Dolau Afon Camping

A aimé Lovely, peaceful, spotless site surrounded by woodland and a river. Plenty of space and excellent facilities. Absolutely perfect, wish we could've stayed longer.

N'a pas aimé Nothing.

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A aimé We've spent almost a week at this fantastic site. The hosts were very welcoming and always available to assist. All facilities were very clean.

The area was very quiet and peaceful; the river was clean and perfect for swimming if you were brave enough to venture into the cold water.

It was impressive how the location was nestled in the middle of the forest, yet just 20 minutes away from the beach.

Great network connection. The site has wifi too, but we haven't used it.

So far, it is our favourite camping site, and we will definitely return.

N'a pas aimé Nothing

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Réponse du gestionnaire : Thank you so much for this wonderful review of our site. It means a lot.
We are delighted you had such a lovely time with us. x

A aimé A nice, peaceful space by the river. I’ll definitely be back.

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Réponse du gestionnaire : We would love to see you again, thank you. We are delighted you enjoyed your stay with us.

A aimé Very little.

N'a pas aimé Pitches too close together. Not as website depicted (spacious riverside camping.) Only 2 showers and 2 toilets. They were clean. However, not enough for number of people staying on site (constant smell of human waste.) WIFI was a ridiculous £3 for 1 hour. Late night arrivals with car headlights beaming. Dogs constantly barking. We left 2 days early.

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Réponse du gestionnaire : As you intended, we are very upset by your review of our site. We think it was un called for. We cannot be a perfect 10/10 all the time, and we cannot please all, but we come pretty close to it, despite your intention of damning our site. You just need to count our good reviews that we work hard to achieve and keep a standard. We won an award from PitchUp last year for our 9.3 reviews.

Regarding the site not as described, there are plenty of photos on Pitch Up, on our website and on the internet, informing those who do their research before booking have a clear idea of what we are like. There are spacious riverside pitches and there are also other pitches That are along the back of the site, of various sizes and suitable for all tent sizes including Giant ones, but we are still a riverside site.

I do have to point out your comment about the showers and toilets and I quote "Only 2 showers and 2 toilets. They were clean" yet you gave us a 1/10 for cleanliness on the score. There are actually 3 toilets, 2 urinals for men (separate) and 2 showers on site.

The other thing I would just like to point out is our WiFi - It is not £5 per hour it is £3 per hour and £5 per day, although many people are not bothered and don't use it much because we have very good mobile phone coverage, and most people if they need WiFi they search for a 'Hot Spot'. Incidentally, we do not own the WiFi, it is owned by Integrum IT Campsite WiFi, which was the only way we could have secure WiFi for the site, before the new phone mast was put up last year.

Regarding late arrivals - Our arrival times are between 3pm and 8pm, we have this 8pm cut off because we do not want our campers disturbed, and we would like an evening ourselves. if a camper cannot get to us before 8pm then they arrive later by request, and we did not have any late arrivals the '1' night you stayed. However, we cannot stop people who go out for the evening returning to their pitches late in the evening.

You mentioned dogs constantly barking, you had a dog yourselves. I'm sure that barked at some point during the time you were with us, but I can assure you, as we live on site and we had no complaints from other campers about dogs barking and disturbing anyone, or us, I really cannot comment.

As for the smell of human waste, we have never noticed a smell except on one occasion a couple of years ago, when it was very hot and we had a full site, the site was not full and it was a cooler day. Maybe you entered a toilet that smelled from the person before you. You don't say where this constant smell came from or where you smelled it. The number of showers and toilets are what we had planning permission for, for the size of the site and the number of pitches, as per the Ceredigion CC recommendations for a site our size (1 acre).

A aimé Dolau Afon is an absolutely beautiful campsite – meticulously maintained and beautifully peaceful we had a wonderful stay. I would really recommend it to anyone that wants to have a peaceful and relaxing break.

The dark skies were particularly spectacular to do stargazing as was having a dip in the river – so refreshing and invigorating.

N'a pas aimé Having to leave!

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Réponse du gestionnaire : Awwwww, that's a lovely complement. thank you. We hope you got some amazing photos of the sky at night.

A aimé A very pretty site. Not very big but nice and level. The facilities were very clean too. There is a lovely little river which ran to the side of the campsite where we were able to let our dog go swimming (you can also swim too)

N'a pas aimé Nothing

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A aimé Stunning part of the world to explore. Wales is a true gift of nature.

N'a pas aimé Extremely rude site owner, if you don’t like people, don’t work in hospitality.

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Réponse du gestionnaire : Oh dear, I am so sorry you thought I was rude, I apologise.... however it would be helpful if we knew what it was that upset you, you have not given your reason?

We have hundreds of people a month come to stay, its impossible to keep track, but sadly, a very very few do stand out, and I cannot recall being rude to you, although I do remember what pitch you were on.

I have been in customer related jobs of one description or another, all my working life, and I think, given the challenges and demands posed by customers, that I have done well and I am fairly good with people and I still smile.
Of all our reviews, which I am proud to say are mostly 10/10 (we received a 'Review Award' last year from PitchUp), I have had so very few guests feel I have ever been rude to them?
I can be a little curt on occasions, but there is always a reason, perhaps you were disrespectful? There must have been something that you did not agree with, regarding our requests that I may have reminded you of, of what is or is not acceptable on our site.

We are fairly relaxed here and like to enjoy our work and hope our gests enjoy their stay too.

A aimé Small, quiet, clean site.

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A aimé Nice hot showers and very clean. That’s the reason I have given it 4/10

N'a pas aimé We were really disappointed with our experience here, mainly because of the attitude of the female owner.

We completely understood the seriousness of the current fire risk. We had received the emergency warning alert about fires on our phones and there are signs throughout the site, so we were fully aware and had absolutely no intention of doing anything unsafe.

The owner came over and told us there were to be no flames whatsoever. I asked whether that even included using our kettle and was abruptly told no. It wasn’t the fire restriction that upset us — we completely understand why restrictions are necessary — it was the way she spoke to us. Her manner was so rude and confrontational that I actually said we would leave and immediately started looking for another campsite.

Her husband came over and told us it was fine, while appearing frustrated by the situation himself, which made it even more confusing as to what was actually allowed.

The whole site feels incredibly rule-heavy, with signs everywhere. You’re also required to leave before 10am on departure day, with a £5 per person charge if you don’t.

We respect campsite rules and, particularly with the current fire warnings, completely understand the need for safety. But rules can be communicated politely. We have stayed at plenty of campsites and have never felt so unwelcome.


Unfortunately, the owner’s attitude really put a dampener on our stay, we felt uncomfortable and, based on our experience, we wouldn’t return.

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Réponse du gestionnaire : We are very sorry to read that you had a bad experience with us/me! very very few do, and if you look through our reviews, we were awarded for our good reviews. If I came across with an attitude, I apologise for that, it has been an anxious and testing time these last few weeks with the weather being so dry, and Wild Fires only a few miles from us as you may have been aware. We are surrounded by forests, as too is the village, we cannot be responsible for our site being the source a 'Wild Fire' and loosing our property to it. We have had a few campers on site who thought that it would be OK to have fires, that it didn't affect them, which disappointed us, believing that people would have some commonsense. Sadly, we have to explain to everyone to make sure they do understand the gravity of the situation. I might add, that our Insurance would not cover us for any damage sustained, due to any camper not respecting the decision we make to avoid a FIRE.

We do need to correct you on a couple of things though. Firstly, there is only one sign up about 'FIRES', and that is on the Main Gate going out of the campsite, there are no others on site. We don't like to put up lots of signs, only those that are letting you know that, 'this is 'drinking water', 'Dog Wash' 'Grey water waste' 'Dog Poo bin', that kind of thing.
We are no heavier on rules than any other site, in-fact, we think we are fairly relaxed here. Rules are in place, so that everyone on site, knows what is acceptable and what is not, we cannot allow people to just come here and just do whatever they like and be disrespectful, it upsets other campers too. We are sorry that this did not suit you, respect goes a long way - after all, you are a guest on our land.

Our arrival times and departure times are our choice, not yours, we have those time there for a reason, as do other sites. The £5 charge is for a 'Requested Late Departure' if you want to stay till early afternoon, which is only reasonable, we do not hold out our hand because you are late leaving! Did you read our T&Cs and Site Rules before you booked?

A aimé The campsite itself is very clean and in a lovely location, close to the river. Unfortunately, the owner was the main reason our stay was so disappointing.

We have been travelling and staying at campsites for three years, and this was the first time we experienced something like this. Our booking confirmation clearly stated the time from which we could arrive, but when we got there, the owner refused to let us in. We had to wait for an hour until she came back to open the gate. We had never experienced anything like this before.

Another issue was the fire safety situation. There was an official warning related to the fires, and the owner went around the campsite telling everyone that gas stoves were not allowed. This included people staying in tents, some of whom had small children. As a result, some guests decided to leave the campsite the following day because they felt that the rules were excessive and unreasonable.

There was also a strict 10 p.m. quiet time, which made the atmosphere feel very restrictive.

Unfortunately, I would never return to this campsite. The location and cleanliness are good, but the way the campsite is managed completely ruined our experience. I would only recommend it to people who prefer an extremely quiet and restrictive environment and are happy to follow constantly changing rules without prior notice.

N'a pas aimé The campsite itself is very clean and in a lovely location, close to the river. Unfortunately, the owner was the main reason our stay was so disappointing.

We have been travelling and staying at campsites for three years, and this was the first time we experienced something like this. Our booking confirmation clearly stated the time from which we could arrive, but when we got there, the owner refused to let us in. We had to wait for an hour until she came back to open the gate. We had never experienced anything like this before.

Another issue was the fire safety situation. There was an official warning related to the fires, and the owner went around the campsite telling everyone that gas stoves were not allowed. This included people staying in tents, some of whom had small children. As a result, some guests decided to leave the campsite the following day because they felt that the rules were excessive and unreasonable.

There was also a strict 10 p.m. quiet time, which made the atmosphere feel very restrictive.

Unfortunately, I would never return to this campsite. The location and cleanliness are good, but the way the campsite is managed completely ruined our experience. I would only recommend it to people who prefer an extremely quiet and restrictive environment and are happy to follow constantly changing rules without prior notice.

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Réponse du gestionnaire : Thank you for leaving a review. We are pleased you thought our facilities and location for your stay were good.
We are sorry though, that you thought us unreasonable on our opening times, I must stress, that changing the opening time was necessary due to our personal situation/reasons, however, I did email everyone on the 12th August (we also changed the opening time on PitchUp and our own website), who had booked to stay with us after that date in plenty of time before their arrival. As you know I am sure, some emails do go astray and I have no control over that, but there was a sign on the gate to inform you of the new opening time.
During your stay with us, we were under a lot of stress with the concern of Wildfires locally, with a high risk of one breaking out local to us, we had already been on ‘Fire Watch’ for several weeks, as had most of the campsites in west Wales, with the latest fire only 4 miles away, and as members of our community, we had a responsibility to make sure no fire broke out on our site.
When we all got the Alarm, it stated ‘No activity should be undertaken that could cause a fire, including BBQs, firepits, garden incinerators, fireworks, stating that even a small ‘Flame’ can rapidly develop into a major wildfire, placing lives and homes, businesses and emergency responders at risk.
For us to have allowed anyone to have a naked flame, no matter how small for any reason, would have been irresponsible of us. We are sad you felt inconvenienced by this, but because of your cooperation, and that of other campers, we did not have an incident and put lives at risk, considering we are in the middle of a forest. The intention was to communicate an important safety requirement rather than to be confrontational or rude.
With regards the 10pm quiet request we have here, it is for the benefit of everyone on site to have a peaceful evening and be able to sleep without disturbance by other campers, or to cause our neighbours concerns over noise. We do advertise ourselves as a quiet peaceful site to relax on. Our site does have a number of rules and a few notices, as do other sites. These are there to protect our guests (yourselves included), the surrounding countryside and the site itself. We do not consider ourselves restrictive, you are free to come and go as you like, but all that is asked, is respect for our rules and other guests. We are sorry you were personally affected by this. Maybe our site was not for you.