Everyone has a good holiday disaster story, don’t they? Even experienced travel journalists.
Ours was a twist on the classic passport fiasco, that saw us having to “exchange” a two-week trip to the sunny Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera for sitting on a compost toilet in Wales.
Like all good stories retold among friends, that is a bit of an exaggeration. But after “passport-gate” – once the blame and threats of divorce had subsided – Bert’s Kitchen Garden, an eco campsite on a five-hectare (12-acre) farm in the Welsh village of Trefor on the Llŷn peninsula, became a half-term life-saver for our family of four.
The panic started just 24 hours before we were supposed to depart, with our six-year-old daughter remarking that she still “looked like a baby” on her passport. Yup, it was out of date, and this set off several stages of rapid-fire grief, which we had to cycle through before I could land on “acceptance” and start hatching an emergency plan to rescue half-term.
I’d had Bert’s on my longlist since reading about owners Ali and Ian Paice’s transformation of a former farm into an eco-retreat of connected meadows, woodlands and beach, with pitches mowed into wild meadows, shepherds’ huts and a feted kitchen garden restaurant.
Driving into Trefor, with views of the Yr Eifl hills to our left, we were held up first by a bus stuck on a precarious bend, then by a lorry with trailer. We later discovered the jam was caused by crew filming a new episode of HBO’s House of Dragons. Would we ever make it to Bert’s? When we eventually arrived, all that traffic noise was replaced by birdsong. The children set off to explore the meadows, riverside swing and hidden dens while we unpacked. Our home for the week was a cute converted railway carriage beautifully decorated in muted tones, with soft linen bedding on the small double bed, bunks for the kids, a kitchen area and a private compost loo outside (showers are on the main campsite).
Packing a picnic, we headed off down a track leading to Bert’s own pebbly beach. A further five minutes along the coast was a glorious and much livelier slice of sand, where local workers enjoyed their lunch breaks and teenagers careered off the end of the little quay despite the warning signs.
While the lost Italian holiday remained a simmering and fresh memory, the weather in north Wales held firm. The eco-campsite ethos calmed our frantic minds, and time on the beach soothed most lingering recrimination.
Some days were spent taking kayaks (hired from the campsite) around the coast to the sea stacks, hoping to get a glimpse of seals or even dolphins. Oystercatchers and cormorants sped by as we paddled across clear, calm waters. We also ventured to the coastal town of Criccieth and the fishing village of Aberdaron.
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But mostly we stayed at the campsite, enjoying the idyll created by the Paice family after escaping the rat race. In 2015 the couple decided to change their lifestyle and four months later they had rented out their home in Sunbury-on-Thames, south-west London, given up their day jobs and most of their possessions and set off with their two children across Europe, North America and Asia. They ended up travelling for three years, having another child en route and picking up a campervan in the Alps. This they christened Bert and it is now an overflow kitchen on the campsite.
After years on the road they decided to focus their efforts on starting a business that could give them the good life they had been craving. In 2016 they found the 17th-century Morfa farm on the Llyn peninsula – an area they had regularly holidayed in. After a process of elimination and a few wrangles with the planning department, the couple settled on creating a campsite with an on-site restaurant. (We highly recommend the ribeye with chimichurri for two.) A new beachside dining space opens this summer in a converted shipping container, with indoor and outdoor dining.
Ian spent a winter building the restaurant barn and shower cabins, and they planted an orchard with cherry, apple and fig trees, and a garden with herbs and produce including artichokes, squash, pumpkins and peas. They also transformed the meadows into a wild children’s playground.
It hasn’t been plain sailing (relations with some locals and the parish council have at times been fraught) but six years later Ali says they finally feel “like they belong”. Their workforce is made up mainly of locals and they now hold regular “feast nights” for the community.
It is a truly wonderful place, created especially for foodies and families, and by the end of our trip I was completely won over by the site’s ethos. A holiday in the Cinque Terre would have been nice, if not nearly so relaxing, and in the end I felt as if our passport mishap had done us a favour.
The trip was provided by Bert’s Kitchen Garden, where tent pitches costs from £55 a night, and huts for four from £145
