The Metropole Hotel in Llandrindod Wells was the winner of the ‘Mid Wales Tourism Award’ at the Powys Business awards which took place at Theatre Hafren in Newtown, Tuesday 27th September. The judges commended the Metropole for it’s continued investment in both the facilities of the hotel and staff training.
Managing director Justin Baird-Murray who accepted the award on behalf of the staff of the hotel was accompanied by sales and banqueting coordinator Adele Davies. Mr Baird-Murray said:
“Winning the award is a tremendous achievement for the staff and management of the hotel. In the current difficult economic environment I’m delighted that the Metropole continues to prosper and improve the product and services we are providing.”
The Metropole which has been owned by the Baird-Murray family for over 110 years employes 80 people in Llandrindod Wells and has invested over £5 million in the last 8 years. This award is the 2nd prestigious award won by the hotel on recent years having previously won the Wales conference hotel of the year.
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Taking a break from my duties on reception, my family and I recently went on a day trip to Small Breeds Animal Park and Owl Centre at Kington. We had a wonderful day. My five year old son really enjoyed feeding the goats, chickens, horses, donkeys, water fowl and many more animals, especially the alpaca’s who roam freely around the park. There are so many different species of owl at the park, and the information about them is quite fascinating. We were very lucky as the sun was shining, but I noticed that they provide umbrellas if it rains and there are plenty of indoor activities for the children to do such as board rubbing, colouring and quiz’s. There are also animals to see under cover including mice, chipmunks, domestic pet’s and my favourite, chicks and ducklings hatching.
The park is very clean and well maintained, it is easy to get to, parking is free, it is very reasonably priced and the café facilities are lovely. There is a little gift shop where I bought some homemade jam and chutney, and my son got an owl teddy. I would highly recommend visiting Kington Small Breeds Animal Park and Owl Centre Park to anyone, not just families, to all ages as there is something there to cater for everyone. Brilliant day out!
Set in the heart of mid Wales and perched upon the brink of the picturesque river Wye 7 miles south of The Metropole, Wyeside Arts Centre has very friendly welcoming atmosphere with a broad programme of arts and entertainment. During July and August sees the last Harry Potter film, X-Men, Larry Crown, Cowboys and Aliens and more.
Get free tickets when staying on our Summer Attractions Package – Click here
See below summer film programme or visit www.wyeside.co.uk for further info.
29*, 30*, 31* July
- Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
- Cars 2
2*, 3, 4 August
- Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
- Cars 2
5, 6*, 7*, 9, 10, 11 August
- X-Men First Class
- Bridesmaids
12*, 13*, 14* August
16, 17, 18* August
- Zookeeper
- The Tree of Life
19*, 20*, 21*, 23*, 24, 25, 26*, 27*, 28*, 30*, 31 August
- Cowboys & Aliens
- Spy Kids 4
*Donates two showings, afternoon and evening otherwise one showing on evening showing only; with exception 12th August there are 2 showings of Zookeeper and 1 showing of Larry Crowne.
Dates and times subject to change.
For more information ring the Wyeside Box Office 01982 552555
We were due to do a bit of shopping just south of the Brecon Beacons so decided to enjoy the morning honing some new skills in the form of archery at the Black Mountain Activities centre located in the heart of Mid Wales just on the northern doorstep to the Brecon Beacons.
After a picturesque 30 minute drive south from The Metropole Hotel running parallel with the River Wye we arrived at Black Mountains activities 10am to find the car park already busy with people bustling around everywhere enthusiastically preparing for the day. Most of the adults and some children were about to board mini buses to transport to a well known river location for white water rafting. Initially the group were canoeing but due to the heavy rain the night before, the rivers had risen quite high.
We were greeted by friendly staff and taken to a meeting room to complete a brief questionnaire for health and safety. Our instructor was Hayden, who has been working for Black Mountain Activities for nearly 5 years and knows the area very well. We gathered our archery gear from a room resembling Aladdin’s cave, every piece of outdoor safety gear you could imagine which explained how the rafting group boarding the mini buses were so well kitted up.
The archery range was a few minutes from the centre and along the walk you see a brief view of the Black Mountains in the distance. It was quite a breezy day but the archery range was in a very sheltered area cleverly surrounded by trees and wood chippings covering the whole range. There was a shelter to sit in too in case the skies burst open.
Hayden was very helpful in explaining the safety elements and correct use of archery. We progressively learned tips and advice on how to hold the bow and aim and it was great fun shooting the targets from different ranges with our instructor introducing various games throughout the morning plus shooting balloons and bottle (plastic of course!) targets.
Behind us in the distance we could see a group of young men scaling a climbing wall and precariously negotiating a ropes course with various ropes, pulleys and swing elements while shouting “treemen!” before finally hurtling down a zip wire out of sight through the trees into the distance to arrive back at the centre. Everyone we could see at the centre was clearly having a great time.
The Black Mountain Activities centre is an extremely well organised centre with friendly and professional staff. Archery is just the arrow tip of the iceberg and there is a feast of available activities such as kayaking, gorge walking, caving, clay shooting and more. For an activity in Mid Wales I would recommend visiting their website http://www.blackmountain.co.uk/ or give them a call on 01497 847897 to plan a fantastic day out.
During a recent telephone conversation with a guest last month, as part of a return visit to the hotel this year, she wanted to know if they could bring their dog ‘Satin’. While in conversation we talked about food and all the chefs that had worked with us over the years and the variety of food that appears on our menus. They particularly enjoyed treacle pudding and still had the recipe we had sent them 12 years ago. They kindly returned the favour and sent me the recipe back to post below:-
Makes one treacle pudding (24th March 1999)
10 oz Breadcrumbs
1 lb – 1 1/2 lb syrup
1/2 lb treacle
5 eggs
1 grated apple
1 lemon zest and juice
1/2 pint cream
Unfortunately, there was no preparation method provided, hence ‘challenging’ in the title. Good luck to all those keen sticky fingers out there.
22-25 April Dragon Artists and Makers Festival at Brecon Beacons Visitor Centre
22-25 April Easter Egg Hunt at Cantref Adventure Farm
22-25 April Easter Egg-citment at Elan Valley visitor centre
22-24 April Easter Fun at Dolaucothi Gold Mines
source www.visitmidwales.co.uk
Before writing this short article I did a little research. I trawled the internet and blew the dust off my cookery books at home to find the perfect recipe for the ultimate pancake. I was quite surprised how each recipe had varying quantity of ingredients. Flour and eggs had various ratios on the quantities to use varying between 1 to 2 eggs and not always stating the size of the eggs either. The plain sieved flour varied anywhere from 100g to 250g. The egg or eggs are mixed with the flour to produce a varying consistency of glue or a complete doughnut ball. This is where you then add the milk, or milk and water or in some cases cream as well. So there I was standing in the kitchen last night none the wiser and thinking back to my youth and any advice I was given. All I seem to remember being told about, was the final mixture should be a runny consistency to the point where you can make patterns in the mixture before it disappears in a couple of seconds and also being told to use lard to heat pan, not butter. It was at this point I realised what makes the perfect pancake, the experience of making something with a simple few ingredients. It does not matter what the internet, cookery book or celebrity chef tells you how to make it. If you have children, give them a bowl, fork, flour, eggs, milk, water and put an apron on them and let them have a go. Or visit your grandmother and show her there is more than one chef in the family. If it sticks to the pan and comes out on your plate in a lump, have another go. If it disengages into various pieces when tossing it out of the pan, does it matter? No, as long as everyone involved is having a good time, then that is the process of making the perfect pancake, the fun and the memories you get from it.
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“Wondered if you could pass on my gratitude to the relevant department for one of the most relaxing days I’ve had in ages, myself and Jayne have both undergone major ops
and I decided to treat her for Xmas and her birthday (which happen to be one and the same). We had an amazing time in the pool and fantastic meal, we walked round the shops and then back for coffee and more wine. We felt so chilled out – we struggled to leave our comfy seats …..
Amazing and thank you to all involved -
Cheers
Kara”
Feefo is an independent customer feedback website that enables The Metropole Hotel to gain genuine and honest feedback. As a hotel in Wales, website reviews are one of many sources for assessing how good our customer service is. We realise a customer sometimes feels uneasy to give feedback during their stay if something has gone wrong and alternatively use a third party website to post a review and retain anonymity which does not always help us identify where an issue might have occurred and be resolved. If something has gone wrong during a customer stay, we want to know so the issue can be resolved. Some third party review websites can not authenticate every review as a valid customer that stayed at the relevant accommodation provider. Feefo is an independent company which contacts genuine customers and the Metropole Hotel finds this extremely useful. Feefo enables any customer, starting a potential new booking, to initially look at reviews (with no annoying advertisement and pop-up windows) from genuine customers via Feefo as an independent customer feedback system. After departure, the customer is then invited via email to submit a Feefo feedback reply, reviews are posted via the Feefo feedback for Metropole Hotel website immediately and customers and hotel staff can view all reviews which management and the hotel owners can respond quickly to. Feefo has a lot of useful tools for hotel management to help identify any recurring issues, measure honest customer feedback and ultimately improve customer service.
Visit Feefo – Independent Customer Feedback
