Vale View Glamping

Vale View Glamping is a small cluster of pods and cabins on a working farm at Llanbedr, in the hills a few minutes east of Ruthin in the Vale of Clwyd. Each unit has its own hot tub and shower room, some have a sauna, and the draw is the view: open sheep fields dropping away in front and very little else in sight.

Dogs are welcome and the setting is what makes it work for them. There is open ground to run on, no road anywhere near, and guests travelling with dogs describe letting them off the lead around the site and being greeted on arrival by the owners and their own dogs. That last part cuts both ways, and it is the single most important thing to know before booking: this is a farm with resident dogs that roam the site. Most guests find them friendly company and say so warmly, but there is also feedback describing a dog that kept coming back after guests asked for it to be moved, which left them on edge for the stay. A nervous or reactive dog of your own may not enjoy the arrangement, and it is worth raising with the owners in advance.

The other caveats are about the pods rather than the dogs. Cleaning is inconsistent, and the hot tubs in particular have been described more than once as having a film of scum on them before use. Insects are a fact of a rural site in warm weather, spiders indoors included. Privacy between the pods and the working farm is more limited than the photographs suggest, cooking runs on a microwave, an air fryer and an outdoor barbecue rather than a hob, and in cold weather the heating and hot water have not always held up. Directions to the site have caused trouble on arrival more than once, so get them confirmed before you set off.

Best suited to a couple with a sociable, unflappable dog who want a hot tub, a big view and dark skies within reach of the Clwydian Range and the north Wales coast, and who will take a working farm as they find it.