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
“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
A few months ago we had a telephone call from Alan Edwards, a return customer, enquiring to book accommodation and redeem with a voucher he won as a prize in 1975. It developed into a family reunion weekend. Justin Baird-Murray is pictured below, delighted to redeem the voucher 35 years later with Alan Edwards.
What a success!
What a great time was had by all – and in no small measure to the excellent service provided by you and your staff.
From the point of arrival for Jill and I on Saturday until the farewell to family members late on Sunday morning we all had a great time. Your excellent staff and super facilities provided us with just the sort of accommodation we needed for our get together – it suited the 5year olds and the 85 year old.
My cousin Anne produced a family tree for those present going back to 1354 with Brecon and St.Harmon being prominent but a third cousin from Swansea whom none of us had previously met produced evidence of ancestors from 300 A.D. – frightening!!
Would you please pass on my thanks to Justin and his fellow directors for accepting the very cheeky request to honour the voucher for the weekend break that I won in 1975! I am even more pleased that he re-presented the prize so that my wife and I can celebrate our 100th birthdays at The Metropole in another 35 years time !!
Now that would be a story wouldn’t it?
Yous sincerely
Alan Edwards
Congratulations to Sporting Bears Motor Club for a successful fund raising event in September 2010. Established 1989, the “Bears” are all classic and sports car enthusiasts and always make a fantastic effort raising money for various children charities wherever they visit. The Metropole Hotel are honoured to host this year’s classic car run in Mid Wales which featured some spectacular scenic routes.
As a navigator, I was lucky enough to join them during the second day on the Devil’s Staircase run leading to Llyn Brianne reservoir and motoring on to National Trust Dolcauthi Gold Mines for a chunky cut of Bara Brith and cup of tea before trying out my luck panning for gold. Dolcauthi Gold Mines has some varied history as far back as the Roman era. There is historic information to read and also the possibility to experience the thrill of an underground mine tour but time was short and the thrills were reserved for the road as co-driver to a Mark II Jaguar in the competent hands of Paul Bonsall.
Chris Glasbey says,
“With thanks to everyone for making this tour such a great success. The report and how much we raised for the three Children’s Hospices: Hope House, CHAS and The Shooting Star will be in “Bear Facts” magazine. Thanks to the support of Racemettle & Racetorations and allowing for Gift Aid, the tour will have raised a total in the region of £9,000.00″
We are delighted to announce the launch of our new design website. Working closely with local business designer Carl Jones Design has brought our website up to date reflecting the high standard The Metropole represents as a Mid Wales Hotel offering Spa facilities, award winning dining and other hotel facilities.
We have listened to feedback from regular guests and finally have translation icons at the top right of the web page for the national Welsh language and also Dutch and German for our regular overseas visitors looking for hotel breaks in Wales. To keep up to date with current local events, we will feature local offers, promotions and any interesting activities in Mid Wales. There are more gallery pictures displayed to show off more of the hotel’s facilities and local attractions. Interesting articles will be displayed on our blog page with also a link to our Twitter site. Our telephone number and contact form features on every page to make it easier for you to contact us. We use Feefo as an independent customer feedback service from genuine guests that have used our facilities. We felt this was an important step to give our customers a chance to give us impartial advice which other customers can trust. In the media, there has been a lot of press about third party review sites allowing posted reviews which have not been validated for their authenticity.
We really value your opinion; you can do this easily via the contact form and you may wish to sign up to receive our stylish newsletters too. Specify your interests and we will make sure those ideal special offers and promotions get to you!
