While we are blessed with fantastic mountain biking around our holiday cottage in Llanarmon (Revolution Bike Park, Coed Llandegla, Coed y Brenin, Antur Stiniog and Penmachno are all within a short drive) we had heard really good things about Bike Park Wales.
Unfortunately, Bike Park Wales is in South Wales so it is about 3.5hrs drive from our holiday cottage in Llanarmon. However, it is an easy drive through mid Wales, very scenic… and was well worth the drive.
Bike Park Wales is a dedicated downhill mountain bike centre. So in simple terms, you strap your bike to a trailer, they take you to the top of a big hill, you ride down then repeat until you can ride no more. It is huge fun.
There are so many trails to choose from you can find something to suit all capabilities. We mostly rode the blues but towards the end tried some of the smaller red sections. I don’t think the riding we did was more tricky than the trail centres and routes we normally ride. The main difference we found was that we were knackered by the time we reached the bottom as some of the trails are quite long (the kids favourite was Terry’s Belly and that is about 4.6km long).
Bike Park Wales – riding with kids
I was a little unsure at first about going as my kids were only 9 and 11 at the time but it was an absolute blast. Yes the kids had a couple of off’s but that was early in the riding – I just don’t think they had adjusted their riding style and did not realise how fast they were going. The youngest shot over the top of a berm but survived, thankfully it was a soft landing in some ferns.
The guys working there are great and were really good with the kids and helped them to load up their bikes. One thing to watch out for is that the minimum wheel size they can take on the trailer is 24 inches. It is mentioned on the website but buried away.
Facilities
As you would expect the facilities were great. Lots of space to park and sort the bikes out, a great onsite cafe, bike repairs, shop and a nice big outside seating area.
We will be back
We are already planning our next trip. As soon as we finished riding for the day, the kids were already nagging about organising a return visit. So a big thumbs up to Bike Park Wales – awesome place. Just any chance you could build one in North Wales?