Ammanford, Great Britain
Ready to go
Member since
2024| Exchange dates | Duration |
|---|---|
| May 20, 2024 - October 13, 2024 | 2 weeks |
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Happy to exchange in the UK for short stays (e.g. weekends) or in the UK or Europe for up to 2 weeks. |
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Nice house in an ex-mining town near several areas of outstanding beauty, cities and beaches.
We bought this house in 2022 due to its many quirks. It's a semi detached house that was previously one big house owned by the colliery manager. The split into two houses created some interesting shaped rooms that we love. The house was in a bad state when we bought it and we're slowly getting the house to how we want it. We loved the house for its space and its proximity to our town and countryside. I (Alys) was brought up just round the corner and can't imagine living anywhere else other than Betws.
We have a living room with log burner, piano / sitting room, dining room, kitchen, utility / bathroom, master bedroom with ensuite, double guest, twin guest / mezzanine, nursery, attic - office, large attic room (storage / bedroom in future). We have a large garden - we enjoy sitting under the porch at the front of the house. Our back garden has a vegetable patch, greenhouse and has a stream at the back (not safe for paddling) which we love sitting and listening to.
We have a lot of decorating and work to do on the house but it is at a functional and comfortable state. A lot has happened in our first year and a half of marriage which delayed us getting the house further - namely having a baby!
Our Family
- 2 Adults
- 1 Children
- 0 Exchanges made
Occupation
- Foodbank manager
- Genetic counsellor
Our Home
- House Type: House
- Environment: In a small town
- Bedrooms: 4
- Bathrooms: 3
- Sleeping Capacity: 10
In my house
- Pets - Not allowed
- Small children - Allowed
Exchange Types
- Home exchange
Indoor
- Free internet access
- Central heating
- Fireplace
- Baby equipment
- Toys and games
- Washing machine
- Dishwasher
- Clothes dryer
- Television
- Piano
- Guitar
Outdoor
- Garden
- Garage / private parking
Facilities
- Non-smoking house
Our Destination Wish List
- Edinburgh, UK
- Scotland, UK
- Wales, UK
- England, UK
- San Francisco, CA, USA
- Vancouver, BC, Canada
- France
- Northern Ireland, UK
Spoken Languages
- English
Our Neighbourhood
Nearest Airport: Cardiff (Bristol) - 39miles (61miles)
We live in Betws, a small village on the outskirt of Ammanford. It takes 7 minutes to walk from our house into Ammanford town centre at a leisurely pace. Next door to our house is a lovely walk where you feel in the middle of the countryside within 30 seconds. You may see some horses too. Sitting in the Amman Valley you can see mountains from pretty much anywhere in Ammanford. Ammanford is the third largest town in the county (8,000 residents) and has all the amenities you will need but it is still small town living. Easy traffic, easy to walk across the town and very friendly. We have a few restaurants, Blas being the key one along with a handful of Indians and takeaway places. There is a pizza horsebox takeaway on certain nights of the week. There are many pubs and we love the Poison Apple gin bar in particular. Another favourite is the Coaltown Roastery for a speciality coffee.
We live within easy reach (due to excellent access to the motorway) to Swansea city and it's area of outstanding natural beauty the Gower Peninsula and also easy access to Cardiff city. We also live within easy reach of country towns like Llandeilo and Carmarthen, and are lucky to have the beautiful counties of Pembrokeshire and Cardiganshire nearby for lovely days out.
Below are pictures that show the places we tend to migrate toward on a regular basis.
For those coming from further afield, London and Oxford are about 3hrs away, Cambridge and Brighton 4.5hrs. Edinburgh is about a 7hr journey and there are ferries to Ireland from both South and North Wales.
Other attractions and places worth visiting are:
In Carmarthenshire:
https://cadw.gov.wales/visit/places-to-visit/laugharne-castle - Dylan Thomas' shed where he wrote is here.
https://gwili-railway.co.uk
In Pembrokshire:
https://www.oakwoodthemepark.co.uk
https://www.bluestonewales.com/resort/resort-attractions/blue-lagoon
https://www.folly-farm.co.uk
In Swansea and area:
https://www.showcaves.co.uk
https://www.freedom-leisure.co.uk/centres/lc-swansea/waterpark-at-the-lc-swansea/
https://www.visitwales.com/attraction/beach/langland-bay-beach-1443779
In Cardiff and area:
https://museum.wales/stfagans/
https://museum.wales/cardiff/
https://museum.wales/bigpit/ (Newport)
Occupation
- Foodbank manager
- Genetic counsellor
Children
- Boy - Age: 1
Pets
- We do not have pets.
About Our Family
Hello, I'm Alys. I'm a Welsh woman living in the town I was brought up in and am currently enjoying maternity leave with my first child. My husband is an Irishman who stayed with my parents a while ago and has somehow found himself married to me!
We enjoy visiting new cities, spending time on beaches, exploring foreign supermarkets (mainly me!), cooking and curling up to watch TV. We are very involved in our home church and enjoy visiting churches while travelling. We both love playing piano.
We're looking to spend time together as a new family in an affordable way - so a swap in the UK or driving to France or other nearer countries would be great. We can be very flexible with dates and length of stay - open to weekends, a week-2 week holiday anytime before end of October when I go back to work. In the future, we would love to travel anywhere, but particularly want to go to Vancouver and San Fransisco.
We would also like to establish a swapping relationship with a home in Northern Ireland to visit Paul's family over the years.
This will be our fist house swap as a new family however Alys grew up doing house swaps with Intervac so is very familiar with the set up. Many of Alys' family friends did house swaps from Ammanford - people seem to have enjoyed coming to this area over the years, some returning for re-visits.
