Me, Jono and Jane needed to be near Pembrey on Sunday (Jane will tell you why). The few places we tried were busy, and we ended up spending Saturday night at Hotel Miramar in Llanelli. I just want to say that this area of Wales needs much more competition in the hotel market.
1. The only accommodation they could offer was an apartment: “Adjacent to the Hotel Miramar we have three apartments decorated and furnished to a high standard with all facilities”. These may have been high standards circa 1972, they may have been acceptable as student accommodation, but in truth it was depressing. I can’t even say “it had character”. I think it was all the stains that did it for me. It’s sort of sad, but I would have much rather stayed at a motorway motel or similar. It would have been about the same price: £75 for the three of us.
2. On the plus side, the staff were helpful. The bathroom was on it’s way towards small pool before they fixed the leak, and we were in danger of freezing before the heating was fixed (yeah, it’s July, but it was cold). But they fixed them. That’s good. Or am I lowering my standards?
3. Breakfast wasn’t bad. But who’s idea was it to put cheap instant coffee in a coffee pot? It’s not clever, it’s not fancy, it doesn’t taste good. Note to self: always go for tea; it’s hard to get tea really wrong. One strange thing we saw during breakfast: someone, probably hotel staff, went into the apartments through the backdoor — leaving the door open — and out through the front door, leaving that unlocked. Nothing bad happened, but it’s just disconcerting to watch.
4. “The Hotel Miramar is adjacent to Llanelli Railway Station.” Yeah, this is the big mistake. Anything around a station is not going to be good. We drove around a bit, and we hope we missed the best parts of Llanelli, because if we didn’t it’s a depressing place. We didn’t feel like going out at all, other than to the off license which was literally next door.
A positive note: we had dinner at the Pemberton Arms in Burry Town and that was good pub food with a happy young bloke serving us. We tried to eat at the Poacher’s Rest in Ferryside, but they didn’t really want to feed us, and the manager greeted us with a knife in his hand.
In summary, avoid the area, or pay lots in a plush hotel.