On the Friday, we woke up to bright sunshine again. It seems to be a recurring theme that every time we go to Wales, the weather perks up just as we’re leaving. Typically, sun was forecast for at least the weekend afterwards.
As Dave was packing up everything, I took Autumn for a walk down to the village to see the advent countdown. There were notably fewer people and a fairly sombre mood. I could have happily stayed at Bluestone for far longer. I actually was on the brink of tears when we were leaving.
Blue Lagoon
You’re allowed to continue to use the facilities at Bluestone on the day you leave up until a certain point. I think it may be 3pm. We decided to go for another swim before we left. It was great to experience the lazy river in the day time too! All the swimming really tired Autumn out. As we left the site, we saw the Land train for one last time. We waved goodbye to its lovely driver and he waved back at us. This set the tears off in my eyes again (oh dear!)
Journey home
We made a couple of stops at service stations on the way back home for food and toilet breaks. We also took a little detour to Barry Island. When we visited Wales last year, Dave promised me that the next time we were back we could visit some of the Gavin and Stacey filming locations. I was a big fan back in the day and it was great to see them in real life. I’d share pictures, but honestly, I don’t look great and I don’t want to share them! Unfortunately, I’d been feeling a bit off all week and I was feeling exceptionally queasy this day. I couldn’t wait to get home and it was such a relief when we did get back. The next morning I woke up feeling absolutely awful and it took over a week and a half to shift.
Tips for Bluestone
I’ve already written a recap of my highlights of the week. So, instead at this point, I feel like I should leave some pearls of wisdom:
1. Be prepared
Plan activities in advance through your special booking page (this is sent to you via email shortly after booking). Make sure you pack clothing for all eventualities and bring waterproofs. HIRE A BUGGY. You don’t know what the weather will be like and as it’s Wales, it’s very likely there will be torrential rain on at least one day of your holiday. This is even more important if it’s winter and likely to be cold too. Do you want to transform into a drowned rat, whilst wandering around watching sensible people with buggies jealously? Nope? Then book in advance! What we really should have done was go swimming when we arrived, at least we’d have been wet by choice then!
2. Use your info pack well
When you’re given your information pack, make use of it. We missed the advent and a couple of things, because we didn’t look at the activities properly. I wrote out an itinerary of the activities I’d booked for each day and wish I’d gone through activities you didn’t need to book (such as the advent) and added them to it. Likewise, we wandered down to the village when we arrived…leaving our information etc. in the car. This ended up in our walk to the village being even longer because we had no idea where we were going. We’re not usually that daft, it was just a bad day for us I think! As I accidentally knelt in a piece of egg and cress sandwich Autumn had thrown while I was getting her out of her car seat, I was quite worried that the tone of the week was already set. Thankfully, we had a good time and not everything was a disaster!
3. Embrace Bluestone life
Even if it does rain, embrace beautiful Bluestone and Wales. Even in the rain it looks wonderful and there are so many fun things to do both on site and in the local area!
We had such a lovely time and I’d love to go back again in the future, as soon as possible!
Disclosure: I am a Bluestone blogger. We had a midweek break from 20th November – 25th November in return for this (and other) blog posts. As always, all views and opinions are honest and my own.