This last week we went on our anniversary break and decided to go to Pembrokeshire. I own a Transit and we can do our usual quick conversion of sorts to make it self sufficient. This means we can take our own food, sleep in the van and have a degree of comfort as we travel to wherever the wind blows us. Now I'm well aware that most girls idea of a nice anniversary break isn't a mattress in the back of a white van so this time I booked us 2 nights in a house via Airbnb to break up the trip and allow us to refresh mid way. For the first time we have booked in and left what we thought was the freedom of our mobile lodgings. Yes the comfy bed and shower was going to be nice but we got something else in return for our hard earned cash we would never have got sleeping a week in a van.
Our hosts were based in St David's and had lived there some time. He is in a Ska band and just happened to be playing at the Rugby club and asked us to come along, a fiver to get in. We decided to give it a go and there began our unexpected adventure. We ended up having one of the best nights out we've ever had. Two and a half hours of jumping around to music, mixing with the locals, got given a card and a bottle of wine for our anniversary and recommendations for all the best eating and drinking in town. This got me thinking, for the price of 2 cheap nights we got the hospitality and all of the above, something unforgettable.
I've heard before that it's important to support local economies and be aware of what our spending power can do. I don't think as travelling tourists we owe anybody a living but this trip has taught us both something quite new. We have learnt that these small, local communities will open up their doors and provide a very honest experience. In the future we'll still be using the van but the mix of that freedom and the gains for staying in somebodys house for a couple of nights is a much better option having tried it.
As a by the way, Premier Inn have been given the go ahead to open up in St David's despite the local community campaigning against it. A couple of financial kickbacks seems to have given them a green light and the fear is it will impact the local economy as these businesses will source their goods within the internal supply chain outside the locality. Aside from the fact that these places are soulless boxes of bricks and mortar, it would be a shame to see a giant like that take away the described paragraphs above.
And the climbing around St David's for mere punters is excellent!
