Large Holiday Homes and Group Accommodation in Wales

Wales is the best-value big-house country in Britain. A group can rent a farmhouse in the mountains or a house above a Pembrokeshire beach for noticeably less than the equivalent in Cornwall or the Lake District, and most of it is within three or four hours of London, Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester. What you trade is nightlife: Welsh group trips are about the outdoors, the coast and long evenings in the house.

Our Welsh listings are whole houses let to one group and booked direct with the owner. They sit in North Wales around Eryri (Snowdonia) and the Gwynedd coast, across Mid Wales and Powys, in the Brecon Beacons, in Pembrokeshire and in Monmouthshire on the English border. Each listing shows how many it sleeps and how the bedrooms are arranged, and some take 20 or more.

North Wales and Snowdonia suit an active group. Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) has routes for very different fitness levels, and the slate country around Llanberis and Blaenau Ffestiniog has zip lines, underground adventures and mountain biking. It is also the easiest part of Wales to reach from the North West and the Midlands.

Pembrokeshire is for a coastal group. The Coast Path runs the whole length of the county, the beaches at places such as Barafundle, Whitesands and Freshwater West are among the best in Britain, and coasteering was more or less invented here. St Davids, the smallest city in the UK, is a good day out, and Tenby has the harbour and the pubs.

The Brecon Beacons and Mid Wales are the quiet option: big skies, reservoirs and hill walking, with market towns such as Brecon, Hay-on-Wye and Llandovery for supplies and a pub lunch. They work well for family gatherings and for groups coming from South Wales, Bristol or the West Midlands. Monmouthshire, on the border, puts Abergavenny's food scene and the Wye Valley within reach.

Most Welsh houses need cars or a booked minibus. Trains run to Cardiff, Swansea, the North Wales coast and parts of Pembrokeshire, but rural buses are limited. Plan for rain, which comes in from the Atlantic in every season, and pick a house with enough indoor space for a wet afternoon. May, June and September are the best months for weather and quieter roads; August is the busiest.