The Tyn-y-Groes Hotel is an old coaching Inn on the A470 North of Dolgellau.
The building is old and has character, but unfortunately that is the end of it's charms. It does have free WiFi (mainly in the bar) which is useful. The double room was a decent size and adequate. The shower was good once you have
waited for several minutes for the water to come through hot. Funnily enough the two
main meals had a problem with heat too: one was just
about warm enough whilst the other was extremely hot presumably due to
inconsistent use of the microwave. The food was edible, but of varying quality. We were on a deal that included a free bottle of wine. When we
tried to pick a bottle of wine we were told it was just the house wine, so we
went with the house red which ended up being Silver Bay Point, an English wine
made from Grape Concentrate. It tasted 'thin'
with little flavour so I studied the label, at 8% it is the weakest wine I can
remember seeing. The price of this wine
in the hotel was £13.95, Tesco sell it by the case for £2.85 a bottle, so now I
understand why it isn't very nice, and with a 489% mark-up I know I'm being
ripped off.
The breakfast seemed to consist of the cheapest available
ingredients, deep-fried wherever possible and served with a pullet egg. The second day I just had bacon and poached
eggs, one egg was hard boiled and the other was quite firm, but I suspect it is
difficult to get the timing right with such small eggs.
The main problem is that the service is variable at best because
the staff seem slow and disinterested.
It is the ONLY hotel I've stayed at in over 30 years that doesn't make up your
room unless you put the little sign on the outside of your hotel room to say
please make up room: no sign, no room maintenance. When the note said if you want your room
servicing put the sign on the door I wrongly presumed this was in addition to
the normal daily service, it wasn't. The hotel is some distance from Dolgellau or anywhere else for that
matter, but the busy A road means that the rooms can be noisy. There is
parking off on the side of the road, but you do need to be careful because the
A470 is a fast road. My advice is avoid, poor value for money. read more