As a nation, we’re in crisis when it comes to adventurous family holidays in Britain. With the rise of holiday parks equipped with hot tubs, Starbucks and e-bikes, the great outdoors has become a creature comfort, and holidays in the wild have become less “brace yourself” and more “pass the Bollinger”.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I found myself in a kayak with my 12-year-old niece in the rising waves and riptides off the wild coast of Pembrokeshire this summer. Despite my concerns that we’re creating a danger-averse generation, she was beaming from ear to ear, eager to “noodle” through the rocks and currents, desperate for us to (intentionally) capsize into the bracing water. It was the final day of our holiday at Bluestone National Park Resort – and my faith in adventurous family breaks had been restored.
Bluestone has been named the number one holiday park in Wales (third in the UK) for three consecutive years by Which? magazine – outranking Center Parcs (ninth), which, despite being the most visited in the survey, “failed to deliver value for money”.
Founded by William McNamara on the grounds of his dairy farm in 2008 – next door to Wales’s biggest theme park, Oakwood, opened by McNamara in the 1980s – the resort spans 500 acres of wild Welsh countryside on the outskirts of the small town of Narberth, in the heart of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The independently run park operates a “free-range fun” philosophy and offers an alternative to the nation’s most popular chain of forest-based holidays, encouraging “children to explore and engage” with their surroundings.
