French Fantasy on Welsh Shores

“Had a brilliant stay here, staff were fantastic, good breakfast each morning. Room in the main chateau was large and nice, only problem was the shower is badly designed with no door so the bathroom gets flooded. But generally perfect.”

“This is a delayed review after staying in the hotel in June 2025. The fundamental reason for staying in any hotel is because you need a place to sleep. All the other considerations/benefits are irrelevant if you can’t get a good night’s sleep. The rooms within the lodge fail regarding this fundamental reason. There are many reasons for this failure but here are the primary ones: 1. There are no soft closers on any of the doors, and so there is a constant banging of doors whilst people are moving around. 2. The door closing wouldn’t be such an issue if there was some level of sound proofing between the rooms but there isn’t. I was able to easily listen to a conversation in the room below ours as well as our adjoining room. 3. Our room was Eleri on the top floor in the Lodge, the water system is directly above this room, if anyone in any room in this building has a shower, goes to the toilet, or runs a tap, then the occupants of this room will know it! The sound of the flow of water is surprisingly loud. 4. No air conditioning. I could go on about the poor state of repair etc but these issues pale into insignificance compared to the disturbed night’s sleep. I've been lucky enough to have owned a Grade 2 listed Tudor Thatch property, so I know what to expect from a period property and the effort required to maintain it. This property hasn't had the required effort or money invested into it's maintenance. If you read through the past reviews, you’ll see that that these issues were first raised three years ago. The response from the hotel was that a series of planned work is ongoing to resolve these issues. If a similar response is added to this review without a date for these issues to be resolved, then take it ‘as read’ that no remedial work has been undertaken. You have been warned! The restaurant is good but expensive at £70 per head for three courses, excluding drinks. The gardens have a nice layout but are poorly maintained, the attentiveness of the staff is poor and the time to get drinks during the day is very long. The main hotel, whilst having some nice period features, is a maze of small rooms with a lot of stairs, reflecting the fact that this is a listed building that was originally a private dwelling and so not an ideal room layout for a hotel. All in all, this hotel does nothing to justify the cost of £220 per night, stay somewhere else, where you can get a good night’s sleep. The approach taken by the management to honest but critical reviews like this one, is not to fight it but to add two or three positive reviews immediately afterwards - let's see if they are true to form.”

“We had our wedding at Château Rhianfa in June, and it was truly the most perfect day! The venue is absolutely stunning — it felt like a real-life fairytale. Every detail was flawless, and everything ran so smoothly thanks to Elin, our amazing wedding coordinator. She went above and beyond to make sure the whole day was stress-free and magical. All of our guests commented on how lovely the staff were and how beautiful the venue is. We honestly couldn’t have asked for anything more — it was the most wonderful day, and we’ll treasure it forever.”

“Château Rhianfa is a favourite spot of ours, the setting is absolutely breathtaking with stunning views that never disappoint. We went for afternoon tea, which was okay, but not quite the 10/10 it used to be. The tea itself used to be a lovely loose blend but has now been replaced with a standard tea bag, which felt like a step down. Outdoors, the grounds looked a little left to go wild and could do with more maintenance to really match the beauty of the building and views. That said, the location and atmosphere are still incredible and worth visiting. A bit of a mixed review overall, but the setting really is unforgettable.”

“Recently visited as a wedding guest - drinks prices are ridiculous & kept changing, we paid £21 for 1x lager and 1x white wine spritz and then the next trip to the bar the same order cost £14. 2x glasses of bucksfizz were £21! Absolutely crazy. Staff for the most part seemed inexperienced and moody apart from the two young men that served us and were very helpful in the evening. Grounds aren’t very accessible (just so others are aware, we were able to work around this), if you have a pram, wheelchair or don’t have the best mobility then be prepared for stairs everywhere (steep and narrow too).”