Last summer, on an extremely short holiday in Wales, we found ourselves confronted with a last-minute decision to find accommodation. As we had spent the day driving across Anglesey, through Snowdonia, and across the Vale of Clwyd, we were faced with the depressing prospect of finding a place to spend the night on the northeast Welsh coast. As we had neither a caravan nor a carload of screaming children, and our idea of an evening meal was a bit more than strolling through a noisy arcade munching on battered sausage rolls, we forewent the possibilities in Prestatyn and Rhyl; and by the time we got to Fflint we had pretty much lost the will to live. Realising the charming parts of Wales were miles behind us we crossed the border back into England, shattering my hopes of gaining a rudimentary fluency in Welsh through another day of reading the bilingual road signs. Before we knew it we were in Chester. As it was the late afternoon of a long day and we were dying to park the car and stretch our legs, we decided to see what this historic city had to offer in the way of accommodation. | ![]() |