It has been named among the many finest within the nation.
Bluestone Nationwide Park Resort Evaluate
This distant nook of the UK is magical. It’s steeped in historical past and residential to essentially the most stunning landscapes. Stone burial chambers date again 4,000 years, standing stones inscribed with Latin and historic Irish dot the countryside and wrapped round all of it is likely one of the most putting coastlines wherever on the planet, the place waves roll in over pristine sandy seashores or smash violently in opposition to towering rock faces.
On the coronary heart of all of it is the Bluestone Nationwide Park Resort, set inside 500 acres of untamed Welsh countryside. A vacation park it could be, however Bluestone desires you to really feel like you’re a part of the Pembrokeshire panorama that surrounds you on all sides. So well-absorbed is the resort into its environment that regardless of its dimension and its a whole lot of lodges you’d scarcely have any clue it was there till you had been effectively inside.
However that is to not say it is not additionally a contemporary and splendid vacation expertise, particularly the place its new lodges are involved. They took my breath away.
Bluestone summed up
Bluestone is completely included into its stunning environment (Picture: Bluestone Nationwide Park Resort)
Most of Bluestone is made up of its 300 or so stunning wood lodges of varied sizes dotted throughout hills not removed from the beautiful city of Narberth. The centre of the resort is its purpose-built village house to a few dozen charming, vibrant stone cottages, a handful of eating places, some outlets (promoting a variety of Welsh meals, beers, spirits and toys), a spa, a pub and a playground (on a sunny day, the beer backyard’s proximity to the playground is a godsend for fogeys).
Additionally within the resort is a big indoor play space known as The Hive (with top-of-the-line options you will discover in any indoor play space – extra on that later), the Blue Lagoon, a big swimming space with indoor and outside slides and a wave machine, and the Serendome, a coated indoor-outdoor journey play space that includes every thing from a theatre to an intensive aerial journey course. Usually talking, the resort might be higher for youthful kids moderately than youngsters (mine are 10 and beneath) however you can also make your individual name on that.
I have been holidaying right here for a decade. My kids have grown up coming right here virtually yearly of their lives so it already holds a particular place in my household’s hearts. We have simply returned from our most up-to-date go to, which coincided with winter turning to spring (although nobody advised the Welsh climate that). I might return tomorrow.
There’s just one place to begin and that is with Bluestone’s new Platinum Assortment lodges. Immaculate and beautifully-designed, these model new lodges are on one other degree to any I’ve stayed in earlier than. We stayed in a St Govan Lodge (named after one of the vital putting elements of the close by shoreline) with three bedrooms sleeping six individuals, two loos together with one beautiful en suite with rain bathe, standalone tub, twin sinks and serene starlight impact lighting on the ceiling.
Searching of the lodge solar room with totally retractable glass doorways was a spotlight of the keep (Picture: Bluestone Nationwide Park Resort)
That is the view from the within (Picture: Steffan Rhys)
There was a spacious upstairs open-plan dwelling space with a eating room, a “cwtch” (a cosy room with two chairs and a TV for enjoyable, working or giving the youngsters some quiet time) and a solar room, a shocking new function for Bluestone lodges with two totally retractable glass partitions. Even at winter’s finish we opened them huge to breathe within the Pembrokeshire air and drink in these views. In summer season, it could be heavenly consuming prosecco or a chilly beer in addition to the surroundings.
The lodges come fully-equipped with an oven, microwave, fridge freezer, dishwasher and even an air fryer, which we made full use of for breakfasts and a night meal across the six-seater eating desk. After a home-cooked meal on our first evening, we settled into the massive u-shaped couch in entrance of a comfy electrical fireplace.
Waking as much as breakfast within the open-plan upstairs dwelling space in our Bluestone lodge was heaven (Picture: Steffan Rhys)
Our main bedroom was easy however actually cozy and cosy (Picture: Steffan Rhys)
The Platinum Lodges additionally include their very own electrical buggy that will help you get across the resort. This was the spotlight of my five-year-old’s journey as we tootled alongside in our six-seater at 6mph partaking within the resort-wide sport of “beep the horn at everybody you move”. The lodges even have their very own buggy charging level.
All Bluestone’s lodges, which sleep between two and 14 individuals, include kitchen and open plan dwelling areas, whereas the cottages within the village have one or two bedrooms.
Checking in
Examine-in is easy. For many of the park’s visitors, it is a drive-through course of: arrive on the welcome lodge, drive across the one-way system to your individual lodge, unload your automobile then return it to the automobile park on the resort’s edge and overlook about it till it is time to go away. Outdoors check-in and check-out instances, Bluestone is a car-free resort so you may stroll the roads or drive your buggy in peace and security.
Platinum Assortment lodges include a buggy included — these are incredible for getting round in Bluestone’s car-free resort and children love them! (Picture: Steffan Rhys)
You do not have to remain in a Platinum Assortment lodge to have an expensive keep — this is likely one of the Gold Assortment lodges (Picture: Bluestone Nationwide Park Resort)
For Platinum Assortment visitors, it is even smoother. We had our personal unique entrance, check-in lodge, automobile park and buggy pick-up level. There cannot have been greater than 5 minutes between checking in and driving odoff within the buggy after a fast how-to information.
Issues to do
An indication on the wall in Bluestone’s village says “there is no dangerous climate in Pembrokeshire, simply the flawed garments”. Not everybody will agree with this however you are in west Wales so you must settle for that there could be rain everytime you go to.
It is easy to overlook whenever you’re strolling round Bluestone’s cottages that you simply’re in a resort and never an actual village! (Picture: Steffan Rhys)
There are magical touches everywhere in the resort — the village lights up in a lightweight present each night (Picture: Steffan Rhys)
Bluestone has lots of outside actions for all of the household, from stand-up paddleboarding on its lakes to biking, archery, exploring its woodland trails, zip-lining or rustic outside consuming and marshmallow-toasting at Steep Ravine and Camp Smokey (which reopen in June after storm harm pressured them to shut). You even have all of Pembrokeshire and its award-winning seashores in your doorstep.
You’re surrounded by nature in Bluestone (Picture: Steffan Rhys)
And you may head undercover within the indoor-outdoor Serendome (Picture: Steffan Rhys)
However even when it rains (and it is Wales so there is a excessive likelihood of this) there are lots of actions beneath cowl. My children had been entertained each minute of the day. Begin the day with a swim on the Blue Lagoon Water Park, an indoor pool heated to perfection (utilizing domestically sourced biomass) with 4 flumes, a wave machine, toddler splash areas and a lazy river which takes you outdoors for a fast loop earlier than returning indoors. It is wanting a bit drained in elements and will most likely do with a little bit of touching up within the not-too-distant future because it approaches its twentieth birthday however that does not detract from how a lot enjoyable it’s.
Among the many slides on the Blue Lagoon Water Park is one which goes outside (Picture: Bluestone Nationwide Park Resort)
The Hive indoor exercise centre has comfortable play, an enormous bouncy fort, climbing partitions, messy play, and a cafe-bar upstairs the place mother and father can loosen up whereas the youngsters tire themselves out. However the spotlight of my journey this time spherical was watching my two kids attempt Adrenaline, a round zipline suspended from the roof which they flew round excessive above the play space. They got here off grinning from ear to ear.
The Serendome at Bluestone (Picture: Bluestone Nationwide Park Resort)
The Serendome is an indoor-outdoor journey centre that includes, amongst different issues, the Skywalk aerial course (Picture: Bluestone Nationwide Park Resort)
The Serendome is an indoor-outdoor journey play space housed beneath an enormous clear dome housing every thing from a multi-level aerial journey course by which children (and adults) can experience a motorbike throughout a zipwire three storeys excessive to an amphitheatre-style theatre by which we watched an area male voice choir carry out on St David’s Day and danced alongside to a silent disco. There’s additionally a bar and some pop-up meals stalls.
You may head to the Properly Spa if you would like some quiet time (Picture: Bluestone Nationwide Park Resort)
Or there’s the Blue Lagoon Water Park, which is free for all resort visitors to go to as usually as they like — we went day by day (Picture: Bluestone Nationwide Park Resort)
And there is The Properly Spa, a tranquil, adult-only spa providing thermal experiences, hydrotherapy, saunas, steam rooms and a variety of luxurious therapies. The youngsters’ mum headed right here for 2 hours of peace whereas the children used up some vitality on the Serendome’s aerial journey course.
Consuming and consuming
One of many nice joys of Bluestone for me is with the ability to put together and eat a meal in a stupendous upstairs open-plan eating room with views of the countryside throughout. Whether or not it is breakfast in morning sunshine or a comfy night meal and glass of pink wine with the wind and rain howling outdoors, we all the time plan on having no less than one household meal within the lodge.
The Farmhouse Grill restaurant is within the Bluestone village (Picture: Steffan Rhys)
There’s additionally meals within the Knights Tafarn pub, the place you may as well watch stay sport (Picture: Steffan Rhys)
However there are many choices for eating out too. Our go-to is the Farmhouse Grill, an off-the-cuff and rustic restaurant serving steaks, burgers fish and children’ dinners. The Oak Tree serves pizza and different Italian meals, there’s pub meals within the Knights Tafarn (the place a roaring log fireplace retains you heat on chilly winter days and a beer backyard permits you to soak in the summertime sunshine), quick meals on the NRG Lab in The Hive and outside consuming at Camp Smokey. The meals’s not award-winning however it’s completely first rate. There’s extra refined eating on the beautiful Black Pool Mill, a more moderen addition to Bluestone’s consuming choices which is off-site and a 20-minute stroll alongside a well-marked path or very brief drive away.
Outdoors Bluestone
We did not spend a single second outdoors Bluestone throughout our three-night keep. We by no means do. However for those who did fancy a change, Bluestone is the one UK vacation resort located inside a nationwide park so you are not solely immersed in protected landscapes however have easy accessibility to land, sea and coast. You’re spoilt for alternative in all instructions in one of the vital naturally stunning locations in Britain. 5 minutes down the street is the beautiful city of Narberth, which is full of unbiased outlets, excellent eating places and has been named among the many finest locations to stay within the nation.
The gorgeous seaside city of Tenby is a brief drive away (Picture: Getty)
Narberth’s unbiased outlets and wonderful eating places are additionally simply down the street (Picture: Crown Copyright Go to Wales 2025)
The gorgeous seaside city of Tenby is 25 minutes away and can be brimming with locations to eat and drink. It additionally has at least 4 seashores inside a couple of minutes’ stroll of the city centre. The much less well-known, however equally charming, city of Saundersfoot is only a brief drive alongside the coast.
Regardless of its dimension, Porthgain is house to a first-class bistro, good pub and unbiased artwork galleries (Picture: Getty)
St Govan’s chapel is jaw-dropping (Picture: Getty Photos)
A little bit additional away you have got the distinctive harbour village of Porthgain, which, regardless of being tiny and on the finish of 1 street out and in, manages to have top-of-the-line locations to eat in Wales in addition to one in every of its finest pubs. Additionally not too far-off are Britain’s smallest metropolis of St David’s, with its magnificent cathedral, the harbour village of Solva (one more place within the space named among the many finest locations to stay), and the actually jaw-dropping St Govan’s Head, the place a tiny chapel is constructed into the cliff face simply above thundering waves beneath.
Unbelievable seashores like Barafundle are dotted throughout Pembrokeshire’s shoreline (Picture: (Picture: Getty))
After which there are the world-class seashores: Barafundle, Whitesands, Freshwater West and East, Marloes Sands – it is tough to seek out the superlatives for them.
‘Higher than Middle Parcs’
The Farmhouse Grill is our go-to restaurant once we go to (Picture: Steffan Rhys)
I’ve no hesitation in saying I favor staying in Bluestone to Middle Parcs. However do not simply take my phrase for it. It has been named the perfect vacation park in Wales (and third finest within the UK) for the third yr operating by holidaymakers and Which? readers, beating heavyweights like Middle Parcs, Haven, Warner, Butlins, Parkdean and extra.
How a lot does it price?
Bluestone’s costs range by lodging kind and time of yr. Listed below are examples of prices for the upcoming season:
- Weekend Easter break (arriving 10 April): from £645 for a 3‐evening keep (as much as 4 visitors in a Ramsey Lodge or Caldey Deluxe).
- Midweek Spring breaks: from £300 for a 4‐evening keep (as much as 4 visitors in a Caldey Lodge).
The Mini Adventurer Break (from £300) is a deal designed particularly for households with kids beneath 5 and features a bundle of free actions and leisure throughout choose midweek stays all year long. For qualifying dates, prices and included actions, go to https://www.bluestonewales.com/presents/free-activities-entertainment
For every other prices, please get in contact or go to https://bookings.bluestonewales.com/search-rates
- All breaks embrace limitless entry to the Blue Lagoon water park, free indoor and outside play areas in The Hive, Serendome and village. A number of actions do price further and must be booked prematurely: I’d completely advocate the 90-minute Sky Stroll aerial journey course (from £30, there’s additionally a Sky Stroll Mini for smaller children at £12.95), the Adrenaline round zipline (£18 for 2 rounds) and the silent disco (from £5).
- A meal for 4 together with drinks on the Knights Tafarn pub price £73 whereas a meal for seven together with drinks and a bottle of wine at Farmhouse Grill got here in at £220.
- Entry to the Celtic Thermal Suite to get pleasure from its steam rooms, sauna, ice pod and hydrotherapy pool prices from £20 and a Signature Therapeutic massage prices from £75.
Leave a Reply