Things to do in Monmouth South Wales.

There's a lot to do in Monmouth in South Wales. Since buying a flat here I n October 2016, I've been spending summer there, escaping the heat in my home town Dubai.

We chose Monmouth to put down UK roots as my parents lived there for 18 years, sadly my father died, but my mum has remained local. Monmouth has a population of around 9,000.

As well as being a pretty market town, Monmouth has good road links to the Forest of Dean, Ross-on-Wye for the M50/M5, the Wye Valley and Chepstow for the Severn bridge crossing to Bristol and Newport for the M4. There's a fairly decent local bus service and the National Express now stops there.

Entering Monmouth either by car brings you into either the top or the bottom of the town, with ample car parking both ends. Visitors usually favour the parking by Waitrose as it's easier to find.

Monmouth is a pretty town, with its share of high street stores and an abundance of local shops and weekly market stalls. It also has its fair share of coffee and charity shops and pubs with accommodation and a newly opened Premier Inn.

I'm going to start my tour of Monmouth at the Medieval Monnow Bridge across the River Monnow. Monnow Bridge was still open to traffic up until early 2000's. It was erected in 1180 from stone, previously it was wood and the remnants remain today.

If you walk through the Gate and cross the round about to the left, you'll find this lovely little fairy door.

Located behind the Bridge is the Church of St Thomas the Martyr dating in parts from 1180, although the exterior was largely rebuilt in the 19th century. It is one of 24 buildings on the Monmouth heritage Trail, marked with blue plaques.

Looking up the town on the right are the public toilets with a wealth of literature about what is on in the town and outside the Robin Hood Pub is the information on the rest of Monmouth Heritage Trail.

On a nice day, you can grab fish and chips and picnic by the river or follow the Monnow to where it meets the Wye, passing allotments and open space good for walking a dog in.

Alternatively at the back of Waitrose car park you'll find Chippenfield park with plenty of open space, shaded areas, benches, a children's park and the Nelson Gardens. There's a very strong connection with Lord/Admiral Nelson and Lady Hamilton here, despite only spending a few days here, in 1802, this is evidenced by the gardens, museum and the Kymin. Monmouth is also 35 miles from the sea as the crow flies, but the Royal Forest of Dean near by supplied timber for the battle against the Spanish Armada.

Take you time exploring Monmouth and the side streets, make sure you visit one of the many pubs in the town for food and drink. We prefer to visit the Estero Lounge near the coach station for food as it's reasonably priced and quality is ok when we meet up with family and friends and freshly cooked which is a bonus compared to the alternative chain in the town. It also has a secure garden, ample seating and is dog friendly, as are the coffee shops also.

There are some unusual style buildings in the town, which make it interesting to walk through, especially near the top where you'll find the Shire Hall located.

The Shire Hall in Agincourt Square is a Grade 1 listed building, built in 1724. Formally an Assize Court, it is now the Tourist Information Centre and offices for Monmouth Town Council. They also hold weddings there.

Monmouth is the birth place of  Charles Rolls of Rolls Royce. His statue can be found outside.

Just up the road and is Church Street. It is full of independent shops, restaurants and the Savoy Theatre. 

The Savoy Theatre was refurbished in 1928 and is a Grade 2 listed building retaining it's original features. It has been opened as a cinema since 1910 and was originally known as the Assembly Rooms constructed on the site on the Bell Inn. It was also briefly a roller skating rink at the end of the 19th century.

Next head up to St Mary's church  an Anglian  church founded as a Benedictine Priory in 1075. The current church dates mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries.

At  the eastern end of the churchyard,  is the gravestone of John Renie, his wife and two sons. Renie was a house painter who died in 1832 at the age of 33. It comprises a rectangular carved 285-letter acrostic puzzle. From the larger H on the centre square the sentence reads "Here lies John Renie" which may be read in any direction.

Exit the road side of the church and there's a slope leading you down to the caves, back up the steps and turn right into the Nelson museum.
Just past here back towards the town is Monmouth Castle and the regimental museum of the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers. It is also the Birth Place of Henry V.

Head back towards the church, turn left at the traffic lights, left to Osbaston and visit the commonwealth graves, cross the road and follow the footbridge over the river Monnow, which leads you back into town.

On your walk back to your starting point, the Monnow Bridge, you'll see Bridges day centre on the right, they offer a variety of activities here and I joined in with a keep fit class, it runs on a pay as you go system, which is good for short visits.There's also a newly opened swimming pool at the secondary school, Monmouth Leisure Centre and it has soft play also.

Monmouth has many events throughout the year, from music festivals, Friday markets, street carnival, agriculture shows, seasonal boot sales, craft fairs, flower festivals and so much more. Check out the events and dates at Visit Monmouthshire.

I don't want my experience of Dubai enhanced.

 I don’t want my experience of Dubai enhanced.

 

It's been almost 4 years since we moved to Dubai and so much has changed. New roads, buildings, a canal, investment. Everything to encourage new people to move here, preparation for 2020, new airport, new tallest building in the world under construction. You can see the changes over on #mysundayphoto tag.

Talking to other people who have been living here much longer than I have, they say similar ‘Dubai is growing’ but the response to it from the expats and locals I’ve met is ‘we don’t like it’

I feel the same way, when we first moved here, prices for tourist attractions were considerably lower, life was a lot cheaper and more simple. Now there are very few places offering resident discount or preferences. We can no longer take our dog to the beach, out into the desert, our nearest park was been reduced by 50% due to the new water canal and the facilities inside have gone down hill. Other parks charges high entrance fees and are over crowded on weekends and in the evenings.

What’s annoying me the most however is the reduction of access to public beaches. We lived 1km from the nearest beach, currently NOT on the tour bus route and apart from 1 café, showers and toilets and a life guard tower. The beaches either side of us now have food shacks, allow jet skiing and kite surfing, have umbrellas and chairs for hire and hold regular events.

The free beach, already slightly reduced in size and a new harbour wall is being built.

With the creation of the new canal and land being built to accommodate hotels, malls, restaurants etc, it won’t be long before our local beach is full on weekends as local residents get edged of their bit of beach and then due to the numbers using the beach, there will be more facilities and amenities, trouble parking, crowded beaches and tour buses stopping.

All this of course is great for tourism and the economy, but it’s not great for us locals, the people who get edged out for the tourists on the weekends and evenings. More and more rules are put in place and sanctioned. I can’t cycle along the beachfront or walk my dog. I can chose to drive out into the desert to cycle on the established cycle track now complete with restaurants and visitors who aren’t visiting for recreational purposes. More people come out to the lakes with the introduction of new facilities, but then there is more mess, more traffic and weekend events. 

But to encourage more visitors out the lakes they are now being stocked with birds and wildlife, which means dogs are now banned from the area and we’re being forced to spend money on entrance fees into private owned dog exercise companies, that already exist, and I use, but when the demand outstrips the space, that will be limited also. Dog friendly public spaces are limited, there are a handful of cafes that allow you to sit outide with your dog, more and more of the developers are banning dogs from areas such as Dubai Marina, forcing people to either give up their dog or move to more expensive areas.

I’m sure I’d have similar experiences living in other cities around the world. I no longer have kids at home, so I’m not interested in child friendly play areas, of which there seems to be plenty of in Dubai. Dubai seems to invest substantiality into families, education, child discounts, which is good for encouraging new families to move here, but for those of us here without kids, or whose children have grown up, all that leaves us with is nail bars, gyms, sports clubs and brunches.

None of which I’m particularly interested in. What I’d like to see is more public open spaces, a park I can take my dog to. More cycle tracks in the city and being allowed to take my bike on the metro so I can reach the quieter areas of Dubai to explore, away from the none stop tourism I get caught up in daily.

Have you noticed changes around the area you live in? 

I'm done with being a tour guide

Since November 18th 2016 we've welcomed a friend, my mother, 2 kids and our niece into our home for a holiday. For my mother and our niece it's been their first and probably only visit to Dubai. For the kids it will be their last trip for a year or so.

It's been busy, expensive and very tiring. Up until December 16th I was working full time and despite it being winter in Dubai, at 28c most days it was too hot for my mother to go out in the day, so we did things on the weekends and evenings instead.

With all the places visited and time spent cooking meals, extra washing and tidying as well as just time spent sitting and chatting, the housework got neglected.

I wrote something similar in 2015 after yet another spate of visitors. Despite knowing Dubai well now, I still don't know what everyone wants to do and it's hard work organising everything.

My wallet also suffered quite badly and while I don't begrudge a single dirham we spent, it has been a very expensive 2 months. I've given up work now, I don't think I would've managed that as well after Christmas. Although everyone paid their own way, they were heavily subsidised and of course there were my costs. Purchasing the Entertainer App at AED 445 (£99) saved a lot of money with 2 for 1 deals, but paid for itself with one visit to Wild Wadi water park and I made sure we ate and visited where possible, the places available on the app.

I have of course visited many places on my own as a tourist when I first visited here and with Peter on weekends and many more places have opened and changed over the past 3 years. I had thought we'd use more public transport, something I do when I'm on my own, but we really didn't have the time with everything we wanted to fit in. Fuel costs are low and parking almost everywhere is free.

While everyone chipped in and bought ice creams and coffees, laid the table, tidied up, collected their washing and did the ironing (thanks Dan) I am glad they've all gone home now and I have some time on my own, time to tidy and clean the house, catch up with neglected paperwork, get on with various projects, blog and just work to my own schedule, I know that in a few weeks I'll be bored, lonely and looking for something to do.

What I need now is a holiday, to a place where things are new to me, a place I can explore, relax in and chill out away from home. While all our visitors are on holiday, I live in Dubai, it's home, it's not a holiday destination for me.

We're off to Luxor at the end of the month for a few days, which although is a place we visited around 10 years ago, it's somewhere we've always wanted to go back to. We have a few other trips lined up to the UK and will be visiting Leeds and Northern Ireland where 2 of our kids live and hopefully a visit to Dublin and Munich to see friends who used to live in South Africa. It will be nice to explore some new places. But when we're back at home in the South West we just spend our time visiting people and not being tourists. It would be lovely if on this trip we visited places with family and friends rather than sitting in their house or having coffee in town.

We've decided that future visitors will be given a Nol travel card, a map, sim card and instructions on how everything works, they will book their own flights, change their own money and will be given a quick tour so they can get their bearings. We will of course join in with a few things, dinners etc, but we just can't keep up this level of entertainment and cost.

So if you're coming out to see us any time soon, you have been warned and if we're coming over to see you, be prepared to provide us with a list of things to do where you live, that you think we'll like to visit. We'll sort our own flights, money, sim cards, car hire etc.

I know it sounds harsh, but we really have enjoyed all our visitors over the previous 6 years, both here in Dubai and in South Africa, but we're done now with being tour guides.

This is where Peter and I have been over the past 2 months and we've done these places most times we've had visitors, regardless of their length of stay, family or friends, with and without kids.

Desert Safari x 1
Miracle Gardens x 1
Wild Wadi x 1
Dubai Garden Glow x 1
Rain Forest x 1
Afternoon tea x 2
Led display x 2
Global Village x 2
Burj Khalifa x 2
Aquariums x 2
City Walk x 2
Walk along the canal x 3
Ferry and Souks x 3
Souk Madinat x 3
Fountains x 5
Mercato Mall x 5

Too many visits to count
Mall of the Emirates
Dubai Mall
Meals out
Trips to the desert
Visits to the beach

Other Malls visited
Outlet Village, Mirdiff City Centre, Oasis Mall, Marina Mall

Airport runs -  collections and drop off's x 8