*gifted stay |
Hey Owlets,
If you've been keeping up with my Instagram you'll know that I've been doing a lot of travelling recently. While I love getting to explore sometimes you need a little quiet time in between to reset, so my boyfriend and I headed to Hensol to spend some time at Llanerch Vineyard. The beautiful five star hotel is tucked away in a quiet corner of South Wales in the kind of place that you would never find if you weren't looking for it.
One of the things that makes Llanerch Vineyard Hotel unique is that your room comes with not just a beautiful view of the countryside, but with a view of the active vineyard where they grow all of the grapes for the wine that you can drink in the restaurant. In my mind I expected it to be noisy and constantly busy with them working to look after their crops, but it was amazingly peaceful throughout our most of our stay. During the day a few cars drove down the lane past the balcony so it might not be somewhere you want to sit until evening if that bothers you, but being totally honest it's kind of nice to be reminded that they're still producing wine on site.
Our room was a Superior King which costs around £135 per night depending on when you stay, and in my opinion it's worth this and more. This is one of the biggest rooms I've ever stayed in and I was honestly surprised that this wasn't listed as a suite. When you walk in you're greeted by the wardrobes and mini bar on the right with a Nespresso coffee machine and complimentary bottled water; inside the wardrobes they provide robes as well as a blanket so you can make the most of your evening by sitting on the balcony. On the left is a luxurious modern bathroom. When you walk into the room you're overwhelmed with spaces to sit and relax or do some work - as well as the bed, sofa and balcony that can be seen in the photo there's also a breakfast table and a desk/dressing table. We did to try to make use of the balcony after dinner and sat outside with a glass of wine, but it was so cold even with robes and a blanket that we very quickly admitted defeat and headed inside!
Having fully explored the room we headed to dinner in the adjoining restaurant which offers an amazing range of dishes made with locally sourced ingredients. The menu changes every day to reflect what produce they've been able to source as well as what's in season at the time. As well as having gluten free options already on the menu our waiter told me to pick anything and they'd do what they could to make it suitable. At no point did I feel like I was restricted, which is something I'm very used to when going out for dinner. Considering how beautiful our surroundings were I expected dinner to be extortionate, but for a three course meal for two with a bottle of wine it came to £80 which I thought was great value. The entire meal was faultless and genuinely some of the best food I've ever eaten. Of course we had to try their own wine (Cariad) and opted for a rosé which was incredible (I think the surroundings definitely made it taste better!).
The next morning we headed to breakfast which was once again faultless; they went out of their way to make sure I was catered for and when I asked if they had gluten free bread their response was "of course we do", which is something I've found isn't the case in a lot of hotels.
One thing I have to mention is that every single member of staff we met was so kind and went out of their way to make us feel as welcome as possible, not just because it was their job but genuinely because they wanted us to enjoy our time there. Throughout our stay we ended up chatting to several different people and the way they treated us made it feel as if we were staying at a friend's house, rather than being a guest at a hotel - they genuinely couldn't do enough to help. The standard checkout time is 10am, but we were booked onto a tour of the vineyard at 12pm so they extended our stay by two hours so we could go back to the room to relax after breakfast.
At 12pm we headed into the bar to meet our guide for the vineyard tour, who actually works in the vineyard with his Dad when he's not giving tours. We started by learning the history of the vineyard and trying some of their different wines (this was my favourite part, of course). You can always tell when someone enjoys their job, and our tour guide seemed to love what he was doing and was able to answer any question you could possibly throw at him. The tours are £12 each, you try four different wines and the tour is around 90 minutes which is an amazing add-on if you're coming to stay - they also aren't huge groups so you're not shouting over anyone and it's a lot more relaxed. We picked up a glass each at the beginning and the end we were told we could keep them which I thought was a lovely touch.
Honestly I can't say enough about how incredible our stay was; from start to finish it genuinely was flawless. The rooms are luxurious, modern and spotlessly clean, the staff were kind and welcoming, the food was incredible and of course the wine was amazing. If you're looking for somewhere to stay in South Wales or you're generally looking for a retreat to get away for a few days then I can't recommend Llanerch Vineyard enough - it truly is the perfect getaway.
Love and Feathers,
The Owlet 💜
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