South Wales Aviation Museum — Attraction in Llanfarian

WARNING TO DISABLED VISITORS & WATCH OUT OR BE BANNED Review of South Wales Aviation Museum Good museum, volunteers are brilliant, been numerous times since the museum opened, however if you are elderly, less mobile, and definitely wheelchair users, the cafe is only accessible by going up a spiral staircase (see photo), which is steep, so the warmth of the cafe, the only warm room in the museum, is simply NOT accessible, so disabled visitors are expected to sit in the hangar at the limited seats and two tables, and ask a volunteer to place the order for you, which is no problem for them, and the cafe staff then carry your hot food and drinks down steep staff only steps (see photo), and you pay them at the tables in the freezing hangar. This in my opinion is risky for them carrying hot items down steep steps but this again does not stop them being pleasant, but the frustrating thing from a disabled visitor point, as a wheelchair user myself, is that the cold temperature even in the summer months, means that the hot food and drinks go cold very quickly. Despite the number of times I have visited, I had had a public and humiliating argument when the former hangar manager, she has since left, started shouting at me for no reason, in front of my grandchildren, about a year earlier, she didn't know me and I had done nothing wrong, but then via a third party not involved with the museum that I was due to attend a private event at the museum less than a week after this visit, I found out that I could no longer visit due to the issue over a year earlier (I had visited around 10 times in between then and this visit, so my warning to any visitor, if anyone working at the museum has a go at you for no reason, you may turn up the next time to find out that you are not permitted entry, without being...

Absolutely fantastic place and a real hidden gem! Walk thorough the entrance (made from the shell of a plane) and pay for your tickets in the reception/gift shop which has all sorts of aviation goodies to pick up, and suddenly you're in a hanger absolutely stuffed with planes and helicopters of all sorts, so many that they are wing to wing, and many of which you can sit in, examine the cockpits, discover the missiles and chat to the passionate and friendly volunteers. There are several side rooms featuring exhibitions, dioramas and collections of everything aviation. Around the sides of the hanger there are about a dozen classic hands-on science activities from the Welsh science museum Techniquest which brought back a lot of fond memories for those of us who were little kids in the 90s! Our kids loved trying them as well.

Up the spiral staircase, the cafe has a surprisingly large gated children's area with several wendy houses, slide, little kitchens and even a real boat to play in, several soft comfortable sofas and armchairs to sit and read the selection of children's books and it's separated from the cafe proper so the kids can run around and have fun without bothering those enjoying a quiet coffee.

The Gannet cafe itself serves classic 'caff' hot and cold food and drink. We had the Spitfire breakfast which was tasty and made with quality ingredients. My hot chocolate was lovely and creamy and very large! There was a selection of big cake slices in the fridge which looked good too.

Considering it is free for under 17s to visit and it's only £7.50 adult entry (£5 consessions), the fact that you can be here, like we were, for several hours and still not see everything it's amazing value for money! We will...

Only 3 stars until next time because.... The photo shoot organisers gave us a safety brief. Perfectly in order and much needed as we'd be walking around the jets in pitch black. What I've knocked the stars back on is the un PC language used by the guy doing the brief. He kept banging on about Welsh Sheepshaggers and the Covid S variant (sheepshaggers) now this banter was de rigour 20 years ago but surely not in these woke snowflake days. There were women present, not to say they would be specially offended. I appreciate the volunteers worked a really long day and in the rain. It was a different organisation who did the briefing... 5 bright gold stars for SWAM, but not for the, frankly in this day and age, some might say "racist" terminology used by the lighting guy....... There you go. I was invited to review and this is my opinion.. I was later invited/instructed to remove my review. The event was advertised by SWAM and the venue was at SWAM. I did in fact within my review give SWAM "5 Bright Gold Stars" because they do excellent work. Banter like we had on the evening in the SWAM car park cannot be condoned, look at County Cricket recently. I would be thinking about my potential sponsors instead of cancelling me. My review stands, it is fair and explanative. Cross refer to SWAM Facebook Posts, 4th October "night shoot details at South Wales Aviation Museum" ..... 9th October "Night shoot at SWAM".... 23rd October "One week to go until our Night shoot...