Hello STW hive mind,

anyone have any recomendations on places to stay? self catering if possible.

Cheers

Plas Isa

its BETWS Y COED! try the vagabond guest house in the middle of the village or the eagles in penmachno. both cheap and good.

I was going to suggest Eagles its near Betws-Y-Coed and accepts groups of loud kayakers so you wont have a problem, its nice too.

Cheers lads , any more we could try?

Bump

Vagabond is good, bike friendly, cheap & cheerful accommodation. Has a big lockable shed for bike storage. Often has other groups of outdoorsy people staying so good to mingle with other like minded folk.

Vagabond is the worse place I have ever stayed in. Anywhere in the world.

The guy running it was one of the rudest people I have ever met, the food was terrible and as for secure lock up, it was a joke. When he buggered off at 9 in the morning with the key to the “shed” he was totally uncontactable. His mobile phone just kept ringing in the locked office. So rather than waste a days riding we simply removed the door off the shed and retrieved our bikes.

Avoid like the plague.

We’ve stayed HERE before & it was fine – cheap, clean, they let us put our bikes in the rooms & you get a discount in the Chinese next door.

These places are ok:

http://www.logcabinswales.co.uk/home.php?/Home

You can ride from the door.

the youth hostel?

To counter FieldMarshall, we stayed at the Vagabond and it was fine. Had no problems locking bikes up and the breakfast was good too.

Vagabond is great if you like bunkhouse accommodation. I’ve stayed there 3 or 4 times and always had a great time. Breakfast is fantastic and found the whole atmosphere of the place great. I’ll be staying there again this year, we usually go with a group of 8-10.

Maybe the ” management ” has changed since we stayed at the Vagabond in 2009.

I don’t mind a few beers and a bit of fun, but if “meeting liked minded people” means being kept awake all night by a group of walkers who decide to party until 5am, then you can keep it. And the guy orchestrating it was the “manager”, (I use the term loosely) who was quite clearly on something illegal and was heard to say “as this is effectively my home I can smoke here” , even though the hostel is clearly a public place. Its probably not surprising that the breakfast was crap, as he’d only had about an hours kip.

As for a garden shed, with the door being held on by 4 one inch screws being secure, well I wouldn’t want to leave my prized bike in there.

I hope the place has improved, as Betws is a great place and needs good bike friendly accommodation. But our experience of the place was dire.

We stayed there before 2009. We had the owners managing the place when we were there and they did a decent job.