We visit Pembrey Country Park quite regularly, the main reason being that we have three dogs and…read morethey have a section of beach that they are allowed to run on all year long. The park area is good too and the picnic areas are always clean and tidy. One down side is the cost to get in. You can purchase season tickets but we would not use it often enough to warrant buying one. I think that if you are a resident of Carmarthenshire you should be granted a discount of some sort. The facilities are good, toilets and food areas clean and the grounds are well maintained.

This is a great place to visit with a vast area to explore. It is a place of contrasts with the…read moreforestry to explore or the beach to walk along. It is a hugely popular place to visit and is a great tourist attraction for the area. If you like your wildlife there are a wide variety of birds to be seen in the woodland area as well as the odd rabbit or hare. There is also some other attractions like the playground for the kids and a dry ski slope. The beach is great on a nice sunny day. Great for taking the dogs for a walk. There are plenty of parking spaces in the park and are located in various areas. It's also a great place to go caravaning with it's Caravan Club site. Admission fee is a bit steep for regular visitors but you can by a season ticket which is pretty reasonable. Very popular on sunny bank holidays and traffic coming to and from there can be a bit of a nightmare.

What a lovely place! My wife and I take weekly walks around the lake and it feels like we are in…read morethe middle of nowhere. We love it!

Lovely country paths and board walks around a small lake and woodland, and a good basic cafe for…read morehot meals, snacks, tea and coffee. You can eat in or at metal or wooden picnic tables outside. We like their veggie burgers and chips! Always very friendly and good value, and there's a huge car park as well.

This is a delightful place to eat. A Victorian restaurant…read moreand hotel set in lovely grounds and very tastefully decorated throughout. We have not stayed here but have experienced the wonderful menu - whether it's for that special romantic meal or if you fancy spoiling yourself with their excellent cream teas. The staff/owners are incredibly friendly and welcoming and the fare is always top notch. Although the hotel and grounds are delightful I would not really agree with their Country Hotel description as it is situated in a fairly built up area. If you are planning a stay there it may be worth bearing this in mind. The pond area is looking very scruffy at the moment, I assume it is being refurbished but there were no signs of this.

The botanical gardens are just a small part of what makes up the entirety of Singleton Park…read more Singleton Park is an excellent park. It cascades down the hill from Sketty down to Oystermouth Road (basically the sea). It's large, sprawling and esoteric. There's a small stonehenge-y bit near the top by Uplands, there's the botanical gardens which are detailed and intricate, there's massive expanses of pure green grass looking over Swansea Bay, and towards the bottom there is the play area complete with lake, pedal boats and pubs. There are more features that roll along the vast swathes of greenery that I'll leave you to discover yourself. This park has everything really, and bags of personality. Big events are staged here in the summer too - I saw Motorhead here when I was 15, but they also host big dance music events which get very messy (in the way that people who enjoy dance music like). A beautiful place full of surprises. Take a stroll and see which side of Singleton Park you like best.

Yes, a nice place to visit, right next to Swansea University. A very pleasant park and gardens to…read morewalk in and the botanical glass houses are interesting to wander through. I liked seeing the coffee plants best - I drink coffee every day but never knew what the plant looked like! I sometimes go there just to take photos, especially of the tame squirrels - they will take food from your hand if you are patient. Once or twice I've seen robins and chaffinches taking food held out on someone's palm too.

Ah, Clyne Gardens. I lived literally seconds away from here and it's only really now, as a 23 year…read moreold living in London, that I realise how lucky I was to be a stroll away from these glorious gardens. Official blurb: Internationally famous for its surperb collections of Rhododendrons, Pieris and Enkianthus, the gardens offer a haven of tranquility, lush planting and interesting features. Our specialist parks are truly magnificent, blooming with rare species, national collections and famous annual displays. The prestigious parks with green flag status are a sanctuary for people from the hustle and bustle of city life. The gardens are truly spectacular all year round. William Graham Vivian (the dude my gran's street is named after) - the millionaire of Clyne - purchased 'Clyne Castle' in 1860 and lavished time and money on it to reflect his wealth. He sponsored plant collecting expeditions overseas, and many of Clyne's rhododendrons still bear their original collector's numbers. The Admiral's influence can also be seen in the landscaping, which includes a Japanese Bridge, the Admiral's Tower and the Gazebo. The Admiral received many famous visitors at the Castle, including the Price of Wales (later King Edward VIII), Neville Chamberlain, Stanley Baldwin and Adelina Patti. The oak woodland is a remnant of Clyne Forest, an important 11th Century Norman landmark. The tallest recorded Magnolia in Britain 'Magnolia campbellii var. alba' can be found here. Many of the Admiral's hybrids can be seen growing in the gardens. He named some of them after his family; Rh,Graham Vivian, Rh, Dulcie Vivian, Singleton Blue and Clyne Castle. That doesn't make it sound as good as it is. Here are some reasons why it's truly awesome: - it can feel like you're in Jurassic Park - there's a little castle tower in the middle of a clearing so you can go and pretend to be a princess - there are secret gardens - in one of the secret gardens there is a hill and a wall of bamboo. This was an amazing place to play 'devils & angels' and 'throw yourself into the bamboo' An absolutely awesome place to trudge around being a sulky teenager, smoking cigarettes. An absolutely awesome place to appreciate the intricacies and beauty of life in all its splendid forms. A crackerjack of a place to go running. Or do anything that involves moving about.

Well I can't add much to that last review except to agree that it is a lovely, peaceful place to…read morevisit, not far from the town and also close to the coast. Certainly lovely flowers and trees to see all year round.

The Gnoll Country Park is a lovely escape from the hustle and bustle of town. It has something for…read moreeveryone, with peaceful waterside walks around lakes, elaborate restored cascades and then wilder parts with clambering woodland paths plus coarse fishing. There are stunning views from the higher parts of the park and it provides a calm retreat on sunny hot days(when we have them!) when the coast is crowded out. There's a great children's play area next to the visitor centre and cafe, plus lots of entertaining ducks, geese and swans who frequently tread the paths around the visitor's centre.

We've lived in Port Talbot for years and only recently discovered this beautiful park - now the…read morekids love it. There's plenty of parking with easy access to the adventure playground, park, lake and visitor centre and we enjoy walking through the unspoilt woodlands and watching the varied wildlife. The open grassy areas are perfect for picnics and playing ball games.

It's a lovely park very close to where we live, with a large lake and some small ones, where people…read morelike to feed the ducks and swans (and occasional seagulls). Great for walks in the woodland and around the lakes. The cafe is quite good and fairly inexpensive, though not much for vegetarians (why can't cafes keep some veggie burgers in the freezer to offer in addition to all the meat burgers?) Today there was a potato and cheese pie on offer which looked nice, though more choice would be good. The staff weren't particularly friendly, though not actually hostile. They could try to be a bit more welcoming though. On the plus side, it's pleasant on the inside of the building with occasional school exhibits and information about the park, and large windows overlooking the largest lake. There are also a few tables outside.

Over the years the Gnoll Park has changed a lot and when they added the Visitors Centre it was…read morecertainly a change for the better. The centre is situated next to the children's play area and the lake which has a huge variety of ducks, which is always a firm favourite with the children and you can purchase bags of food for them from the shop inside the Visitors Centre. There is a wealth of information on offer for both children and adults and the centre is a firm favourite with my granddaughter (though I suspect that the food and the ducks have a big part to play in this). All in all an excellent day out for everyone and best of all it's free, including the parking.

My family went to the free Mari Lwyd event at Newton House on New Year's Eve, and I truly can't…read morerecommend it enough. Seeing the Mari Lwyd with her glowing eyes and ribbons, clacking her jaws while we sang Welsh carols...it's something special that you won't experience many other places. Newton House is lovely too, and beautifully decorated for Christmas. Well worth the drive from Cardiff or Swansea if you're in the area around the holidays.

A lovely place to visit with beautiful trails to follow through the scenic country parkland. In…read morefact, it's easy to get lost (we did!). There's a herd of fallow deer which we didn't see, though the herd of white cattle were in the fields close to the country house. Inside is a nice tea room and a National Trust shop. Rather expensive (admission was £5 or £6 per person) but a good afternoon out.

A nice park just off the main road through Briton Ferry, with small formal gardens and wild…read morewoodland. There are entrances off the main road and also one at the very end of Ynysmaerdy Road where there is a small free car park. The flower beds are all well looked after and there are lovely shows of flowers throughout most of the year and beautiful mature trees of many species. Much of the park is easily accessible for everyone. Some of the 'natural' woodland paths are a bit uneven and can be muddy. Not far from the Ynysmaerdy entrance is a lovely and colourful children's play area. Well worth a visit, especially to see the flowers and hear the birdsong.