Facilities at Llandegla MTB cente
I met Steve on Saturday and went for a mountain bike ride at Llandegla in North Wales. This was my second time around the trail. We took it relatively easy and had a good time albeit with one or two sketchy moments and a crash for Steve. (Follow link above for full report).
Afterwards we went into the visitor centre, had a browse around the bike shop and then settled down for a bacon and egg bap, some carrot cake and hot chocolate. According to the bumpf, the bacon baps have been voted the best in Britain and they were certainly nice so (seeing as I haven’t tried every bacon bap in Britain) I won’t argue with this.
I still think the centre is missing quite a bit though. First of all, there are no showers which means you have to drive home wet, muddy and smelly after a hard ride around the trails. Not the end of the world, but it would be nice of there were a few more facilities.
Secondly, we drive past Llandegla now and then, and now that I’ve tasted the bacon baps it would make an ideal place for us to stop off on our journey. However, this won’t be happening because in order to do so we would have to pay to park. I know they have to make some money and with the centre being aimed at mountain-bikers many of them wouldn’t spend any money there if it was free to park, but the parking charge would put us off visiting it as a family for a quick stop and a snack.
There also isn’t much there for children. It would be nice if they had a little playground. There are of course plenty of waymarked forest walks and if you’re going for the day then the parking charge is fine as the mountain-bike trails make it worth the cost although a few extra facilities would be nice
For passing trade a short-stay (free) car park and a playground would make it an ideal stopping off point for many people and would no doubt increase business in the cafe, esepecially seeing as they serve the best bacon baps in the Britain!.
