space. It’s a home away from home, y’know? (Read more: Some Airbnb inspo over here if you’re looking for a quirky stay!)
And that’s really what drove our staycation. We found a lovely little Airbnb in South Wales, in a village called Talley. It’s on a farm so Indi would be able to see the animals. Plus it was in a cosy, converted barn so felt like somewhere we could relax in the evening and feel like we were on holiday. (It’s this one here if you’re looking for a lovely little place to stay.) But it was also driving distance to a few places I wanted to visit.
We only stayed for three nights, it turns out UK trips are way more expensive then a cheap jolly to Spain, but it meant we got two whole wonderful days for adventures.
The first was a trip to Tenby, the colourful seaside town in Pembrokeshire I’d spotted on Insta and was keen to check out. And then an out-of-my-comfort-zone adventure, hiking Pen Y Fan in the Brecon Beacons, the highest peak in South Wales. Yeah I know right, who the eff am I? But I’m so glad we did it, I felt like super-mum after I managed to climb a fricking mountain with my kid. We also managed to stop at Hay-On-Wye on the way home, also know as the Town of Books!! Uh huh, much more my style.
I’ll post separate blog posts about these day trips as they were all so different and so fun in different ways. But it meant our holiday included so many different elements that I love. We got outdoors (despite the crazy Wales weather), we played on the beach, we pottered around some shops, ate some nice food (hello Welsh Rarebit) and had cosy evenings watching Disney films with Indi in our little barn, eating Welsh cakes of course. Dreamy.
Hands down, our favourite part of the holiday was where we stayed. I know I’ve already said this, but it just made our holiday so wholesome and lovely. We woke up to geese squawking at the patio doors every morning, which obviously Indi found hilarious. We were far away from the real world on our farm, so it felt like a proper escape. There was a woodland walk for us to wander, complete with a hammock and a waterfall. The couple who own the barn were so lovely and helpful. Ugh. It was just so nice.
Despite not being able to leave the country, we still had an amazing holiday. It opened up a whole new perspective for me. We can 100% have adventures in the UK, and I’m keen to book more of them (lockdown 2.0 pending).
Stay tuned for more deets on our Wales hot spots, but I just wanted to recap our little holiday and tell you about this lovely farmstay we enjoyed so much.
The tradition of September getaways lives on.
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