Blue Stone, Pembrokeshire,

This was possibly our best experience of holidaying with pre-schoolers to date. Four months on, our 4 year old still talks about our "upside down house" and the lazy river, and despite the long drive, he can't wait to return.

We were thrilled with our lodge. We were placed as close to the Blue Lagoon as you can get, and the village was a short walk downhill. Behind our lodge was the entrance to the zipwire, and we had a marvelous time one wet afternoon running around the forest watching people zipping from tree to tree.

Bluestone is hilly, but if you are used to hills then you won't find it too much of a challenge. Our pre-schooler was more than happy to run up the hills, so I wouldn't waste money on a golf buggy.

We were disappointed with the quality of the restaurants. The choice was limited and there was a confusing lack of salads and vegetable options in a resort aimed at families. We had a meal delivered on our final night and that wasn't too bad at all.

Our boys loved the adventure centre and obviously quite a bit of thought had been put into it. That, together with the Blue Lagoon, meant that we had two very tired boys each evening, leaving us free to enjoy the facilities of the spa.

One thing that really stood out for us was the friendliness of the staff. Without exception, everyone seemed to go out of their way to be helpful and friendly. My father, who visited one night, was even given a lift by security to our lodge. Everyone seemed to go that extra mile.

We'll definitely return, and would love to stay a week to explore the rest of Pembrokeshire. On our three night break we found there was so much to do at Bluestone we didn't have time to leave.

Felt oddly ghetto-like, sitting in our lodge among all the other lodges full of families. Lodges are roomy - we were in a Ramsey - but finishes are a bit cheap and cheerful. Kitchen equipment surprisingly good but annoying not to have a washing machine. Activiites we put the DSs in were good and well run but on the down side the availability of classes etc is badly communicated and their literature is very confusing. Food on site is poor to mediocre except for Carreg Las which is good and good value - but the staff need training. Blue Lagoon a massive hit with children and I tried the spa and had a very good treatment.

The surrounding area is amazing - great beaches and castles. Nearest town, Narberth is lovely and has great food shops and places to eat to balance the fairly dire offer in the Smithy, Granary and Tafarn on site.

We stayed in a Skomer lodge which was really high quality accommodation. 3 bed, 3 bath, huge lounge and top den which we used for our laptop plug in (take an RJ45 cable and you just plug and go). Kitchen was really well equipped crockery, pans etc and appliances too, except a wash machine - laundry service charges too expensive. Really liked the overhang outside the front door which was essential in the frequent horizontal rain whilst getting a 5,3,and 1 year old into pushchair and bike trailers.

Adventure centre is super - buy a week pass as the daily charge can rack up. Our kids popped in and out as often as they liked. Supervised mini rangers was great fun and the carers were lovely. It left us with time to play tennis one day (not great courts need a bit of fencing work) and go to the really lovely spa. Spa staff really chilled, rooms lovely and absolutely spotless and between 10 and 12 realy empty - so very relaxing.

Blue Lagoon good but very busy when we were there as very poor weather. No flumes for non swimmers or kiddies under 1.2 m though. Waves in main pool great fun for all ages and toddler pool very good fun too.

If you don't like steep hilly sites then get a golf buggy. They don't have enough to go round, as we found out. It was only on the 2nd day that someone returned a bike and trailer (not enough of these either) which increased the speed with which we got a round site. Buy some more - for the prices you charge. The site is much smaller and intimate than Centre parcs and although we were on the outskirts it was a 15 min brisk (energetic uphill) walk to the adventure centre - but we like exercise in our family.

Food ok choice in granary, smithy and tafarn, but no main salads was my gripe.

Hoedown was great fun - prebook - fireworks on last night too late for our pooped out kiddies - but we enjoyed it. Overall a bit on the expensive side - but we did really enjoy it and it felt very relaxing, intimate and not so busy, busy, busy as Centre Parcs.

Just come back from a weekend at Bluestone and I thought it was wonderful. I am (or was) a big Center Parcs fan, so I didn't have high expectations of this upstart newcomer, but it was like stumbling onto a miraculously well-kept secret. The setting, in Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, is stunning, with beautiful views of the Preseli Hills. Our three-bedroom, three bathroom Skomer lodge was a knockout. Clean, well-equipped (except for a washing machine) with Smeg and Bosch appliances, and massively spacious.

The site is a bit hilly to walk around, but if you get out of puff, there's a free shuttle bus, as well as bikes and golf buggies to hire. The kids loved the Blue Lagoon water park, which, event hough it's open to the public, wasn't crowded. To give families more to do when it's raining, there's an Adventure Centre with mini-golf, soft play, adventure playground, Techniquest and a Lego room I had to prise my husband out of. I took some persuading, but I ended up glad that I'd tackled the High Ropes course, complete with two 300 ft zip wires. It was strenuous, nerve-wracking, and now I understand why the Pope feels the occasional urge to kiss the ground, but the sense of achievement you get afterward is well worth plucking up a bit of courage for. Babysitter Debbie was big hit with the kids, allowing us to try the Carreg Las brasserie, which was just fantastic. Food in the other restaurants was good too, but they weren't as special and a little lacking in atmosphere. As others have commented, The Well Spa is glorious, and my ESPA full body massage had me walking on air for hours afterward. Bluestone isn't cheap in any sense, but it's less expensive than some comparable destinations I could mention. If you're looking for night after night of slam-bang, neon-lit entertainment, look elsewhere - Bluestone is quiet and low-key in many respects, but there's an air of understated quality and exclusivity about the place that really appealed to me and my inner snob.

In all, we were sorry to leave, but it definitely won't be long before we're back.

Bluestone, a "luxury holiday village" tucked into 500 acres of green, green valley in Pembrokeshire Coastal National Park, is, basically, Centerparcs with Boden knobs on. And all of us – especially our three boys (aged 10, 9 and 5) – loved it!

You stay in one of four types of timber lodge, perched about the hillside or around the lake. Ours was the three-bedroomed Skomer, a really rather posh three-bedroom, three-bathroom, open-plan affair, with (gasps of amazement from the boys) a first-floor 'cwtch' or den and (gasps of amazement from me) a huge, marble-y wet room. There are two TVs (but rather dodgy reception) and the kitchen has all the right bits and pieces (except, perhaps, for a washing machine).

Bluestone is car-free (you leave your car in a car park at the top of the valley) so your children can rush about with suitably holiday-ish abandon. And, if they can ride bikes (bring you own or hire them by the day on site), you probably won't see them for rubber dust.

Right at the top of the valley is the Blue Lagoon, a humungous waterpark (open to the public but free for unlimited visits to Bluestone guests). What with the wave pool, the flumes, the bubble pools, the wet-play areas for little ones, and the fantastic 'lazy river' that sweeps you slowly through little waterfalls right outside the complex and back in again, we're talking child-entertainment of the wildest, wettest order. And there's a nice place selling coffee for damp and drenched-out grown-ups.

At the centre of Bluestone is a little street, with a few shops (one selling food; another flogging wellies and fleeces to optimists who imagined a completely rain-free week in Wales), an information centre, a children's play area, a 'pub', a bakery and no less than three restaurants (a pizza-ish place, a very good carvery and the excellent Carreg Las "fine dining option").

Inside a deceptively trad-looking house right at the end of the street is the mind-blowing, body-blissing Well Spa. If you can stop yourself gaping at the thermal rooms, the salt, steam and ice rooms, the sauna and the vitality pool, a serene and smiley therapist will pamper and pummel you into floaty seventh heaven.

There are plenty of organised activities on site - for young and old alike. We had fun having a go at archery and (laser) clay shooting and being thrashed rotten by some very nice but scarily over-competitive Lancastrians at the Family Sports challenge. Littler children might like the Teddy Bears Picnic, Treasure Hunt and Cheeky Monkeys sessions and, at the Sports Club, there's always pool, table tennis and badminton on offer (as well as a gym for the workout-inclined and a cafe - with internet access - for the slob-out-inclined).

Round and about outside Bluestone (if you can prise the children away), there's masses to do - from exploring the beautiful beaches of the Pembrokeshire coast to pony-trekking, coasteering, kayaking and visiting the Dinosaur Park in Tenby. We spent a hilarious, mud-specked afternoon quad-biking at Ritec Valley, where the five-year-old beat us all for speed (we won't mention the, er, scarily random steering).

Would we go again? You bet! As our eldest put it, "I never knew Wales was that wicked!"