The Pembrokeshire Visitor Guide

Pembrokeshire is the westernmost county of south Wales, bordered by Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, and otherwise by sea. Nearly everything visitors come for sits inside the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, established in 1952, which covers 420 km (260 miles) of coastline and is the only national park in the United Kingdom made up largely of coastal landscape. The Pembrokeshire Coast Path, a national trail since 1970, runs 186 miles (299 km) from Amroth in the south-east to St Dogmaels in the north, with 35,000 feet (11,000 m) of ascent and descent. Haverfordwest, the county town, is the largest urban area, with 14,596 people at the 2011 census. This is a county you drive across and then walk, not one you cover on foot from a single base.

Four coasts, not one

Wikipedia divides the national park into four sections. The south coast, from Amroth round to the Castlemartin peninsula, is the holiday one. Tenby — 4,696 people at the 2011 census — has town walls, a ruined castle on a headland joined to the town by an isthmus, and beaches on three sides; Saundersfoot adjoins it. Inland sit the county’s two most-reviewed paying attractions, both aimed at families: Heatherton, and Folly Farm, a dairy farm converted for visitors in 1988 and now a zoo of over 200 species with an indoor vintage funfair, taking around 500,000 visits a year. West of Tenby the limestone takes over, past Manorbier Castle — 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of Tenby, and the birthplace of Gerald of Wales in 1146 — to Stackpole, Bosherston and the Castlemartin cliffs.

The Daugleddau estuary is the inland arm: the Milford Haven waterway has been a port since the Middle Ages. Pembroke Castle stands on a rocky promontory beside it, the largest privately owned castle in Wales, its round keep 23 metres (75 ft) tall with walls up to 6 metres (20 ft) thick at the base. Carew Castle, part Norman and part Tudor, is leased to the national park authority; Pembroke Dock lies 3 miles (5 km) north-west of Pembroke on the Cleddau.

St Bride’s Bay and its islands make the third section. Ramsey Island closes the bay at the northern end and Skomer at the southern; Grassholm, Skomer and Skokholm were all named for their seabirds in the 1947 report that led to the park. Whitesands Bay, 2 miles (3.2 km) west of St Davids, is a Blue Flag beach described as the best surfing beach in Pembrokeshire. St Davids, a pilgrimage site since the Middle Ages, is where the island boat operators work from.

The fourth section is not coast at all: the Preseli Hills in the north, moorland carrying most of the county’s prehistoric sites and its hardest cycling. The rest of the interior is flat.

What visitors actually complain about

Not crowds, mostly. Across the 120 Google reviews collected for the twelve most-reviewed sights, 29 mention parking or a car park and 15 mention crowds, queues or being busy — and several of those are saying the place was not busy. A visitor to Whitesands Bay in August 2020 wrote, “Car park a nightmare and last section of road down to car park is narrow”; one at Broad Haven in June 2026 simply, “Had to arrive early to get a car park space.”

The pressure is real in the south-east resorts. A visitor to Saundersfoot in August 2026 gave the beach three stars: “The town itself was incredibly bustling, heavily packed with tourists, and lacked the character we were hoping for.” The national park, at 4.8 from 11,347 Google reviews, draws the same note in August 2026: “it gets very busy during high season.”

Weather and tides come up more often than people do. A visitor at Broad Haven in June 2025 wrote, “Never underestimate the unpredictability of Welsh weather when the rest of the UK is experiencing a heat wave”; the same beach, in August 2024, “was massive and then 6 hours later it was the width of a tennis court”.

The county also has a working firing range on its southern cliffs. St Govan’s Chapel, wedged into the limestone and reached down 52 steps, sits inside the Castlemartin Military Training Area and is sometimes inaccessible because of military activity. A visitor in February 2025 wrote, “Car park is free but you need to access it through the military site so do check that it’s open before making the trip.”

How much time it takes

A day buys one corner of the county. The castles are half-day propositions: a visitor to Pembroke Castle in July 2026 said “You can easily spend two to three hours exploring the grounds”, while Tenby Castle is a walk to a viewpoint rather than a visit. The family attractions are the opposite — a visitor to Folly Farm in August 2026 wrote, “Often visits to farms/zoos only take a few hours but we spent the entire day here and felt we had excellent value for money.”

Three or four nights is the minimum for both the south coast and the St Davids peninsula: they sit at opposite ends of the county, and the roads between are not fast. A week suits walkers.

Where to base, and how to arrive

Tenby and Saundersfoot are the resort bases, busiest and best supplied. St Davids is the base for the islands and the north-west cliffs. Broad Haven and Little Haven — 1,328 people across the Havens at the 2001 census — sit on St Bride’s Bay in between. Pembroke and Pembroke Dock give you the castle, the estuary and the Irish ferries to Rosslare. Haverfordwest is not a holiday town: it is where the shops, the hospital and the main station are.

Arriving by train works. The line from Cardiff and Swansea runs through Carmarthen to Haverfordwest and Fishguard, with Tenby on the same West Wales Lines network, and the Haverfordwest and Tenby stations sit in the middle of their towns. Sources disagree on whether a through service from London exists — one says every journey requires a change, another mentions trains running to Tenby from Paddington — so plan on changing at Swansea unless you can confirm otherwise for your date.

Without a car, the Coastal Bus network is the link that matters: it meets the railway at Tenby (routes 349 and 351), Pembroke Dock (the Coastal Cruiser, 387/388), Milford Haven (the Puffin Shuttle, 315) and Fishguard (the Strumble Shuttle, 404, and the Poppit Rocket, 405). Bikes cannot be carried on those buses, so a bike-and-bus loop inside the national park is not an option.