My name is Andrew Lloyd Hughes, welcome to my blog. I run a tourism consultancy, manage a small accommodation booking agency and own a luxury self catering pad in Swansea. So tourism basically runs my life (and ruins it possibly!). There could be worse. Here’s what I have to say…
Finally Milkwood House is empty for a day which has given me a chance to take some more pics and what a day to be empty – its probably the nicest day of the year and you can see the English coast as plain as day. This is the view that greeted me waking up in the double room in Milkwood this morning, absolutely stunning, so nice to hear the waves too. I really need to spend more time in our apartment, maybe I should stop being so greedy and book it out for ouselves now and then! Since opening in March, we’ve been almost full to the brim, so can’t grumble I suppose!
Meridian Bay is really coming on in Swansea, there’s no more cranes, just people moving in to the large tower opposite. Cant wait for the new restaurant to open on the top – I dont think there’ll be a view to beat it. This time of year is a great time for sunsets over Swansea Bay, we used to spend hours watching the October sets when I used to work in nearby County Hall with arguably the best office view anywhere. Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that. OK, maybe I would glance at the sun now and then in between coming up for air from my desk!
I grew up in Coelbren and I have never seen Station Road looking so good with the Black Mountains and Llyn Y Fan in the background (can’t see the lake from this angle though!). An excellent shot, have some great memories playing cricket in this field with some great characters in the village. That’s the Brecon Beacons in the background where the cloud is, its amazing what you take for granted when you are a kid. This is also the old railway line from Swansea to Brecon and was the scene for part of the film Young Winston shot in the early 70s, starring Richard Attenborough and Simon Ward. Coelbren was apparently named by the Romans who had a fort settlement nearby (though, I’m ashamed to admit, have never been to the site – and it’s even on the OS map!) Nevermind, one day hopefully.
A good friend of mine in the then Wales Tourist Board introduced me to this place, and what a find it was. In working for Wales in Style, a nice part of the job was identifying and experiencing the best tourism products in Wales, and this was certainly one of them. It’s on the Llyn Peninsula in the north and has a special, unique, almost mythical quality that you only ever find once or twice in any country that your visit, and this one was my own! You cant quite put your finger on it, but you know it when you get there. Great pub on the beach too!
Problem. You want to stay for a few days over the August Bank Holiday Weekend, we want you to stay a whole week. What do we do? OK. Here’s the deal:
1) Visit www.gower-holiday.com and have a look around at some of our cottages. Choose one.
2) Pay to stay there a whole week, which is only £475, but only stay there for 3 nights over the Bank Holiday weekend (after all, shouldn’t they be back in school on Tuesday?)
3) Then, this is the clever bit. ‘Bank’ the unused 4 days for another time – in other words come back for two additional weekends free of charge because once you’ve been to Gower, we know for sure you will definitely want to come back!
4) Take note of the ‘catch’ – you can come back but it has to be outside of the school holidays (we are trying to make Gower a year round destination after all!) in the Autumn, Spring or early Summer next year. Oh yes, and every tme you come back for your extra holidays, we do have to collect a £25 service fee I’m afraid as somebody has to clean up of course! Still a good deal though don’t you think?
Hope to see you in Gower soon, and hopefully many times after that! Well, another twice perhaps.
Y Cawr Cwsg (Sleeping Giant) is the Cribarth Mountain, Abercrave South West of the Brecon Beacons about half way in between Brecon and Swansea. Grew up looking at this mountain every day and this certainly isn’t the best view of it, however, this is the view that makes the Cribarth look like a sleeping giant. Head, chain around his neck, chest, legs and also when you have lived in the area as long as I have, you can even make out some extra bits too!
It’s a great walk up there, when you get to the top in about an hour and a half from where the panoramic views are out of this world and you can even see up to 10 different counties in England and Wales. Best to start this walk is from behind the Abercrave Inn where you follow the way-marked public footpath (look for the ‘llwybr cyhoeddus’ signs), great parking and a nice pint of Tomos Watkin when you come back down too!
If you’re staying with us, this is about half hour drive from Milkwood House
Most people reading this would have found your way here from Twitter, so thanks for following me, and thanks for meeting me here too! As someone who lives and breathes tourism in Wales, I am always interested in whether or not you’ve ever been to our country, where you are from and more importantly, what immediately springs to mind when you hear the word ‘Wales’.
Thank you to all the tourism consultants who have recently sent us copies of strategy briefs and expressed an interest in undertaking the work for my client. Details have now been passed over to the procurement department who will handle the tendering process for the work involved. The purpose of the briefs was mainly to assess the different approaches to procurement that exist throughout the UK and the information provided has been extremely useful and thought provoking. I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of my client to thank everyone who has assisted in this process. It is likely that the tender will be issued in November.
In examining the briefs supplied, it has become evident that there is a huge variation in the quality of the terms of reference which should clearly communicate the needs of the client. It is this area that has generated the most response offline from many of you. Other areas that most have felt could be improved are better transparency in the scoring process and more thought into the criteria adopted.
For example, it was felt by some that the criteria should become more creative and put more weight behind assessing the consultants ability to bring something ‘different’ to the table. So, to continue this debate, please feel free to comment below on what does constitute the perfect brief as far as tourism consultants are concerned. Would welcome any input….
What a great day this was today. A rare Summers’ day off for me which took us as a family (even my mother was in tow!) down to our apartment Milkwood (for us to enjoy for a change!), and on to the beach outside where the Wales National Airshow was taking place. Thousands cramed the shoreline and the displays were unbelievable – made all the more impressive by the backdrop of Mumbles Head and the 5 mile sweep of sand across the Bay. Don’t want to miss this event next year and this was a great pic on Flickr that captures the scene well – a Lancaster Bomber over Mumbles Head, how cool is that! (this was one event in Wales this weekend that did rival the Ashes in Cardiff!).
Trying to create a list of some great Facebook pages used in the tourism industry as a training resource for small buisnesses in Welsh tourism. If anyone knows of any examples that might help, inspire, demonstrate, that would be great. Thanks again – Andrew
Love it. Swansea Bay. Great memories of playing touch rugby twice a week and football once a week on this patch during our lunch hour when working in the civic centre, and in Summer often ended up in the sea for a dip. Great times and this shot does it for me. The beach is Swansea’s best kept secret as everyone heads for Gower round the corner leaving this little gem empty! Loved it so much, we decided to buy an apartment overlooking the bay and called it Milkwood after probably the most well known piece of work by Swansea’s most famous son, Dylan Thomas. Its hardly surprising that Dylan was inspired by views like this. That’s Mumbles Head in the background, you can borrow our bikes and cycle there and back if you stay in Milkwood – now that’s a ride you wont forget. Great pic this one – there’s loads more from this photographer on flickr, well worth looking at.
Half way in betwen Brecon and Swansea, so not a bad place really, best of both worlds. Beacons to the left of me, Gower to the right.
Tel: 07747866052
email: andrew@trutourism.com
