Garwnant Visitor Centre - Merthyr Tydfil

Barbara W.

We visited Garwnant Forest in Bannau Brycheiniog for a lovely walk on a very cold and frosty day. It was very enjoyable and we easily reached our 10,000 step mark. Some lovely views. We then had a very filling meal in the cafe. Good value.

Rhi B.

A really pleasant centre, at the centre point for some wonderful walks. Plenty of parking and clean toilets. There’s even a park for the children to play in, which was handy for keeping the little ones entertained while waiting for friends to arrive before our walk.

laura D.

Lovely woodland walk, with streams and small waterfalls. A lovely park for the kids and a really nice cafe with views over the reservoir below.

david H.

Great woodland centred location with an information centre, nice cafe, and playground. Lots of parking available too at a decent £5 for the day parking. There are numerous way marked walks starting from here, and it is a very family orientated, modern, well run place. Very classy fair play!

nicola W.

Beautiful place to visit. Lots of outside space to roam before heading back to the cafe for a coffee and a cake. A must if passing through the Brecon Beacons.

Sian Y.

Fabulous place to visit as a family, on your own in a group, whatever. You can hike, ride/hire a bike, stay in a chalet, walk by beautiful streams/rivers, waterfalls, etc. Dog friendly in the restaurant/cafe where they sell lots to nibble and drink which includes doggy treats.

David P.

Parked here to do the walk around the reservoir.
Need to go on a road ti start but not too busy. Approx 6k walk some parts muddy and a bit rough going if you follow the track right next to the water.
Only saw a couple of fishermen the whole way.

Would be usefull too have some EV chargers in the main carpark.

Samantha Z.

We visited here two weeks ago as we were staying at the new forest holidays cabins on this site. The walks in the area are very beautiful and there are several routes that are also pushchair/wheelchair accessible while some are a bit challenging. The sculpture trail was especially lovely as it goes through some nice routes where you can see all of the mini waterfalls that have been naturally carved into the hills. I'm not sure why though, but in the valley area, you can see so many areas of woodland that have been cut down leaving just mud for the wildlife. See photos. Really not sure why so many trees have been destroyed in the area. Maybe for toilet paper.
However the visitor centre itself could do with some work. While the staff were very friendly, the food was just awful. We had driven 4 hours to get here so we were starving on arrival and ordered a couple sandwiches. Firstly, 2 small (carton) milkshakes, 2 pieces of toast, 2 sandwiches, 2 coffees and a bowl of chips cost me £30. In comparison at my local pub I recently got 2 pints, a huge milkshake, a Fruit-shoot, chips and a pizza for £30. But you are paying for quality right? Wrong. I got myself a VLT (vegan take on a bacon, lettuce, tomato) as there were only a couple veggie options. What I got was some frozen vegan bites between two pieces of bread. No tomato, no lettuce and some weird pretend chicken thing instead of pretend bacon. Not even any butter or anything to stop the bread being dry. Confused? Me too. That student sandwich also cost me £7.50.
In hindsight, I should have complained and asked for something else. I should have just had chips with the kids as they are just heated up so you can't go wrong. But I shovelled it anyway and had a walk until our cabin was ready.
It should also be noted that the cabins are really far from the visitor centre. Which is fine if you like walking but not fun when you have small children 😀 So take a pushchair if you need to walk that. There is still a lot of work being down on the forest holidays bit so it's a bit like a building site in places and really muddy with builders in parked vans everywhere. They clearly raced to open it. Also if you are coming from the cabins by car and want to go to the visitor centre, you have to drive a long way round to the bottom of the hill and back up which is quite long. Just something to note. Overall lovely place but the visitors centre needs some work.