Y Dowlod, TRAWSFYNYDD

Rated 3/50 by MrsDVernon on 23rd September 2018

"Y Dowlod is a beautifully appointed cottage in the beautiful Snowdonia National Park. Rhys and Gwyneth were friendly and helpful. The cottage itself was spotless, had a very well equipped kitchen, excellent WI-Fi and TV reception. It is extremely well insulated and very warm. As per review left by a couple from Toronto back in Sept 2017 (I wished we had read it before booking the cottage...) there was one major let down (and few small other let downs too) that actually caused us to cut our 2 week holiday short by a whole week. My husband and I had to go back home due to my back becoming so painful and I could not take another night on the mattress which had clearly not been replaced despite the previous review. I endured the worse mattress ever (which was very hard and lumpy) for 5 nights after which I couldn't take anymore. I was actually reduced to tears after the 5th night as I was so shot to bits and in pain. Please, please replace the mattress as a matter of urgency and it needs to be a very decent one - we booked to stay for 2 weeks which you need to be sure you'll have a good night sleep. Thank you. (A tip if I may, please test the mattress yourselves overnight). The other let downs were: 1) The shower which took a good 5 mins or so to start getting warm which wasted a ton of water and because the pump was weak it took ages to pump the water out and get all the soap off. You mention in your guidebook that could we please save water by not having a bath but have a shower instead..... it would have been better to have installed just a shower with a booster pump. Just annoying. Oh the shaver point did not work nor the mirror light. 2) The low lighting in the main room i.e. the living area was far too low which made reading very hard, we had to move the angle poise around to give us better lighting. As the cottage has very small windows there was not much natural light coming in. Perhaps you could install a lamp for the table in the lounge area for better reading? 3) The leather sofa was fine but gosh we kept sliding off! And we kept having to push the bottom cushion up due to them sliding down so easily. The small foot stool at least helped us to stay on the sofa. Perhaps a fabric sofa will be better. Please lose the rug as we had to move it away due to it being dangerous - we slipped couple of times. All the negatives are so easily fixable and would make this review 5 star if fixed but currently we would rate it 2 for comfort, 4 for everything else hence the average rating of 3. The one thing none of us had any influence was the atrocious weather we had! Three storms in a week which kept us indoors going rather stir crazy! Thank you. Reason not to recommend is the bed mattress, sorry."

Rated 4/50 by Beavertail65 on 24th September 2017

"Y Dowlod is lovely. The area is staggeringly beautiful. Many things combine to create a great cottage rental but two items almost blow the whole thing. Here's what's good: Rhys and Gwyneth, the owners - friendly and helpful. The cottage itself - well designed, beautifully old and spotlessly clean. The kitchen - excellent and big. Comfy couch, great TV with perfect reception and good WiFi. Very well-insulated and toasty warm. Lovely bedroom and bathroom but .... Here's what's bad: To be fair, I think it's easy for an owner of a well-booked cottage to lose track of just how awful the mattress can be. And this one is a peach - it's the worst mattress that I've ever slept on, possibly in 70 years and needs to be changed TODAY - NOW - period. It was an El Cheapo, it's thin, it's old and both of us felt the springs a lot. The bed needs a good 600 GBP online oomfy mattress from Dream or Emma or .. perhaps even better?? And (sorry guys) it needs to be changed every few years. We positively dreaded going to bed, honestly. We dug out the (2 inch thick) "mattress" from the fold-out couch and lay it ON TOP of the bed mattress and, thank heaven, it helped. It's a 1st class cottage and needs a 1st class bed to sleep on. Otherwise, we were going to buy a foam mattress pad in order to salvage our vacation. The other problem, you ask ?? Gwyneth apologised, in advance, for the low water pressure of the shower. Sadly, we came to dread IT, as well. Rhys and Gwyneth are very green and have installed all kinds of really neat systems for saving hydro and water, etc. The bathroom has a large, nice tub but their guidebook gently asks you to save water and take a shower. We agree but the shower feels like a kid pouring water from their little watering can, down your back. It takes 15 minutes of being "sprinkled" to get the soap off and wastes a TON of water. As the water comes from a well and is on a pump, I don't know if a bigger pump is required or just a 150 GBP "power shower" would do it. In any case, it was really annoying. We gave this place 4 stars because it is a fantastic cottage in a heavenly locale but I would not recommend it until a nice, new mattress was in place. The shower issue is simply a (real) inconvenience but, at least, was not responsible for both of us returning home with sore backs."

Rated 5/50 by RSyal on 29th March 2016

"My spouse and I went to North Wales for some walking and stayed here for the standard week. The location was excellent and was easy reach to all the areas we wanted to walk and close distance to Snowdon. It did require an early morning start. The standard of the cottage is very high and has been very well kept. The owners are welcoming and helpful. The added bonus was the that the cottages are environmentally friendly and efficient - and the best part we did not notice."

Rated 5/50 by Kimberly C on 27th October 2015

"Lovely, clean and well renovated cottages. On arrival the cottage was exactly how it looked in the images. The cottage was nice and warm from the underfloor heating and Rhys and Gwyneth had left us some welsh cakes for when we arrived. Great facilities and great location for the different places we wanted to visit. We would definitely book again."

Rated 5/50 by A FlipKey Verified Reviewer on 8th August 2014

"Perfectly situated to explore Snowdonia and north Wales. If you enjoy the outdoors, walking, cycling, etc. then this is an ideal location. The accommodation is comfortable and clean. The owners were friendly and helpful. Thank you."

Rated 5/50 by JillG680 on 6th August 2012

"I can only recommend the Hayloft at Gelli Goch. We stayed three nights and found the owners to be friendly and helpful. The Hayloft was delightful, clean and had everything we could have wanted for a relaxing break. It is in a great location close to Snowdonia and Anglesey"

Rated 5/50 by A FlipKey Verified Reviewer on 31st October 2011

"We had a wonderful relaxing week,really good location for visiting the surrounding area.The property is first class,providing all the home comforts you could possibly need."

Rated 5/50 by Cmoncymru on 20th September 2011

"Excellent,well looked after property,exactly what we needed on hand,even down to a loaf of Bara brith waiting for us when we entered the premises,lovely and warm after a day hiking the mountains and all modcons. The owner Gwyneth was coping well on her own with 3 children in tow and was readily available if we had any queries about where to walk,restaurants,pubs and even a slate outlet (many thanks to Gwyn,the owner who was very welcoming)"

Rated 5/50 by A FlipKey Verified Reviewer on 11th November 2010

"See above. I do not intend doing it again. This happened last year as well when we stayed in a Sykes cottage."

Rated 4/50 by A FlipKey Verified Reviewer on 5th November 2010

"Lovely accomodation in an excellent location for walking and exploring by car. Mine hosts were very helpful and friendly."

Rated 5/50 by A FlipKey Verified Reviewer on 14th September 2010

"as we only needed i bedroom,we were very pleasantly surprised by the spacious accommodation on offer. Standard of fixtures was very high. Bedding ,towels,etc etc. We had all that was needed to make our stay extremely comfortable,and a lot of thought had been put into meeting our every need. Lovely friendly couple Rhys and Gwynth."