Do you want to find somewhere to stay in Wales (or abroad!) where you get a chance to practice your Welsh? Have you stayed at, or do you know of any, holiday B&Bs/accommodation with hosts that were happy let you practice your Welsh on them? I thought this would be a good place to share those gems!
To start with, a friend of mine Jamie and her Welsh-speaking partner Deian have one room in their farm house that they let out as a B&B on AirBnB (Gorwel farmhouse). It’s on an active dairy cow and sheep farm in Mid-Wales, not far from Cardigan. Jamie is an advanced learner (we met in a Welsh class) but is working for a Welsh-speaking company and Deian is a local farmer who’s been visiting our Welsh class to get us chatting more. They are both very friendly and very happy to speak in Welsh with learners.
You can also search on www.bestofwales.co.uk for properties with Welsh-speaking owners - which is the only actual search tool I know of that offers that…
I have just tweeted Visit Wales to ask if they would add language as a filter on their accommodation database (get me! Tweeting!) Dunno if it’ll get a response, but no harm in asking…
The house next door to me is on AirBnB too https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/14541920?sug=51 and Eira and David (the owners) both speak Welsh, so you can book through Welsh, but they don’t live in the property so for the rest of the duration you’ll have to put up with the odd sgwrs over the fence with me and my mad dog or the other neighbours who also speak Welsh! (or pop round for a panad with me and Lwcus if we’re in! )
Diolch yn fawr Siaron I may give it a try.Ihave been learning Welsh for 2 years and have a cousin who lives in Goesfaen and want to meet up with him again.Only problem is that we have just bought a caravan so may visit sites in that area.Any suggestions?Obviously I would want to practice the language as a priority(originally from Tredegar so learning De Cymru fersiwn) HWYL BOB
I’m not all that familiar with the caravan sites in the area although I do know there is one just the other side of the river near my village - http://riversidecamping.co.uk/ - I don’t know how much Welsh is spoken there (the website doesn’t give a clue), but if it’s local people staffing it then there should be some Welsh to be heard.
For a really friendly B and B, I can happily recommend Cwm Dylluan, Forge, Machynlleth, SY20 8RZ. Reservations are made through booking.com. I was there for just the one night last August. When I told Mrs Hughes that I was learning Welsh, she was very happy to help me out with some conversation.
LOL! How hilarious is THIS?! My family are going home for a wedding in Liverpool in the spring. We usually stay with the fam, but don’t want to get in the way right before the wedding; so, I searched “Airbnb Welsh-speaking hosts” on Google, and it popped me right to SSiW!! Why the heck didn’t I just come here to the best forum on the internet in the first place?! What a !!
We have some self-catering accommodation on the Pembokeshire coast and if anyone wants to come and stay and practice their Cymraeg with me over a dysgled/panad o de (Level 3 SSiW), they’d be very welcome!
However…isn’t it crazy that apart from that best of wales site (that only has full houses/long stays/pretty expensive accommodations), there’s no list of Welsh-speaking places/learner-friendly places to stay?
p.s. @Howard I guess there’s nothing wrong in putting a link to your accommodation here, at least it’s an extra option for anyone visiting Pembrokeshire - that from what I’ve heard is not very Welsh speaking, is it?
I was wondering if it might be possible to find something by doing a search using Welsh, and searching for “lletyau cymraeg”. I found one site listing accommodation where they speak some Welsh at least:https://www.schulze-thulin.de/cy/gwasanaeth/walisisch-in-wales/ (set up by Dr. Britta Schulze-Thulin and hosted in Germany! A da iawn iawn iddi hi!)
Hi Gisella
I’m not sure i should put a link up, but people can contact me direct if they want more details of our 4* seaview accomodation!
Re Sir Benfro, there are more Welsh speakers in the north, in the Gwaun Valley and Preseli Hills which i can see across Fishguard Bay. A few conversation groups around too locally.
To be fair, thinking of generic lists of places where Welsh is spoken like this one there’s also: https://parallel.cymru/siarad/
I’m sure there are way more than these, though and it’s not easy to find them.
Of course I understand it may be quite time-consuming to keep lists updated even more than putting them up. But still…!
@Howard ok, I understand what you mean. But it was/is good to have at least an approximate location. Because Pembrokeshire coast seems quite long!
I’ll probably visit Pembrokeshire myself, sooner or later, and of course right now I might as well send you a message asking for details because we’ve been exchanging a few messages here. But otherwise, I would normally not contact someone directly without even knowing where it is.
I’ve found my first Welsh-practice-friendly accommodation right here in the forum.
And it was easy, quick and worked great!
(in Llandysul, the link is above in this thread. By the way…for a moment I was also wondering who’s @Deborah-SSi? Couldn’t recognize Dee behind that name! ).
Sorry @gisella-albertini. I decided to go back to using my actual name instead of a nickname given to me by people I don’t even know any more but I’d better announce it in the newsletter perhaps.
I’ll put a link to this thread too and perhaps other people that know of good Welsh-speaking places to stay will post here as well.
Well since this thread has popped up again I ought to update a post I made about the Airbnb next door - the owners have moved back in, so it’s no longer an Airbnb.
But while I’m here… worth remembering Llety Arall in Caernarfon is now very much up and running!
I’m a learner and I let 2 of my spare rooms on AirBnB. I’m in Llandudno. I have a double room with en suite which is listed as ‘Ystafell Las @ Jabez’, and a twin room with separate bathroom, listed as ‘Ystafell Werdd @ Jabez’ (Jabez being the name of the house.) I’d be very happy to host other SSiW folk.
Reading from the top down I had the same reaction – Deborah in Llandysul, wait, there’s two in that small town?? And I want to add my recommendation to Dee/Deborah’s B&B to any Welsh learner. It’s been two years since I stayed there, but Dee couldn’t have been more generous with her time to chat with me and to share outings to various Welsh events in the area during my two-week stay. She does work and wouldn’t always have the extra time, but I can guarantee she’ll make your visit more than worthwhile. She’s a delightful person and host, and I can’t say enough good things about my stay with her. If you’ll be anywhere close, do see if you can catch her room when it’s vacant!
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Couldn’t recognize Dee behind that name! 
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but I’d better announce it in the newsletter perhaps.