Basecamp Wales

Positiv good communication, helped out with our late arrival, clean facilities and perfect access to afan forest for bike trials, we will be back

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Positiv Communication was great

Negativ The site was a public car park about 10 years from a main road. We drove straight out and went home.

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Positiv Pristine toilets, beautiful scenery, bus into town, port talbot and neath. Mining museum, great cafe with Internet. Friendly and helpful staff. Lovely walks. We had electric hook up.

Negativ No phone signal, tv reception or Internet in the motorhome. A bit hard to navigate the entrance. The ehu is at the end of the public car park, first left before base camp.

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Positiv The facilities while basic were spotless.
Really quiet in the evening - think we were the only van there after the first night.
Right on the start or the mtb trails and marked walking trails.

Negativ Van parking isn’t very level if you don’t opt for the electric hookup. Big wedges needed unless you manage to get creative with the curb.
£1.50 for a token for the showers though that does give you 5mins

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Positiv Right on the mountain bike trails which were great. Cafe was excellent, not cheap but very nice. Although you can't park next to the tent you can park very close so not bad at all. People were very friendly and happy to help. Very good for the price. The location and views are amazing.

Negativ The pitch is on a slant so you have to pitch with that in mind. There is a steep hill to get to the facilities. Cafe only opened 10am-4pm so no chance of early breakfast or a late snack/drink. Not sure if use WiFi at the cafe as no signs

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Positiv Great walks, museum very informative.

Negativ Not really a campsite, really just a one night stopover. Resturant closed different time each of the 3 nights we were there. Told us on arrival 9:30. Closed 8 first night, 6:30 second night and 6 third night. So be aware

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Positiv Everything

Negativ Nothing

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Positiv Great facilities, all spotless. Base camp Cafe is fantastic for breakfast or dinner. Well labeled walks and cycle paths and great park for the kids.

Negativ Needs to be managed better have some sort of rule no noise after 10 am etc we had people drinking running past the tent at 1am etc with the kids sleeping not ideal

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Positiv One star for the good on-site cafe which is reasonably priced and has a great menu/does deliveries on an evening

One star for the good toilet and shower facilities (albeit locked via a keybox on evenings which is a bit annoying and only get a five minute shower for £1.50)

Rope swing which entertained the kids a fair bit and the view is lovely

Negativ Firstly and most importantly, why book a campsite where you can't sit on a camping chair without falling over because of the slope. 3/3 children in attendance fell off their chairs because of it and multiple adults. The hill also makes sleeping a disaster, frequently waking up because of falling down the airbed.

Staff were OK at best. Not the warmest welcome in the world after a long drive, and, after we were ticked off a long list of guests, our party was given no instruction as to campsite rules and behaviour (something which I believe manifested itself during our stay but I will leave that until the end).

Car park is tiny holding four cars max. and is also at the bottom of the hill, so unless you want to trek up the hill and tear your legs to bits with tents and chairs, you have to rallycross your car up the bank to unload and pack away. There is also an overwhelming feeling of anyone being able to enter at any time and pitch a tent.

Another huge problem is the midges which hoard the site from around 9pm. After a long day of travelling, our party finally settled down for a BBQ at around 8am. We enjoyed one hour before the midges descended and you can't sit down without getting swamped. This then meant our party either shut themselves away in their tent, or shut themselves in their car until they were tired enough to attempt to sleep.

The toilet and shower facilities are decent enough, but are a trek from the hill where you camp, meaning you have to lug shower stuff/water there and back for a bit of comfort. As well as this, it's £1.50 a shower which is incineratingly hot (we were there during a heatwave) and lasts five minutes. As well as this, when I went to go and buy a shower token, the staff said none were available and therefore I wouldn't be able to shower until the following day.

Final point on the facilities, everything is kept under lock and key, so if you need the toilet on an evening or early in the morning, you have to fiddle around with a lock box to go for a wee. Again, if more was put in place to avoid the feeling of 'anyone can park here and camp', this would not be needed.

I understand camps can't decide who books and there are idiots everywhere, but 10 minutes after arriving we had a domestic between two separate camps, including one guest wishing death upon the other and screaming/pointing in his direction with multiple kids watching on. Again, there are idiots everywhere, but if rules were clearly laid out from the site, this may never have happened (the argument was over dogs). The same party also kept us awake until 1.30-2am with arguing and loud chatter.

With all of the above considered, our party decided to leave a night early because the experience was so tragic and we couldn't be bothered to take on the midges for a second evening.

If you want to be bitten to shreds, have ripped legs and roll down a hill as you sleep, this is the place to be.

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Positiv Good views in the morning. The staff were nice and helpful, liked the food from the café too. If you're passing through the area, have a coffee and a cake and then leave.

Negativ The camping section is just a field on a slope that anyone could just park up at if they wanted to. That's it. If you want anything else from your holiday/camping trip, you won't get it here. An insane number of midges take over this area on the evenings, making it almost impossible to even sit outside without getting bitten.

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