Anyone know the area? Would like a nice cottage in easy walking distance of a good food pub.
I would look for somewhere outside - Pontsticll etc.
Merthyr is rough as assholes just a bit north into the Brecons would be nice though.We had slates chucked at us on a ride up that way many years ago !!!
Stay in Neath. Easy access to BikeparkWales and Afan.
Watch twin towns and you'll get the gist of a typical Welsh Shit hole.
Crickhowell is nice Merthyr is a dump
It's a great destination if you like fighting.
I would not stay in Merthyr
Awful place
COI: have family and friends locally
My father-in-law is from Merthyr. He's a ****ing t**t.
Best thing about Merthyr Tydfil is the by-pass
The bypass even has roadworks at the moment :). As the other posters have said, Abergavenny, Crick
or Breacon rather than Merthyr.
In the early '90s a group of four young teenagers who'd been lost in a howling whiteout on Llangynidr moor for hours followed some pylons to sanctuary in Merthyr and were the first and last people to ever be happy to arrive in that town...
Nant Ddu Lodge is nice. Quality restaurant as well.
Right, so that's a no then 😆
Please can you recommend any nice villages in the area? (As with all my threads I am hoping you will recommend some nice food pubs we can stay near 😀 )
look at surrounding towns like pontypridd,blackwood. crickhowell is a bit of a drive to merthyr. plenty of nice B&B's in the valleys
Stay in Aberdare camp/caravan book a room here http://www.darevalleycountrypark.co.uk/index.php/accomodation
you can walk into town I can recommend some pubs/restaurants if you base yourself here, you can ride over to the bike park from Aberdare too if you wish
Cheers all.
Llangynidr is a nice little village, not sure if there is accommodation there but it has a nice country pub. Can't remember the name of it though.
Every city and large town in the uk has rough areas and Merthyr is no worse.
The local community have have been strong supporters of bpw and I'd be surprised if could find another building project where so many locals would give up their time to help.
I'd stay in Abergavenny, used to work there and been back a few times really nice gone quiet up market from the days I lived there 🙂
Old bikers pubs now being posh restaurants had quiet a shock when i went back LOL
I've stayed at The Bluebell in Neath, whilst on a 2 day visit to Afan.
I'd go back there happily. Very good restaurant, secure underground car park (ie bike friendly).
look at surrounding towns like pontypridd,blackwood
Seriously! if you think Merthyr is bad, Merthyr has nothing on those two!
Aberdare country park is nice but that means staying in Aberdare! 😯
Personally: go to Bikepark Wales and get the **** out of dodge!
Talybont on Usk is lovely - handy for the Gap Road and Beacons and in the Star Inn has one of my favourite pubs in south wales.
As the crow flies it's only a few miles from Merthyr but a world apart.
Merthyr is NOT a holiday destination, mind neither is Ponty. Unless your idea of a great holiday is slag heaps, council estates and bingo halls.
Breacon is a lot nicer, albeit filled with squaddies and farmers.
See the map, see the A465 running East-West, that's the Heads of the Valleys Road. North of that is lovely Brecon Beacons beautiful countryside. South of that is.. not as nice 🙂
North is packed with nice towns and villages with more B&Bs than you can shake a stick at.
Every city and large town in the uk has rough areas and Merthyr is no worse.
Yeah I'd agree, it's no worse than the rough areas of most big towns.... 🙂
Bike Park Wales might boost the local economy in more ways than one...
Or as my grandfather, a hard-core Gog, used to put it, "South of Brecon there's nothing but thieves and communists"
lBike Park Wales might boost the local economy in more ways than one...
There'll be alot more high spec bikes being sold at local boots sales on weekends thats for sure!
What have we done!!!!
Just booked a weekend at BPW for the end of Sept and one of the guys has found a cheap place to rent in Merthyr.
After reading some of the above we're not going to survive are we? 😉
Although we are from Halifax 😆
Llangynidr is a nice little village, not sure if there is accommodation there but it has a nice country pub. Can't remember the name of it though.
Yes one nice pub by the church with the play area, the other one 😯 😉
After reading some of the above we're not going to survive are we?
you've seen Deliverance, right?
you've seen Deliverance, right?
Yep, that bad? 🙁
😆
I went out with a Merthyr girl once and she took me there to meet her folks, followed by a trip to the local Working Men's club. It was like a scene from a western, where the stranger walks into a busy saloon and everything suddenly stops, leaving dead silence. I guess my lack of facial tatoos must have marked me out as different.
Once she'd explained that I was her boyfriend and she'd *ing kill anybody who gave me any trouble, things were fine.
I can't see it making it into a Thompson's Holidays brochure though.
wont be a night out in town without a visit to Koolers
Oh look they have their own nurse in there 😈
http://www.kirkhousemerthyr.co.uk/#!untitled/zoom/c60z/imageuqm
Bit too past it for nightclubbing
EDIT well that didnt work did it!
+1 for Talybont on Usk. Good food and beer at the Star, the White Heart has a good collection of single malts. We either camp at Talybont Farm or stay at the Malthouse B&B (opposite the White Heart) - very good rates and a cracking breakfast (local produce and they collect their own honey), nice comfy lounge and wifi. Both are in the centre of the village.
Alternatively, the YHA hostel near Brecon isn't bad but it's in the middle of nowhere.
Oh! Number 18 in Crickhowell is ace for food too !
How about http://www.thebellcountrypub.co.uk ,in Glangrywney,halfway between Abergavenny and Crickhowell.I'd also second Talybont on Usk, all the outdoor activities you could want,the gap ride from the front door,walking galore,good pubs and not that far from Merthyr. Or pretty much any of the villages along the A40 from Abergavenny to Brecon, if you do a bit of digging round you'll find cottages off the beaten track I'm sure.
Or if you want to treat yourself http://www.penpont.com/page/welcome/
The whole area along the A40 is stunning, you can't go far wrong at all there.
And here's a day out for you http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/bigpit/
Oh and if you like industrial heritage,its worth a nosey round Merthyr,it was the biggest iron producer in the world(I think) at one time.
While Number18 in Crickhowell is nice for a coffee, Askews bakery a few doors up is the cake Mecca.
If you go west along the A465 to Hirwaun there are a few nicer places to stay, and the Penderyn distillery is a little north. Merthyr council are doing a lot to boost the tourism in the area. Look at Visitwales.com
Disclaimer. I work for them.
Try and find a nice B&B in the Gurnos estate in Merthyr.
It's nice there.
EDIT: Really don't go there.I was joking.
There's been plenty of petty crime and unemployment in Merthyr for years but I'd take that over major gun and drug crimes in all cities any day.
A holiday destination it's not, but if its a couple of days riding and somewhere to sleep your after then you'll find what you want.
i've lived in south wales all my life and spent the biggest part of the last 5 years working all over the uk, compared to most city's i've worked in merthyr is a rural paradise, if you want to experience true filthy shithole estates try nottingham, derby, oxford, liverpool, aberdeen, dundee, northhampton, sheffield, leeds, birmingham or reading. the gurnos estate would be considered upper middle class in most of the above mentioned towns and cities.
Holy cow, this has to be a troll? Merthyr for a holiday? Did you even google image it?
Every city and large town in the uk has rough areas and Merthyr is no worse.
having worked all over the world, Merthyr is the only place we've had company vehicles firebomed on a clients site by bored locals. (this includes working in liberia during the 90's and sierra leone)
yes there are rough areas everywhere but Merthyr, rhymney and bits of ebbw vale are a special kind of hive of scum and villainy
no, i'll take MT and any of the other place that tazzymtb mentions over any of the above named shitholes east of the line.
No, not a troll. We fancied a trail centre oriented holiday and Merthyr has had a lot of development. I'm going to Tal y Bont for a few days in Sept. Will ride the natural stuff round there then.
We want a few days at BPW, a day a Brechfa, a trip to Cwm Rhyder, a go on that new blue/black one and a day at Afan. Trying to find somewhere nice to stay that will keep the travelling down.
Anyone done similar to the above? Where did you stay?
I live 15 mins from Bikepark its such a chore lol! Amazing place to ride, Merthyr has a bad rep and isn't really that bad although there are pubs that are best avoided. If you want more quaint surroundings try anywhere in the Brecon Beacons area.
You could stay in Cardiff or Swansea and have a 35-45 minute drive to MT.
Lots of places around and in Merthyr that will be fine to stay.