Hotels in Powys

Powys is the big, quiet middle of Wales — hills, market towns, long river valleys and the Brecon Beacons in the south. There are 45 hotels published on BritStays across the region, and they range from old coaching inns on the high street to country houses set back behind their own gates. This guide should help you work out which sort suits your trip, and what to sort out before you book.

Countryside rather than coast

It is worth saying plainly: Powys is inland. If you want to wake up to the sea, you will be booking somewhere else and driving in for the day. What you get instead is upland walking, castles, dark skies and very little traffic once you turn off the main roads. The nearest seaside day out from the western side of the region is Aberystwyth, where there is an amusement park if you are travelling with children who need a change from hill walks.

Because of that, choosing an area is mostly about which landscape you want on your doorstep, and which direction you will be driving each morning.

Choosing a base

• Brecon and the south — the obvious choice for the Brecon Beacons. Several hotels cluster here, including the Castle Hotel, The Wellington Hotel and The Three Cocks Coaching Inn, so you can stay in or near the town and walk out to eat rather than driving after a long day on the hills.
• Mid Powys — Llandrindod Wells is a Victorian spa town and a sensible middle point if you want to roam. The Metropole Hotel sits here, and Rhayader Castle and Abbey Cwmhir Museum are within reach of this part of the county.
• The north — Montgomery, with The Dragon Hotel, and Llanfechain, with Bodynfoel Hall, put you near Powis Castle, Dolforwyn Castle, the Clive Museum and The Robert Owen Museum. Maesmawr Hall Hotel also sits in this broad northern band.
• The borders — the New Inn at Oswestry is handy if you are combining Wales with Shropshire attractions such as Ditherington Flax Mill or the Battle of Shrewsbury Exhibition.

What the example stays tell you

Look down the list and a pattern appears. A lot of Powys hotels are old inns — the Crown Inn, The Unicorn, the New Inn — which usually means a bar, a dining room, a handful of rooms upstairs and a position right in the middle of a town. They suit couples and walkers who value a short stagger back to bed over a swimming pool.

The second group is country houses and larger hotels: Peterstone Court, Bodynfoel Hall, Maesmawr Hall Hotel, the Hampton Hotel, The Montpellier Hotel and The Metropole Hotel. These tend to have more rooms, more parking and more space indoors, which matters in a region where the weather can close in. There is also Cefn Lea Christian Conference Centre, which is a reminder that group and activity accommodation exists here too, if you are booking for more than one family.

Facilities are listed unevenly. The Unicorn, Peterstone Court, the New Inn and Maesmawr Hall Hotel all show WiFi, and Peterstone Court also shows disabled access. If a feature matters to you — step-free rooms, a ground-floor bedroom, a lift, a reliable signal for work — treat the listing as a starting point and ring the hotel to confirm before you pay.

Families, couples and dog owners

Couples have the easiest time: a coaching inn with a decent kitchen, one castle and one hill a day. Families do better in the larger country hotels where there is room to spread out, and where a rainy afternoon can be spent on the Clive Museum, Abbey Cwmhir Museum or the Black & White House Museum over the border in Herefordshire.

Dog owners should ask directly. None of the Powys hotel listings here flags a pet policy, and policies vary enormously between a small inn and a country house — some allow dogs in certain rooms only, some charge, some say no. Phone first, and ask about the bar and dining room as well as the bedroom.

Getting out from your base

The Brecon Beacons dominate the south, but do not overlook the quieter open ground at The Begwns, or the smaller sites such as Llanthomas Castle Mound and Dolforwyn Castle, which reward a short detour. Powis Castle is the big set-piece in the north. Further afield, Lampeter Museum sits west in Ceredigion if you are driving towards the coast.

When to book

Powys hotels are small. A twenty-room country house fills quickly, and a village inn with six rooms can be gone months ahead. Book summer weekends, bank holidays and half terms as early as you can settle on dates. For walking trips in spring and autumn, six to eight weeks is usually enough. Midweek in winter is the one time you can be casual about it, though check that the restaurant is open — in rural Powys, closed kitchens in the quiet months are common, and the alternative may be a drive.

Whenever you book, ask about parking, arrival times if you are coming late off the hills, and whether breakfast is included. Those three questions save more trouble than anything else.