by Everyone has a good holiday disaster story, right? Even experienced travel journalists.
Ours was a classic passport fiasco, leading us to “swap” a two-week trip to the sunny Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera for sitting on a composting toilet in Wales.
Like all good stories told among friends, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But after a “passgate” – when the blame and threats of divorce subsided – Bert’s Kitchen Garden, an eco-camping on a five-hectare (12-acre) farm in the village of Trefor on the Welsh peninsula, was halved. – life recovery for our family of four.
The panic started 24 hours before we were supposed to leave, and our six-year-old daughter said she still “looked like a baby” on her passport. Yup, it was out of date, and this started several stages of rapid-fire grief, which we had to go through before I could land on “acceptance” and start hatching an emergency plan for mid-term rescue .
Bert’s had long been on my list since I read about owners Ali and Ian Paice’s transformation of a former farm into an eco-retreat of linked meadows, woodlands and beach, with playing fields cut into wild meadows, shepherd’s huts and a nourishing kitchen garden restaurant. .
We kayaked around the coast to sea stacks, hoping to catch a glimpse of seals or even dolphins
Driving into Trefor, with views of the Eifel hills to our left, we were held up first by a bus stuck on a precarious ledge, then by a lorry with a trailer. We later found out that the jam was caused by a crew filming a new episode of HBO’s House of Dragons. Will we ever go to Bert? When we finally arrived, all that traffic noise was replaced by birdsong. The children went out to explore the meadows, riverside swings and hidden groves while we unpacked. Our home for the week was a cute converted railway carriage beautifully decorated in muted tones, with soft linen bedding on the small double bed, bunks for the kids, a kitchen and a private outdoor compost toilet (showers are on the main campsite).
Packing a picnic, we went down a track that leads to Bert’s own pebble beach. For another five minutes on the coast there was a glorious and much livelier stretch of sand, where local workers enjoyed their lunch breaks and teenagers got off the end of the small pier despite the warning signs.
While the lost Italian holiday remained a simmering and fresh memory, the weather in north Wales was firm. The ethos of the eco-campsite blew our minds, and the time on the beach was the most popular of all.
Several days were spent taking kayaks (hired from the campsite) around the coast to the sea stacks, hoping to catch a glimpse of seals or even dolphins. Oysters and cormorants floated by as we splashed across calm waters. We also went to the coastal town of Criccieth and the fishing village of Aberdaron.
But mostly we stayed at the campsite, enjoying the idyll created by the Paice family after the escape of the rat race. In 2015 the couple decided to change their lifestyle and four months later they rented their house in Sunbury-on-Thames, south-west London, left their day jobs and most of their possessions and joined their two children across Europe. , North America and Asia. They ended up traveling for three years, had another baby on the way and picked up a campervan in the Alps. This was Bert’s and is now an overflow kitchen on the campsite.
After many years on the road they decided to focus their efforts on starting a business that could give them the good life they wanted. In 2016 they discovered the 17th century Morfa farm on the Llyn peninsula – an area where they regularly holidayed. After a process of elimination and a few head-butts with the planning department, the couple decided to create a campsite with an on-site restaurant. . (We highly recommend the ribeye with chimichurri for two.) A new beachside dining space opens this summer in a converted shipping container, with indoor and outdoor dining.
Ian spent a winter building the restaurant barn and shower cabins, and planted an orchard with cherry, apple and fig trees, and a garden with herbs and produce including artichokes, squash, pumpkins and peas. They also transformed the meadows into a children’s playground.
It wasn’t easy (relationships with some of the locals and the parish council were sometimes strained) but six years later Ali says they feel “at last”. Their workforce is mainly local people and they now hold “festival nights” for the public.
It’s an amazing place, created especially for foodies and families, and by the end of our trip I was completely won over by the ethos of the place. A holiday in the Cinque Terre would have been nice, if it hadn’t been nearly so relaxing, and in the end I felt as if our misfortune had done us a favor.
The tour was provided by Bert’s Kitchen Garden, where the cost of playing the tents is £55 night, and huts for four from £145
