Best Hotels near Natural Reserve, Pen Tranch

When arriving for the first time you know this will be very rural when you have to drive around the cattle grazing on the road. The hotel is about a mile down a narrow lane at the top of a hill. The views from the top are superb. There is sufficient parking, though the overflow car park can be hard to spot. It's hard to think that you are just 30 minutes or so from Cardiff city centre. Check in was straightforward and the room was a little larger than the average double hotel room. It had all the usual facilities and bonus: this hotel still puts out biscuits! Breakfast was booked in 30 minute slots, the menu is excellent and it is freshly cooked. There is also a buffet of cereals, pastries etc. Staff were friendly and the service was excellent. We visit Cardiff quite often and, rather than find a hotel in the city, I think we will make this our first choice in the future. Footnote for EV drivers; I could see no charge point here. The nearest town with a decent number seems to be Caerphilly, about 6 or 7 miles away.

I booked for a one night stay with nine family members the night before a funeral. All our rooms were lovely, ( my cousins room smelled of smoke but they changed her room quickly , quite late in the evening too, so no complaints there ) . My Aunt needed a wheelchair accessible room and again no problems. My room was a large double with a sofa, it would have slept four but I had it to myself, it cost the same as a single so why not have extra space. It had great air con, a good quality tv, tea and coffee making facilities, a lovely shower room ( clever design ) , a hair drier, everything you’d need and expect for a reasonably priced chain hotel. Free parking and plenty of it ( do not forget to put your reg into the iPad at reception ) . The free breakfast was great, buffet style with bacon, eggs, sausage, toast, croissants, cereal, yogurt and fruit. The only downside was it’s out of the town the only place in walking distance is the pub next door, however the pub next door is fantastic, with beautiful food which I thought was very reasonable considering the excellent quality. The hotel also serves food and has a bar. To summarise it’s a great hotel, with great facilities, I paid £99 through bookings.com , others in our party paid less and some more, between £97 a room to £125 , but we all got value for money.

Booked in 30th Aug - 2 Sept 22. (Room 226) On arrival was met by young man who was brilliant, explained everything and had a good laugh. The rest of the staff were of the same ilk, friendly and very helpful. Went into the room and first impressions were ok. The bed is a standard double. not good when you have a bed hogging wife. The sheets were clean and fresh and although small the bed was comfortable. They could do with putting plug sockets on both sides of the bed. Its a small bed so wouldn't need too much cabling. The bath is ok if you are a size 0, however, any larger, forget it. I couldn't get my lardy **** into it. But on the plus side, it was clean and tidy. Issues with the bathroom, Went I went for a tinkle in the middle of the night, I burnt my retinas out because the lights are super bright, not what you need at 0200hrs. maybe a night light or mirror light could be installed. A little more attention to the carpets would have been nice, found some shirt buttons that had been missed (previous occupant must have got lucky) because they were in different areas of the room. Breakfast, We went twice, first day at 0900hrs, it was ok, little on the cold side, went again on last day at 0800hrs and it was perfect. Tasty and hot. My biggest issue is the heat. the room was a sauna, I must have lost at least a stone. the fan given in the room is as much use as a chocolate fire guard. I hardly slept the three nights we were there as it was way too hot. even, the wife (who practically sits on a radiator) struggled. Wasn't the best hotel I've stayed in, but certainly not the worst . Over all 7.5/10

What a wonderful place! We weren't meant to go here but the restaurant we had booked for our Girls Christmas lunch had closed down. Littlest Foodie found this place and as soon as I checked out the website and saw the Alpine Specials menu and the photos we had to give it a go. We weren't disappointed. As soon as we stepped inside we could have been in a Swiss Chalet. LF & I arrived first so had a hot chocolate & Baileys by the fire whilst we waited for Eldest Foodie. The Fräulein's looking after us were so lovely and the experience was made even better with them being in traditional style Swiss dress. We were able to mix and match between the menus and the food was great. Being a large establishment made up of different smaller rooms on split levels makes it feel so intimate and cosy. So we will be visiting again very soon. Hubby & I will stay over then in one of the cosy looking rooms which are very reasonably priced. Thank you everyone & we all wish you a very Merry Christmas