The Vale Resort is another of South Wales' stunning resorts and boasts a number of unrivalled facilities. With 36 championship golf holes on offer, any golf fanatic will be at home at The Vale Resort as both courses provide players with both a unique and equally impressive golfing experience.
On top of the golf, the resort is also renowned for its fantastic accommodation, luxurious spa and delightful restaurants, meaning that even the non-golfers among us are able to enjoy a stay at The Vale.
Found just outside of Cardiff, the lavish resort is easily accessible and more than warrants a trip down to South Wales.
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The Vale is among a select few golf resorts in the UK to offer guests two high quality courses. The parkland layouts that encircle the superb four-star resort hotel are a joy to play, giving wonderful variety to every stay.
Stay and play at The Vale and you and your group of golf society will have the chance to tackle what is a genuine tour standard championship course – the Wales National. A par of 73 and a full length of 7,433 yards give insight into the challenge of this monster layout, but that’s by no means the end of the story. The Wales National is superbly conditioned, thanks in part to its USGA specification greens, and its collection of water hazards and acres of sand mean that trouble is never too far away. Long and challenging, yes, but the Wales National is a wonderful treat that every golfer will enjoy.
Course Information
Par
73
Designed by
Peter Johnson
Opened in
2003
Previously hosted
Several European Challenge and Senior's Tour events plus Euro Pro Tour events have taken place on the Wales National Course
Tees
Blue
7,433 yards
SSS 75
White
6,987 yards
SSS 73
Yellow
6,617 yards
SSS 71
Red
5,863 yards
SSS 74
Lake Course
As its name suggests, the Lake Course is dominated by water; in fact, a 20-acre lake comes into play on no less than 8 of its holes, creating plenty of drama and no little challenge. The signature 12th hole and its island green will make nerves jangle and will be a highlight of any round – many a tale to be told in the bar!
Signature Hole: The 12th hole on the Lakes course is the signature hole with an island green, just like the 17th at TPC Sawgrass. The 12th hole is seen as one of the best holes in UK Golf.
Course Information
Par
72
Designed by
Peter Johnson
Opened in
1990
Previously hosted
Wales and West PGA National Championships
Tees
White
6,304 yards
SSS 72
Yellow
5,986 yards
SSS 70
Red
5,754 yards
SSS 74
Accommodation at The Vale Resort
The four star hotel is built on ground that was once part of historic Hensol Castle estate - a 17th century stately home, set in an area of outstanding beauty. In spite of this, the resort itself is only a few minutes from the M4, and offers easy access into Cardiff city centre.
Every aspect of the Resort has been designed to maximise comfort and convenience for every type of golfer. All rooms are air-conditioned, have lavish en-suite facilities and a large number of them afford spectacular views of the golf course and surrounding countryside.
Food & Drink
Good wholesome food is available in the Clubhouse bar or for larger group bookings private dining in La Cucina can be arranged (set menu ) For an alternative dining experience the Vale Grill offers a best of Welsh menu and has recently been awarded an AA rosette.
Leisure Facilities
In addition to the luxurious accommodation, guests are welcome to take advantage of the first-class leisure facilities.
The exceptional leisure facilities available include:- a large-state-of-the-art-gymnasium with the very latest computer-aided fitness equipment, a luxury 20 metre indoor pool, fitness studios (offering a variety of classes including Yoga and Pilates), plus squash and tennis courts, sauna, steam room and whirlpool bath.
For a more indulgent experience, you can visit Wales’ largest spa to take time out, chill and treat mind, body and soul in an atmosphere that stimulates the senses.
Friendly, welcoming and informal is the standard order of the day. A large modern and bright lounge area provides the perfect setting to discuss that "missed putt" or 300 yard drive.
How to get to The Vale Resort
The Vale Resort is located a mere 15-minute drive from Cardiff City Centre, a 20-minute drive from Cardiff International Airport, and just three minutes from Junction 34 off the M4.
Address: Hensol Park, Hensol, Vale Of Glamorgan, Cardiff, CF72 8JY
The Vale Resort Reviews
Overall rating:8.8 / 10
Hotel reviews
9.09 / 10
Bar / Restaurant
8.6 / 10
Facilities
9 / 10
Location
9.4 / 10
Room comfort
9 / 10
Staff
9.2 / 10
Value for money
9 / 10
8 / 10
Nice hotel which is functional and met the requirements of our stay.
8 / 10
The room was lovely and really enjoyed the breakfast but our evening meal was not so good , a lack of choice and quality for the subsidy paid.
8 / 10
Very tidy and clean staff polite.
Disappointed we had to dine in the golf clubhouse we were expecting to be in the main dinning room as in previous years. The impression was they did not want groups of male golfers in the restaurant.
10 / 10
Superb food, lovely rooms
8 / 10
8 / 10
Lovely rooms, one annoying thing was the noise in restaurant.
10 / 10
Very well appointed hotel with excellent facilities
10 / 10
hotel,room,bars,staff all excellent.restaurant and food top notch
8 / 10
As ever the rooms are generous, clean and well equipped.
I did ask for a wake-up call which didn't come.
The food was cooked and served well on the 3 course menu with good choice and breakfast was comprehensive. Staff were attentive but by 8.30pm staff number dropped.
The main complaint was that the larger societies in the restaurant were very noisy, and despite complaining, as it was difficult to hold a conversation, the staff member did not have the command to ask them to quieten down. We did leave a complaint on booking out, and, as expected, the staff said that she would report it to the Duty Manager... all too late.
The staff and food at the Clubhouse were also good.
10 / 10
The three course meal & food were outstanding. Rooms perfect & staff so friendly. Would not hesitate in going back.
8 / 10
10 / 10
10 / 10
Great hotel, food really good and lovely staff very friendly.
10 / 10
This has to be the best kept secret in the UK. The staff were very professional,nothing was too much trouble, the food was well above average quality and excellent value. The only let down was the outdated bar. Spotless room with a view over the lakes course from a balcony. WiFi was intermittent probably due to large outage.room facilities were very good.our third visit and never had a bad one.
8 / 10
hotel and rooms are really comfortable and beautifully located. Bathroom is fully equipped, clean and comfortable as well. When you book an early round of golf in the weekend be advised that breakfast starts later than during the week.
4 / 10
Hotel in general was superb.
Unfortunately the restaurant and bar staff are very unhelpful and on or last night they decided to close the bar at 1015pm. Found that very strange as we hadn’t even finished dinner so drinks were not available at the table.
10 / 10
Our expectations were exceeded, the room was extremely spacious and comfortable.
Our dining experience was really good in the evening. Breakfast was a really nice start to the day. I particularly liked the chef on hand ensuring the food was topped up and freshly cooked were required.
10 / 10
Cannot fault a single thing during our stay at The Vale Resort, extremely happy and a very satisfied customer.
Will be returning again 100%
8 / 10
Hotel was very nice only problem was I booked two twin rooms only got one and one double that was the only let down
10 / 10
Traveled over the Easter weekend, weather was fantastic which definitely help make the long weekend
The hotel is one of the best we’ve been to - room size is very good for people sharing and the decor is fresh and modern
The gym and spa areas are also good, and we didn’t have a problem booking treatments even though the hotel was quite busy and we where a group of 33
Both golf courses are worth playing - the National is a long demanding course, buggy’s required unless your up for a stiff walk
The Lakes course is very picturesque, considerably shorter but still worth playing - plenty of water and elevation changes
All in all we where very impressed with the courses, facilities, food, service and one of the best resort pro shops we’ve encountered
Will definitely be returning !!
8 / 10
Four of us having been going to the Vale for the last 6 years.
So the hotel side was a little disappointing this year. Our booking included a £10 drinks voucher for each of us. The hotel said they knew nothing of this so had to fight to get it.
The two rooms where in the main part of the hotel and where not as good as the ones normally given to golfers.
The dinner menu is now very limited and had to pay extra £5 extra for a steak and another £2.95 if you wanted a sauce.
10 / 10
Had an overnight stay arranged with John Paul. No issues what so ever. Tee times were perfect and all of the details were immediately available to front desk staff at hotel, dinner bookings and room book in were very efficient. Thank you JP and your golf travel!
10 / 10
Superb room, great cooked breakfast, welcoming staff and more than enough bars!
8 / 10
8 / 10
As a resort - it was okay. Perhaps a tad bit on the stale side, there were more couples on romantic weekends than chaps on a golf weekends. Bars are a bit "functional" for my liking. As a comparison, I thought St Pierre resort in Chepstow is a better all-round venue for golfers.
Rooms were pretty decent. The quality of the food was outstanding - far and away the best food we've had on a golf weekend. And probably the best pint of Guinness I've tasted in a long time as well.
Overall score - reasonable. Good value for money. I'd probably return at a warmer time of year.
As an added bonus, it was nice bumping into a few lads from the Welsh Rugby squad who were training at the resort.
10 / 10
Great golfers break, and the deal was exceptional for the price.
10 / 10
Lovely Hotel, good food, great facilities, very clean and tidy. Everything worked as it should. We got lucky and had a room overlooking 9th, 18th greens and 10th hole. We paid extra for the steak and it was worth the £5.00 supplement.
10 / 10
6 / 10
10 / 10
Excellent
10 / 10
good quality & value for money
10 / 10
We have just returned from our
first hosting of a company event at The Vale Resort, organised by Your Golf
Travel. On behalf of Corr Recruitment we would like to extend our sincere
thanks to YGT for a superb weekend which was flawless in every detail...apart
from our golf of course! From the pre-event organising, arrival welcome and all
the way through to the final 19th hole cold beverage on the last day,
the weekend went very smoothly and the service at The Vale was superb
throughout.
A particular mention to the clubhouse Bar Manager Ann, who looked after us all weekend
and was impeccable with her customer service.
There was a distinct lack of
active wildlife during the weekend, very few birdies or eagles were seen,
however the makers of any branded ball did exceptionally well and have probably
seen profits rise in the last 4 days!
In fact the only endangered
animal would have been the poor ducks relaxing on the water that seemed to
encroach on many of the holes and unsociably destroy a potential sub 70 round!
Thank you again for everything
you’ve done to make our weekend as enjoyable as it was and we look forward to
booking our next event with you soon.
10 / 10
Thank you for organising our golf trip to The Vale Resort.
It all went very smoothly and here is my review of the venue itself.
Having just returned from two days of golf at the Vale Resort,
I can report there are two great courses, both in good condition, and with very
welcoming staff throughout.
The hotel rooms, food and leisure facilities are all fantastic
too.
This golf break was great value for money and we will
return.
10 / 10
We travelled to the Vale Resort over the Easter
break (a group of four with handicaps between 21 and 28) and what a great venue
it turned out to be. The resort has two golf courses; The Lakes and Wales
National. Both were challenging, even off the yellow tees we played
off. Beautifully presented with fast greens, blind brows and doglegs, as well as
stunning scenery, both courses were a joy to play. The length, water and sand
made things tough for our handicap range but it was very rewarding when you played
well! The only negative worth mentioning was that the half
way huts were mediocre for golf courses of this standard. Not a big
issue.
One key tip – do buy the course guides (£5 each)
to give you a clue as to how to play the hole whilst on the tees
for the first time.
The clubhouse was great, with friendly staff and beers
costing approx £4 a pint. A decent bar menu was available too.
We also used the driving range and practise
putting greens which met expectations.
The hotel, its rooms and the members of staff were as
you would expect for a four star establishment. The a la carte grill
was a great place to eat in the evening and the breakfast buffet
really hit the spot with all types of breakfast available.
This was the first time I've booked a golf holiday
for a group. YGT made the process easy even when we changed dates and
added a person very late. Even before we settled on the Vale Resort,
YGT came up with a series of very suitable options for our dates, budget and
preferences. I was surprised how much effort they put in to getting it right
for us.
In the end it was a near perfect trip so 9/10 is fair. We
would certainly consider The Vale again and I've already
recommended YGT to friends.
8 / 10
Apart from the shocking weather, our trip to
The Vale was excellent. The staff at the hotel and the golf
complex were very amenable and made our stay very enjoyable. The meals at the
hotel were far better than we expected too and we would certainly recommend
this resort to friends, but perhaps in the summer.
Many thanks for your help in organizing a very enjoyable
golf break and I am sure we will contact YGT for any golf weekends in the future.
10 / 10
The golf courses at The Vale are in excellent
condition, each offering a different test. The Lakes Course is shorter but
accuracy is the key, whereas the National Course is much
longer than your average course, but with some really interesting holes. Our 3
ball of 15-18 handicappers all shot sub 100 which really felt like an
achievement!!
The Hotel is excellent too. Food in the Grill
was of a high standard and the Health Club is a great facility. Members
of staff are friendly and helpful.
Overall we’d give the trip a 9/10 - A great way to spend my
birthday celebration and will definitely think about returning in the near
future.
10 / 10
We returned from our golf trip to The Vale Hotel,
Golf & Spa Resort just over a week ago and the fact that we are
already planning a return trip in September (hopefully with larger numbers)
should tell you how much our group enjoyed it.
We have a mixed range of abilities amongst our group
(between 6 and 25 h’caps) and there is no doubt that for mid to high
handicappers both courses are very difficult, with plenty of water, plenty of
trees and plenty of blind shots. However, they are also very enjoyable and the conditioning
of both courses is fantastic.
The service at the hotel was exceptional and
they literally couldn’t do enough for you. One of our group (that would be me!)
managed to leave his phone charger in the room on departure. A couple
of days later whilst still deciding whether it would be worth the hassle
to contact the hotel to get it back, the postman knocked on the door
with said phone charger. Great stuff!
The food was great and the room was
fantastic. I’m sure they don’t all have great views but mine had a balcony
overlooking the 18th green which was great.
The price of a pint was expensive as were snacks if you
wanted them, but having visited similar establishments, this was no more
expensive than the norm.
As always Yourgolftravel provided a great service and after
just getting back from our 4th trip organised by them, I can guarantee a 5th will
be following shortly.
8 / 10
We had an enjoyable golf trip to The Vale where everything
was first class except the weather with rain on day 1 and a washout
on day 3!
It was disappointing that the weather put a
dampener on the visit but that cannot be controlled. We still enjoyed
the two rounds though.
Otherwise everything was as expected - ease of booking,
check-in, accommodation, food, pro shop, golf courses and service all of high
standard.
Apart from the weather, the only
negative was that on the first day buggies were not available for our
13:15 start as these had not been returned by the morning players. They
were brought out to us as we reached the 2nd green though.
We had a bonus in that the British & Irish
Lions squad and coaches booked into the hotel on our second night!
10 / 10
I want to thank you for recommending this venue as an
alternative to Celtic Manor as we couldn’t get in there.
It was absolutely great and far exceeded our expectations in
every area. We were even upgraded in the hotel to a wonderful
room with a view over the 1st, 9th, 10th and 18th greens! Fresh fruit
in the room was lovely and there was plenty of tea and coffee
available too. The rooms were very clean on the whole and the bed
was very comfortable.
The restaurant was really good – we were given an
allocation of £29 each to choose from the menu for our evening meal –
and this was sufficient to have a starter, main and dessert. We both had
sirloin steak and chips and it was probably the best steak either of us
has had. The breakfast the next day was also excellent with
plenty of choice and all very hot.
The staff at the hotel from the reception
to the restaurants were so very polite and helpful that we could not
fault them at all.
Now to the golf...again this was of the highest
standard.
There were a couple of temporary greens on the Lakes
Course but it was all main greens on the Wales National. The Lakes
is a long and sometimes quite narrow course which I thoroughly enjoyed. The Wales
National is simply huge and was certainly a challenge compared to the Lakes!
Some of the par 4s are massive and the chances
of us getting a couple of Stableford points were slim! That being said...we
still loved it! The back 9 has a particularly pretty section with
water, and the red dogwood at this time of year (February) was stunning.
In addition, we spoke to several of the members
all of whom were really friendly which is sometimes not the case when
you visit such a resort. The Clubhouse was very good, the menu
was not overly expensive and the quality of the food we
were served was good.
I would highly recommend this venue. It is also the training
base for the Welsh rugby team so seeing the players was an
added bonus!
My rating would be 10/10.
8 / 10
Well what can I say? What an excellent venue with two great
golf courses, both superbly kept and presented. The clubhouse was
excellent too; very welcoming and the service was excellent. The beer
was great and well priced...food was great also.
The hotel was great, with superb food and a nice atmosphere.
If I had to have one gripe it would be the buggy
situation. On arrival on Sunday we were offered buggies after being told during the booking
process that they were not available on the Sunday. And yet there
were none booked out when we got there! On the Monday, whilst we had
7 booked, they would only let us have 5 as there were nine of us and they
expected us to play in 3 balls.
That was the only damper on what was described as
'superb weekend - great choice' by members of my party.
Many thanks to your golf travel - we'll be going again!
10 / 10
I will never forget our golf trip to the Vale Hotel,
Golf and Spa Resort.
This was our second annual golf trip that we booked with
YGT. You guys are so easy to use and would recommend you to anyone looking to
book a golf break. I emailed them a few months ago asking where they thought
would be good for 10 guys to play a weekend of golf but also have the nightlife
for the evening. They recommend The Vale and it did
not disappoint!
The resort was easy to find, just off the M4 near
Cardiff.
We started our first round on the Friday and
unfortunately the weather made it very challenging, with rain and
wind howling in our faces! The course was immaculate though, and good
for our range of handicaps. Luckily the weather improved over the next
two days.
The hotel’s facilities were great too. Spacious, modern
rooms, which are just a walk away from the 2 golf courses. We used the gym
and swimming pool, but unfortunately didn’t have time for the spa.
Breakfast and dinner were amazing, we all agreed with a buffet
for breakfast and 3 course dinners. The staff were so attentive and
friendly and the whole trip was great value for money.
8 / 10
The golf courses at The Vale were both very good layouts.
The conditioning on both was very good; the National greens had
been hollow tined before our last round but the green staff had done
a good job and they continued to run pretty well. The National is a
tough course...not for beginners I would suggest! Overall, the courses at The
Vale were, in my opinion, better than other complex's I have been to including
Tracy Park, Carden Park and Celtic Manor (exc 20 10).
The staff at the Clubhouse were very good and very
welcoming.
The hotel rooms were excellent too; of a very good
size, with large TV and an excellent shower...again better than other such
resorts.
If there was a disappointment about the golf break, the
meals were it. The lunchtime bar meals were fine but the meals on the
whole were not as good as other places mentioned above.
Overall, The Vale offers excellent value for money.
8 / 10
Most of the scores I would give are 9/10. Bar prices
etc are what you would expect from a hotel of this standard.
The National course is long and would suit the more
competent golfer in my opinion.
The only issue we had with the whole trip is that we
had two double rooms and two twins instead of the four twins.