The Welsh retreat that will boost your bottom line

FIELD TIPS 

When did you last consider selling a rural retreat? In the last five years, alternative accommodation has flourished. Where once you may have been booking a hotel or spa break, now it could be a few days in a shepherd’s hut, woodland cabin, treehouse, eco-pod or group glamping trip. Perhaps in part due to the pandemic, breaks where individuals, couples or groups of friends can venture off-grid and unwind with a few basic comforts are becoming increasingly popular. 

Adventure Tours UK’s three-day Wild Wellness Retreat has all the ingredients for a fun and restorative long weekend. I was drawn to it for the location, cosy tents, yoga classes, opportunity to go foraging and the company’s approach to sustainability. The creamy, unhomogenised milk in our kitchen cool boxes comes from a local cow-with-calf dairy that name-checks its cows – Sycamore, Gretal, Gladys and Bramble – on the bottle. Our activity guides and instructors are from local, independent businesses, while Adventure Tours partners with carbon consultancy ecollective to measure its carbon footprint.

Dotted around the field of our glamping site are several bell tents, each with a wood-burning stove, outside deck and adjacent wood-built “camp kitchen” (handy for the morning cuppa). Composting loos with proper seats are housed in individual horse box-style sheds and guests share a well-kept wood-built bathroom with solar-powered showers and LED lights. As I am travelling by train, the clincher for me is the cosy double futon bed with linen. Not only do we wake up in rural Wales under cosy quilts, but we are cooed to sleep by barn owls.

Four of us, including Travel Counsellor Katie May, are solo travellers. Bristolian Teresa is travelling with her Canadian friend, Daria. The first evening we hang out in the lounge-cum-dining cabin, meet our Adventure Tours UK hosts, Sarah and Harriet, and get to know one another over the first of several delicious meals. 

Menus and daily activities are chalked on a blackboard, and that night chef Eleri makes a seasonal veg and chickpea stew with silky sweet potato, spring onion and ginger dumplings served with warm rosemary focaccia. This is followed by raspberry Bakewell tart… and the next morning by banana, oat and blueberry pancakes served with yoghurt and toasted pecans.

After dinner we walk up a small hill to the “fire circle”, a fire pit on the site of an Iron Age hill fort, where storyteller Tim brings local legends to life around the flickering flames. I struggle to recall the last time I listened to a bedtime story – it feels wonderfully indulgent.

ADDING VALUE

Travel Counsellor Katie says while UK breaks like our Wild Wellness weekend may be lower in terms of value (but not necessarily, if you can get a group together), they offer an opportunity to add value to client-agent relationships.

“During the various stages of lockdown, agents really diversified,” she says. “Since travel rebooted, many have stepped away from UK product in favour of more traditional international destinations. Clients who book their summer and winter holidays with us are taking these smaller breaks in between, and by reminding them that we can book it we can earn a little additional revenue while getting to know our clients better.”

Claire Copeman is the co-founder of Adventure Tours UK and she is keen to work with the trade. “Agents have such a good relationship with their customers, and this makes them perfectly suited to selling adventure travel to clients who are maybe looking for something different, and where the needs and abilities of a client might need to be aligned with the nature of the tour.”

CAMPFIRE COOKOUT

Foraging, on day two, is a highlight. Under the guidance of expert forager Sue-Marie, we learn about the edible and medicinal properties of meadowsweet, comfrey, ribwort plantain, silverweed, dandelion, yarrow and burdock. We collect hazelnuts (great toasted over a fire), mint, damsons, lemon balm, sorrel, nettles, yarrow, hawthorn berries, blackberries, apples and elderberries – “poisonous until cooked” warns our expert.

Back at the camp Sue-Marie steeps a delicate hedgerow tea with the lemon balm, mint and nettles (it can also be served cold, with prosecco) and we roll up our sleeves to make a delicious blackberry balsamic glaze. Later, we wedge feathery yarrow leaves into Hasselback potatoes at the camp-fire cookout, where we cook foraged roasted veg (plucked from an on-site garden), fish and potatoes, using skillets over a Dutch oven. We dribble the glaze over an Eton mess, made with our foraged fruit.

“The point is to show you that you don’t need to go and buy lots of things when you’re camping,” explains retreat host Sarah.

On the final day, towards the end of our second yoga class, I fall asleep on the grass. Instructor Kirsty takes it as a compliment. Chilled, educational and fun, the weekend is a resounding success for all.

Katie offers a final tip. “Did your clients really enjoy the foraging and campfire cookout? Why not build a cookery experience into their next overseas holiday? Paddleboarding was their thing? Why not try it in Croatia! These insights are what differentiate us from our online competitors and keep our clients coming back for more.”

Book it: Adventure Tours UK offers the four-night Wild Wellness Retreat, departing 19 May 2023, from £630pp, including three nights’ glamping accommodation, daily yoga, stand-up paddleboarding, foraging and all meals. adventuretoursuk.com