Travel Advent Calendar – A Rural Retreat for Christmas

As part of the #traveladventcalendar I am taking this opportunity to tell you about a lovely Christmas we had in the middle of nowhere a few years ago!

Welcome to Pencaer, Pembrokeshire!

The year that we got married had been busy so at Christmas we decided on a rural retreat, just the two of us. It was the first time I had ever not spent Christmas with my parents!! To this day I have only had 2 Christmases away from my parents! So how did it go and would I recommend it? Let me tell you about our trip!

Stunning coastal scenery

We headed to the wild Pembrokeshire coast and stayed in a gorgeous cottage miles from anywhere – in fact on Christmas day we had to walk up a hill along the coast to get phone reception to phone our parents to send our best wishes! We were tempted to go to midnight mass in the village church, but even that was a few more miles of walking than we wanted – especially in the pitch black snowy countryside and having to walk past what looked (even in daylight hours) like a very eerie empty house!

Meet the neighbours

I love going somewhere that is remote and Yr Hafan certainly was remote, and with un-broken views to the sea! We were the only ones staying there across Christmas, even the owners were away visiting family – so the nearest neighbours were the cows and sheep in the nearby fields! Easy going company – their grass chomping was deafening!!

I am quite particular when choosing self-catering accommodation as I want it to be better than home and to come with all the perks of a hotel. The cottage came recommended by two friends, not only for its location and for fitting that bill, but also because the bath was apparently so good that we would want to buy one for our own house! Correct, we do! There was just one warning that came from our friends – that we should take a bottle opener, and accidentally one of them had got so at home that they had accidentally taken it with them on their stay! Fortunately the owners had replaced it, but we did take our own to avoid a dire situation!

A gorgeous Christmas abode

Mr P did all the planning for this trip – which included a wine-tasting trip to Majestic and what looked like purchasing half of the Christmas supplies of Waitrose! Fortunately the cottage we stayed in had an enormous fridge, that we filled! Had we been snowed in, we probably could have survived for weeks on end – always good to be prepared! We ordered our Christmas Day joint of beef from a local butchers in the area and picked this up en route – I love being able to buy local! But I am glad we took most of our provisions with us, as we didn’t come across many food shops at all! However, despite being in the middle of nowhere, a few miles down the road is what I believe to be a restaurant with a Michelin starred chef – this was a nice treat on one of the evenings (walking distance if you take a torch).

All that is missing from this festive shot is a glass of fizz!

Being away from home at Christmas, I was worried about how to make the place festive! Fortunately the house came with a little Christmas tree, but my parents were ahead of the game and gave us a gorgeous tree from the White Company that took pride of place (and still does at home for Christmas)!

So cold there is snow on the beach!

A good country-side getaway in the UK, especially in the winter, is very much made by the weather! Luck was on our side! Heavy snow in mid-December was thankfully cleared from the roads before we needed to travel, but left a gorgeous scene. And after the snow there were days and days of blue skies, and no rain. What we wanted from this break was to put on our walking boots every day and go for bracing walks along the coast – we couldn’t have hoped for more beautiful weather to do that in! The coastal paths were empty of other walkers, in fact the only time we saw others was when we needed them! Our car was parked in an icy car-park and we needed a push to get out!

Stunning coastline

It was lovely to have this getaway but fantastic as it was, Christmas for us is about spending time with both our families. So I would absolutely recommend finding a rural retreat, but what I would suggest is seeking out somewhere similar, but larger, so that it is possible to go away with the whole family to celebrate Christmas. It is lovely to leave home behind and be somewhere that you only have what you need!

As for where we actually went – well, I would love to go back in the summer! Being so remote I imagine even in the school holidays it is still peaceful and unspoilt!

Follow through the other days of advent