Pembrokeshire has more than fifty beaches and a fair claim to the best collection in Britain. They are also genuinely varied: wide Atlantic surf beaches on the west, sheltered limestone coves in the south, black-sand fossil beaches in the north, and one or two that can only be reached on foot and are all the better for it.
Almost all of them lie within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, which is why there is so little development behind them. All of them are free; only parking costs anything.
Reached only on foot, half a mile from Stackpole Quay over a headland and down a flight of steps. A curve of pale sand backed by dunes and pine trees, with no facilities of any kind — which is precisely why it is regularly named among the best beaches in Britain and occasionally in the world.
Bring everything with you. The walk keeps the numbers down even in August.
At the seaward end of the Bosherston lily ponds, on the National Trust’s Stackpole Estate. Sand, dunes, and Church Rock standing offshore — the most photographed rock in Wales. Combine it with the ponds for one of the best short walks in the county.
Two sheltered south-facing bays with sand, dunes and safe swimming, both with villages behind them. Manorbier has a Norman castle above the beach.
The big one on the south-west corner: a long Atlantic beach with heavy surf, dunes and a seaweed-drying hut. It has appeared in more than one film. The currents here are serious and it is not a swimming beach.
The south-east corner has the family beaches: Tenby’s North, Castle and South beaches, and Saundersfoot and Coppet Hall next door. Sand, facilities, lifeguards and a town behind them.
A wide beach below spectacularly folded rock strata, reached by a fifteen-minute walk from the National Trust car park. Excellent at low tide, much smaller at high, with Gateholm Island at the western end.
Two miles of sand and shingle at the head of St Bride’s Bay, with a road running behind a storm bank of pebbles. It is the main surf beach in the middle of the county and it is exposed to everything.
Two villages at the southern end of St Bride’s Bay. Broad Haven is the family beach — sand, shops, a playground, lifeguards. Little Haven next door is smaller and prettier, a cove between headlands.
Between the two, quieter and reached down lanes, with the Druidstone Hotel above one of them.
Porth Mawr in Welsh, two miles west of St Davids. Blue Flag, lifeguarded in season, and the main surf beach of the peninsula, with St Davids Head rising at its northern end and Ramsey Island offshore. It is the busiest beach in the north of the county and it has the parking to match — which fills.
Small coves within a couple of miles of St Davids, all quieter than Whitesands and all reached by short walks.
A black-sand beach, fossil-rich, next to the Blue Lagoon — a slate quarry breached by the sea and now a startling blue pool used for coasteering and cliff diving.
Between Abereiddi and Porthgain, reached by a staircase from the coast path. Empty most days.
Newport Sands, Poppit Sands at the mouth of the Teifi, and Ceibwr Bay — a small rocky cove near Moylegrove with a collapsed cave system called the Witches’ Cauldron beside it. This end of the county is quieter and considerably more Welsh.
Swimming with children: Broad Haven, Whitesands, Freshwater East, Tenby’s beaches.
Surfing: Newgale, Whitesands, Freshwater West for the experienced.
A walk and a picnic: Barafundle, Traeth Llyfn, Marloes.
Rock pooling and fossils: Abereiddi, Marloes, Manorbier.
Sunset: anywhere on the west coast; Newgale and Whitesands are the classics.
Getting away from everyone: Ceibwr, Traeth Llyfn, or any of the coves reached by a walk from the coast path.
These are Atlantic beaches with real hazards.
Rip currents are the main one, strongest at the surf beaches — Newgale, Whitesands and Freshwater West in particular. Swim between the red-and-yellow flags where the RNLI is on duty; a good number of Pembrokeshire’s beaches are lifeguarded in season and a good number are not.
Tides are large here and several beaches — Marloes, Barafundle’s approach, the smaller coves — change completely between high and low water. Some are cut off.
Freshwater West has particularly dangerous currents and should not be swum.
Cliff edges are unfenced and undercut in places.
Seasonal restrictions apply on the main resort beaches, typically from Easter or May to the end of September. Many of the remoter beaches have no restrictions at all, and out of season the whole coast is open. Check the signs at the beach.
Parking is the only cost, and the National Trust car parks at Stackpole, Marloes, Broad Haven South and elsewhere are free to members.
Facilities vary enormously — Broad Haven, Whitesands, Tenby and Saundersfoot have everything; Barafundle, Traeth Llyfn and Ceibwr have nothing at all.
The coastal buses in season reach most of the beaches and are cheap.
Sea temperature peaks in late August and September. A wetsuit extends the season considerably.
Pembrokeshire has a large tidal range, and it changes the beaches more than visitors expect. Marloes Sands roughly triples in size between high and low water. Barafundle’s sand comes and goes. The reefs at Abereiddi and Manorbier only appear at the bottom of the tide, taking the rock pooling with them. And several of the small coves reached from the coast path are cut off entirely at high water.
Get a tide table on the first day. It costs nothing, it is available in every shop in the county, and it will improve a week here more than any other single thing.
Pembrokeshire’s bathing water is generally very good — the county has a large number of beaches with Blue Flag and Seaside Award status, and the National Park’s lack of development behind the beaches is part of the reason.
For swimming, the sheltered south-coast bays and the St Bride’s Bay village beaches are the safest. The big Atlantic beaches — Newgale, Freshwater West, Whitesands on a swell — have rip currents and should be treated with respect. Sea temperatures peak in late August and September, and a wetsuit turns a two-month season into a six-month one.
The one real cost. National Trust and National Park car parks serve most of the good beaches and all of them charge non-members. The alternatives: the coastal bus services in season, which reach most of the coast and are cheap; parking in a village and walking the coast path in; or, for a week’s stay, a National Trust membership, which in this county pays for itself quickly.
Barafundle by common consent, though you have to walk to it. Broad Haven South and Marloes Sands are the other two contenders.
Most are, and several are exceptional. Newgale is sand and shingle; Abereiddi is black sand.
The main resort and surf beaches in season — Whitesands, Newgale, Broad Haven, Tenby and Saundersfoot among them. Many of the remoter ones are not.
No. The currents there are dangerous and swimming is not advised.
Barafundle, reached on foot from Stackpole Quay, and Traeth Llyfn on the north coast.