As you may have guessed by the tumbleweed blowing across this blog lately, we’ve been away – camping at a small campsite called Cei Bach Country Club, which is not far from New Quay on the West coast of Wales.

Previous camping trips have seen us being incredibly lucky with the weather – even the year of the floods, we managed to pick a week that gave us bright sunshine most days, with only a few showers and one truly wet day. This time, however, our luck deserted us and it was pretty much a wash out (photos for this review were taken on the only sunny day of the week).

However, I shall try very hard to not let my annoyance at the weather colour my thoughts on the site and surrounding area – after all, it’s hardly their fault that the clouds didn’t co-operate!

And Cei Bach is a very nicely run site. It’s greatest strength is its size (or rather lack thereof) and despite the rather intimidating list of rules given to you on arrival, the staff came across as overwhelmingly friendly, warm and helpful. While the site itself is small, the pitch sizes are generous – certainly the largest we’ve come across outside The Camping and Caravanning Club sites.

The wash-block facilities were average, but (most importantly) cleaned regularly. One of the big draws for us was the onsite pub, however it did have its drawbacks. Special entertainment events can be fun for families with older children, but I would recommend a pitch further away from it if you like an early night’s sleep. There were only a couple during our week’s stay though, so not too much of an inconvenience.

Home-cooked food is available at a reasonable price, but we did find that their descriptions of the dishes sounded rather grand on paper but a little uninspiring in reality! However, again the staff were cheerful and welcoming, which makes all the difference.

The one thing the kids had been really looking forward to with this camping trip was access to the sea.

The site plan available implied that the site was right next to the beach, but in reality the beach is much lower and only accessible by an off-site path that winds down to sea level. This only took about five minutes at a relaxed pace, but not quite as immediate as we’d hoped, and too far to be lulled to sleep by the lovely sounds of the ocean at night.

On the plus side, the beach was clean and didn’t seem to be too heavily populated (although the poor weather could well have been a factor in the latter).

Overall, Cei-Bach Country Club is a pleasant campsite on a very picturesque part of the Welsh coast. I just wish we could have visited it in more favourable meteorological circumstances!