www.net-cymru.co.uk
Eich Gwefan Chi / YOUR Site on the Internet
Accommodation for Visitors to Wales
This space will be used to provide reports on accommodation available to
visitors to Wales looking primarily at alternatives to conventional hotel
accomodation.
Youth Hostels
Youth hostels offer accomodation for individuals or groups. The YHA are
moving away from looking exclusively at young people as their target group
and are making privision for families in small dormitories.
There are about forty youth hostels in Wales with adult prices ranging from
about six pounds to ten pounds.
The Government are encouraging farmers to diverify into tourism by doing up
property on their land and letting it out to tourists. The type of
accomodation appears to vary both as to standard of comfort, price and the
type and number of visitors who can be accomodated.
Unfortunately there appears to be no coherent marketing of this developing
area of provision and at present there appears to be nothing better to do
than approach individual tourist associations. For the Abergavenny area
in South Wales - see
www.abergavenny.co.uk
.
Bunkhouse Accomodation
Bunkhouses are one variant of farm accomodation, aiming mainly at the outdoor
pursuits sector of the market. Given that they are farm property which has
been adapted to the purpose, a wide variation of style and standard can be
expected.
Publicity material seldom mentions prices - presumably because that is
negotiable depending on season, size of party, etc. but the range appears
to be in the region of ten to fifteen pounds per night per person.
In the Brecon Beacons and neighbouring areas of South Wales, an association
of bunkhouse operators has been formed - see
www.hostelswales.com
Special Needs
Clearly finding accomodation becomes more difficult if you have any needs
which are different to the majority of travellers. In Wales there is
generally a lower awareness of the importance of making tourism accessible
to disabled people than there is in (say) Germany, although there are some
signs that this situation is changing.
Wheelchair Access
Generally publicity material makes no mention of wheelchair access, although
the YHA, helpfully, have provided a list of suitable hostals. The Welsh
Tourist Board appear to be introducing a system of categories of access.
Vegetarians
The ususal formula in Wales (as elsewhere in Britain) is to include breakfast
as part of the package. Only very occasionally Bed and Breakfast
establishments list themselves as prepared to offer vegetairian cuisine.
Single Travellers
Prices tend to be listed as per person per night. Single rooms are the
exception and, particularly in high season, single travellers may have
have difficulty in being accomodated without paying for the bed they don't
use.
Conclusion
Although accomodation is plentiful in Wales, it is marketed in a somewhat
ad-hoc manner. The Welsh Tourist Board book accomodation - for an annual
fee and percentage of the fee. They do appear to be moving in the direction
of providing a systematic service for wheelchair users.
On the whole people with special needs probably face a fair bit of research
effort before departure. It is not unlikely that some may be deterred from
holidaying in Wales altogether.
The Internet may be a way of filling this need and I am keen to see Net-Cymru
become a source of suitably filtered information, enabling people with
special needs to meet their requirments without wasting time (both theirs
and accompdation providers) with fruitless enquiries.