Thursday, April 30, 2015

Our Welsh Adventure 2015 - Review of Haven - Hafan-Y-Mor

We recently visited North Wales and had just the most amazing family holiday I thought I would share our 'Welsh adventure' with the world. We stayed at a Haven site, our favourite so far called Hafan-Y-Mor. This site is near to the town of Pwhelli with Snowdonia on the beautiful horizon.
The classic giant Haven deck chairs!
We didn't know what to expect from the area or our holiday site, but we were totally blown away by everything we experienced. I never wanted to come home and I am still unsure how I feel to be back to reality.
My baby carrier was a godsend for this holiday, especilly the zoo!
As we drove closer to our destination, the scenery became more and more beautiful. We drove from Lincolnshire, a flat county of nothingness. We gradually emerged into a mountainous, wooded countryside, with livestock in the fields and some of the most perfect British sea views I have seen in the UK. 360 degrees of perfect vista.

Mr Waffle and our son exploring the rocks at high tide.

Stunning views in the sunshine, two minutes from the front door!
The site

The site has so much to offer but is compact enough for little legs (like mine) to walk back and fourth without getting too tired. We stayed in a newly renovated apartment which was perfect. It was nice to have a decent shower, proper closing doors and heaters!

The site had lakes, one with a resident heron, a Canadian goose that seemed to follow us 'honking' everywhere and dozens of ducks with newly hatched babies bobbing about on the water, amongst both real swans and giant pedal boat swans!
We were able to hire a family cart and secure baby with my buckled carrier, they held hands and loved it!
There was a woodland area with all sorts of activities built in and a giant teepee where some activities are held. An amazing playground for little ones of all ages to enjoy and a tree top adventure area for bigger people who are feeling brave and have a head for heights! Also on site were Basketball courts, a pottery painting shop and crazy golf. There was a full itinerary of activities for all ages throughout the site, something for everyone. We unfortunately ran out of time to do everything on offer!

The whole site was very clean and well kept. The swimming pool was amazing for all ages with a tide pool, flumes and a special toddler area with slide slopes. The changing rooms were being cleaned and dried before we went in and the staff over the whole site were extremely friendly and helpful.


Retail and Food

On site there are a few Spar shops which are priced normally and thankfully not with hiked prices to exploit us holiday goers, pretty refreshing! In the Spar shops you can buy ample food, snacks, drinks, toys, DVDs, buckets and spades and most the essential things you will need that you won't want to have to pack, such as toilet roll and washing up liquid. They also sell all the sea squad character toys and accessories and amazing slushy drinks.

Food wise there are a few treats, a Papa Johns pizza, fish and chip shop, Burger King and Starbucks. I can say that we did try them all (for the sake of a review - of course!) And all were very tasty.

Whats nearby?

There is so much to do on site that you really needn't leave, but there is so much in the local area to explore too.

  • Bowling
  • Mountains
  • Seaside
  • Countryside
  • Slate mine
  • Rabbit farm (great little trip out with pony rides!)
  • Welsh mountain zoo (we visited on the way home on a whim and boy was it worth it!)
  • Steam railway 


The Beach - (Attached to the site)
The seaside had miles of sand when the tide went out, and by lunch time lots of fascinating rock pools were on show for us to explore. I was transported straight back to my childhood sifting through seaweed with a net getting excited catching lots of shrimps, baby crabs and fish.

The beach was strewn with jelly fish, unlocking another memory of a beach I had visited as a child. I built sandcastles with my son while his sister snoozed in her pram. I even got a big see through bucket for us to watch our daily catches before my son released them all back into the sea, to 'find their families'.



Our Family Time

We ate food, any food we wanted. We had gone wrong chocolate brownie for my birthday, one of those 'gone wrong' bakes that tastes a million times better for it. Thank you Mr. Waffle. We had ice creams in the sunshine and sat as a family eating pizza. Mmm pizza.
The happiest kid ever!
We had the most amazing weather, we were warm and cosy all day and snuggled up at night. I was in with our daughter and my husband with our son, who loved having his Daddy all to himself for special night time stories and giggles. This seemed the best option with one teething and one going through night terrors.


Baby S perfecting her 'starfish' pose.
We took our son to a fencing lesson on site and also a mini archery session where he used a cross bow to fire plastic darts. At the fencing he got to dress up and legitimitely hit my husband with a foam sword, he was so happy and you could tell he was really enjoying himself. I would have quite liked a go myself.


A having his fencing fun!
We went swimming, it was baby's first time and she loved it, before getting a little tired and falling asleep on the changing table. I braved a huge tunnel slide, it was so fast but I braved it, twice. I laughed and squealed all the way down, I loved it. 


Baby S had her first paddle in the sea!
My son couldn't sleep on the first night so I took him out to look at the stars, I love stars and the sky was so much clearer than our polluted city sky at home. A was wowed by it and although we didn't see a shooting star like I was hoping, we had a cuddle in the breeze and it was lovely. He thanked me for showing him the 'twinkle twinkles' and planets and insisted he saw Saturn fly past because it had 'rings on it'. 


A in his sun hat with his Rory toy, star struck!
We didn't venture off site too much only really for the one day to stock up on a few things at the local supermarket and check out the local town and lifeboat.

We loved our Welsh adventure and had another amazing experience at Haven.

Typical Welsh penguin farm. Actually the bird show at the Mountain Zoo!
We booked our holiday via the Sun newspaper and their £9.50 holiday deals. We regularly book Sun holidays and have had mixed but mostly good experiences of the Haven sites. This site though was something else and I felt it deserved a good review and feedback on their excellent site.

For the official website of where we stayed and will hopefully revisit next year, and to find out more about the great Sun holiday offers, please click the links below. 

http://www.hafan-y-mor.co.uk/
https://www.sunbookonline.co.uk/

The words and views in this review are all my own and in no way influenced by Haven on The Sun.


'Chesney' the pony, A's first ride at the local rabbit farm!


Happily holidays!

Wafflemama