Everyone has a good holiday disaster story, right? Even seasoned travel journalists.
Ours was a twist on the classic passport fiasco, where we ended up having to spend a two-week trip to sunny Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera sitting on a composting toilet in Wales.
Like all good stories told between friends, this one is a bit of an exaggeration. But after the “passport gate” – once the accusations and threats of divorce subsided – Bert’s Kitchen Garden, the eco-camping site on a five-hectare (12-acre) farm in the Welsh village of Trefor on the Llŷn peninsula, has become a semi-lifesaver for our family of four .
Panic began just 24 hours before we were due to leave; Our six-year-old daughter still noted in her passport that she “looked like a baby.” Yes, he was out of date, and this set off several stages of fast-moving grief before he reached the point of “acceptance” and began drawing up a contingency plan for half-term recovery.
Bert’s has been on my long list ever since I read about owners Ali and Ian Paice’s transformation of a former farm into an ecological retreat of interconnected meadows, woodlands and beach, with mowed fields of wild meadow, shepherd’s huts and a delicious garden restaurant. .
We paddled canoes along the shore to the sea stacks, hoping to catch a glimpse of seals or even dolphins.
As we entered Trefor, with views of the Yr Eifl hills to our left, we were stopped first by a bus stuck on a dangerous bend, and then by a truck with a trailer. We later discovered that this jam was caused by the crew filming the new episode of HBO’s House of Dragons. Will we be able to go to Bert’s? When we finally arrived, all that traffic noise was replaced by bird sounds. While we unpacked, the kids set out to explore the meadows, riverside swings, and secret shelters. Our home for the week was a lovely converted railway carriage, beautifully decorated in muted tones, with soft linen bedding over the small double bed, bunk beds for the children, a kitchen area and a dedicated composting latrine outside (showers are at the main campsite).
We packed up the picnic and headed down the path to Bert’s own pebbly beach. Five minutes further along the shore there was a gorgeous and much livelier slice of sand where local workers were enjoying their lunch breaks and young people were jumping off the end of the small dock despite the warning signs.
The weather remained intact in North Wales as the lost Italian holiday remained a warm and fresh memory. The eco-campground ethos calmed our frantic minds, and time at the beach alleviated many of the lingering blame.
A few days were spent taking canoes (rented from the campsite) along the coast to the sea stacks, hoping to catch a glimpse of seals or even dolphins. Oystercatchers and cormorants whizzed by as we paddled through the clear, calm waters. We also went to the seaside town of Criccieth and the fishing village of Aberdaron.
But mostly we stayed at the campsite and enjoyed the paradise the Paice family had created after escaping the rat race. In 2015 the couple decided to change their lifestyle and four months later they rented their home in Sunbury-on-Thames, south-west London, quit their day jobs and most of their possessions and set off across Europe with their two children. , North America and Asia. They eventually traveled for three years, had another child along the way, and took a caravan in the Alps. They named it Bert and now the campground has an overflow kitchen.
After years on the road, they decided to focus their efforts on building a business that could give them the good life they desired. In 2016 they found the 17th-century Morfa farm on the Llyn peninsula, an area where they regularly holiday. After a process of elimination and several discussions with the planning department, the couple decided to create a campground with an on-site restaurant. . (We highly recommend the ribeye with chimichurri for two.) A new waterfront dining area with indoor and outdoor dining is opening this summer in a converted shipping container.
Ian spent a winter building the restaurant’s barn and shower stalls, and they planted an orchard full of cherry, apple and fig trees and a garden full of herbs and produce such as artichokes, squash, squash and peas. They also turned the meadows into a wild children’s playground.
All is not well – relations with some locals and the church council can be strained at times – but after six years, Ali says they finally feel “like they belong”. The workforce is mostly locals and they now hold regular “festive nights” for the community.
This is a truly wonderful place created especially for foodies and families, and by the end of our trip I was completely convinced of the ethos of the site. A holiday in Cinque Terre would have been nice, if not terribly relaxing, and in the end I felt like our passport mishap had done us a favor.
The trip was provided by Bert’s Kitchen Garden, where tenting costs £55 one night and four-person cottages from £145