Afan Forest Mountain Bike Trails

One of the Best Places To Visits in Bryn Frequently mentioned in reviews: Top-rated.online cuts through the clutter, highlighting only the reviews that are most helpful, earn the most likes, or come from the most active contributors. Do your homework before you come. I just drive expecting to work it out when I got there. What I didn't realise is there are 3 different centres. You need to work out which you need to go to for the riding you want to do. Anyway once I worked that out I had an amazing time. There are so many miles of you can easier spend a weekend exploring rather than a day. Worth a visit. Lastly the locals are so friendly and helpful. Enjoy.... place plenty of parking 2.75 for 4 hours. Loads of options The blue mtb is lovely coming down! But it does feel a long climb to the top. The blue mtb loop takes 2 hours with a ten year old. scenery and little rushing waterfalls. Fantastic at the bottom where you can get really delicious home made burgers and chicken wraps. My husband said the coffee was good. And recommends the spiced pumpkin cake too. There are also toilets, showers, bike wash, bike shop, and a museum about mining (check opening times as the museum is staffed by volunteers). Love this place - a example of the outdoors. Walked with grandchildren from the car up to the the cafe. Oddly, no bike racks but a lovely with staff. Enjoyed drinks for all including a really capachino. to catch up with a trustee from the South Wales Miners. day had by all. Lovely place to be. Natura scenario is beautiful. Small, tidy and pleasant place. Bike staff very friendly and knowledgeable. Rides had fantastic views and features. Sometimes I wonder why I bother with paying over the odds for a mountain bike only to get soaked and get covered in mud. Then I remember, that it feels like my natural habitat and I go again. The shower facility after getting caked in mud was a welcome relief. What a lovely place to walk, safe car a lovely coffee which allows dogs, loads of biking ,a museum a for young children and spotless rest rooms. This was my first back here in over 30yrs & boy oh boy has it been improved. I was born & brought up in these here hills, just over the mountain is my village, Caerau. I left the area aged 21(I'm now 52) We rode & hunted these woods & forsets on our Grifters & cycles that we'd adapted ourselves to use off road, waay before mtb's had even been invented 😎 Later progressing onto motorcycles(Honda TL125S & CR250 Elsinore) by 1979. In essence, we created the tracks you ride today 😉 The railway tunnel on the Afan Valley side goes directly through the mountain ~ a gang of us walked through it once in the 70's from the Caerau side(as boy's do) It frightened the hell out of the lot of us! But it was exciting & it's even more exciting to think of it being reopened & used to connect the two valleys together(the Afan & the Llynfi) once again 😁 If you were to stand & gaze at the woods & forestry, in certain places, you'd have a hard telling yourself you are in Wales ~ for, in places, it resembled Canada & the Italian Alps. Especially on a hot summers day like today! I was half expecting a black bear or caribou to wander out of the woods at any moment 😏 If you're into cycling outdoors & off road riding you'll be hard pressed to find anywhere better or more exciting than the Afan Argoed MTB centre. The staff were all polite & well informed & every other guest we met there was just the same. We stayed the night in the campsite on the hill but didn't get much kip due to the angle of the pitches(this was our only complaint) but we had a fire going. There were bbq's in place to cook on ~ but most hadn't been used or cleaned in yonks! A little more attention to detail would have made our stay even better - but I guess they don't get many campers...Maybe if they created a few flat areas this could be improved easily. But if you're in a camper van you're laughing ~ as all of the facilities/amenities are in the car area at the bottom of the hillside. We came on motorcycles. A few of the people I was with were actually too scared to ride their motorbikes up the road/very steep hill to the camping area ~ so I had to ride them up for them...I've riden up many a steep hill on my tours abroad but the abruptness of this one that goes literally straight up was off putting for many ~ especially so with fully laden motorcycles. We had no problems with flies or mozzies during our stay & the scenery & views are breathtaking & the unhindered by street lights starry skies made it extra special 😍😁 I'd give it a 5* rating if it wasn't for the angle if the campsite pitches ~ but all in all it was ace. See you next year...💚 Recently went to Afan for the first to do W2. Massive that is a hell of an adventure. Signage could use some work, went lost a few times and energy was closed but two gravestones was open despite there being multiple huge trees across the route and based on the engrained route around it has been that way for some time. All in all though, views, ride and solid day out. and cakes. The Penhydd has quite a long sustained climb from the start and some tricky rocky drop offs near the end (marker post 41) which were a lot harder than the rest of the features, but still… a lovely for intermediate riders. The start of the is t very well signed, need to exit the car from the opposite end to the cafe. I visited in the week after Easter 2023 and found it to be excellent physically (great hilly woodland with may paths) but abysmal in regards to information regarding closures. BEWARE: main circular walking routes are not circular at the moment but there are no warnings of this online or on the ground when you get there! It was my first visit so I went to their website. It is quite but a bit clunky. It gives a recommendation to download information regarding current diversions/closures -- which I did. The pdf document was dated 2021 and stated that a bridge closure meant that most of the longer could only be accessed from a smaller free car on the other side of the river from the main (which includes the South Wales Mining Museum). I decided to at the main and ask at the visitors if this was still applicable (and re-park if so). Note: it transpired that there are no "Information" staff at the centre! We asked the café staff (very nice cafe, by the way with indoor toilets in addition to the block outside where there are also showers) but they didn't know anything about trails/closures etc. The fixed boards outside gave the same information as online (general maps plus diversion due to bridge closure). I had a quick look around and discovered the bridge was fully open (with much clean new wood) so set out to walk some of the longer routes. After crossing the bridge and turning north I soon found my way barred by fencing: "No public access due to tree felling"). I turned South and followed the river noticing other closures at various points on leading up to the west. I did most of the Green loop at the southern end but found the very last section leading back to the bridge and my car was also blocked near the privately owned camp site. The only legal route back was the way I'd walked (over 3 hours) or phone a taxi. Staff at the site said cyclists (who at least had diversion signs on their routes) were complaining that the diversions kept taking them around in small circles. In short: nice scenic place made accessible to walkers and cyclists by humans in the past and now turned into a waking nightmare by the current humans running it. The website information needs updating and all need to indicate if they are no longer circular and how far you can get along then before being blocked. I still recommend visiting as it's a very nice spot, and if the closures are removed then you'll find the well marked and correctly graded for difficulty (information online and on site on boards). The highlight of my visit ended up as the bacon sandwich and cup of tea I got at the café. Blue scar was a introduction for my son to mountain biking as it had a balance of singletrack, tough climbs and grin inducing decents in a short loop 😊 I wouldn't bother at the moment. Forestry has ruined the place. Starting working in one place and moved to the next without finishing. This place was a few years back but it's going to take to get back to it's former glory. I feel for the blokes running the shop. First visiting Afan Forest. Easy place to find and park. Had clean facilities at the car and the which was well stocked. I managed to pick up an Endura summer top and the chap in the price matched wiggle, which was a nice touch. The were however there was a large diversion in place to due to some forestry management and repairs that was happening. This wasn’t the issue it was the fact the diversions weren’t sign posted well at all. Considering the fact my friends and I hadn’t been to Afan before it was difficult to find our bearings and back to car park. The were and the red “The Wall” was quite technical and more challenging ride than we expected. I think if the closed sections were open it would have been a lot better experience. Travelling up from Cornwall it’s a long way up past Cardiff on to Port Talbot, would I return probably. I would once all the work there is complete. An excellent location for mountain biking - a level of fitness will be needed and if your doing the red graded a level of experience. Had a day riding the trails. Fantastic scenery climbs galore and rapid decents. coffee, the food looked but didn't participate as we had our own. The guys in the bike shed were really friendly and extremely knowledgeable. Will definitely be back.. loved it! I've been coming here for years. Unfortunately, there are a lot of closures at the moment due to forestry work, which has been going on for a long, long time. It's a shame because it used to be amazing. There are still plenty of open, so it's still worth a visit, but some of the best descents are closed, and the diversions are bad and confusing. So you might want to do what I did and make up your own route by joining up the bits into a decent ride. I made up a big route by combining Blue Scar with the open bits of Y Wall and Blade, but there are other options. The cafe/visitor has recently re opened and is under new ownership, so I'm hoping to see Afan restored to its former glory soon! Website change monitoring Monitor any webpage for changes – get instant email alerts when prices drop, new jobs are posted, products come back in stock, or competitors update their sites. See how the number of reviews and average review scores have changed over time.