Broad Haven — Aberllydan in Welsh — is a village and seaside resort in the south east corner of St Bride’s Bay, on the west coast of Pembrokeshire. It is a beach trip rather than a town trip. One wide west-facing bay carries a Blue Flag, the north end of it is a piece of exposed geology rather than sand, and a second, smaller beach at Little Haven sits round the corner, reachable on foot across the sand when the tide is out.
The straight-line distance from Pembrokeshire is 12.4 km. Wikipedia gives no road distance for the village, and places it at the western terminus of the B4341.
Broad Haven and Little Haven together form the Havens, a community and a division of Pembrokeshire County Council; the 2001 census recorded 1,328 people across both. The place has been a seaside resort since the 1800s, and little is known of what came before. It should not be confused with Broad Haven South, a separate beach near Bosherston in the south of the county.
Wikipedia describes the main beach as large, west-facing and Blue Flag, with safe bathing for families and scope for surfing, windsurfing and sailing. It is the highest-rated thing here by some distance: 4.8 from 1,239 Google reviews.
Reviewers return to the same handful of details. Sunsets, because of the westward aspect. Wildlife — a visitor in August 2026 wrote, “We’ve been lucky enough to see dolphins here too.” Dogs, and how close the facilities sit: a visitor in July 2026 wrote, “Great little beach for dogs. Car park and toilets close by.”
Little Haven Beach, round the headland to the south, carries 4.7 from 479 Google reviews and is the smaller, more enclosed of the pair. A visitor in June 2026 wrote, “Lovely little beach and perfect if you have kids. There are toilets, pubs and café around and the car park is close by.” Another that month described a path to the left of the beach leading up to an overlook “from which it’s possible to look further south down the coast, with many places to sit.”
The tide decides whether the two are one outing or two. A visitor in October 2025 called Little Haven “The loveliest beach and a lovely walk to Broad Haven when the tide is out” — which is also a warning in reverse. Check the tide before you set out to walk between them, and watch it turn while you are on the sand.
The north end of Broad Haven beach is the part worth walking to. Wikipedia records a number of geological features there: folding in the rock, natural arches, and a sea stack known locally as Lion Rock. The folding is why the cliffs at that end do not read as flat bedding; the arches and stack are what is left where the sea has worked through. None of it is reachable at every state of the tide, which is the second reason to check a tide table.
The village has a number of restaurants and pubs. The largest body of opinion attaches to The Ocean Cafe Bar & Restaurant, 4.3 from 1,036 Google reviews — the most-reviewed business in the pack for Broad Haven, and the lowest-rated of them. It runs a snack bar as well as the restaurant, which is easy to miss: a visitor in July 2026 wrote, “We didn’t use the restaurant but ordered some delicious ice cream from the snack bar.” Sand & Stone Kitchen carries 4.7 from 176 Google reviews.
For the water, Haven Sports Ltd is the surf shop, 4.5 from 49 Google reviews, and Wild Swim Wales is listed as an outdoor activity organiser at 5.0 from 36. The Boathouse Gallery sits at 4.8 from 5 Google reviews, a sample far too small to weigh. There is a playground, 4.6 from 41.
YHA Broad Haven, 4.5 from 296 Google reviews, takes campers as well as room guests. A visitor in June 2026 put it at “approximately 2 minute walk to the beach”; one in May 2026 noted that “the accommodation shares the car park with the beach”. Campers should know one rule in advance — a visitor in July 2026 wrote, “Note if camping you cannot use your own stoves,etc.”
Worth saying plainly: the reviews in this pack are uniformly positive and none records a complaint, which is a thinner evidence base than a set of divided opinions, not a stronger one.
The RNLI stationed a lifeboat at Little Haven from 1882 to 1921; the station reopened in 1967 with an inshore lifeboat, renamed the Little and Broad Haven Lifeboat Station for both villages. The only church in Broad Haven is the Baptist church; Little Haven has a Church in Wales church, and there is the medieval St Madoc of Ferns Church.
The village is better known for something else. In 1977 the area was the scene of alleged UFO sightings, and was nicknamed the Welsh Triangle, the Broad Haven Triangle or the Dyfed Triangle after the Bermuda Triangle. On 4 February 1977 a yellow cigar-shaped craft was claimed to have landed in a field next to Broad Haven Primary School, with a group of 14 children claiming to have seen the craft and a silver creature. On 17 February 1977 the same craft was claimed to have been seen by teachers at the school and other witnesses. On 19 April 1977 the owner of the Haven Fort Hotel in Little Haven claimed to have seen an upside-down saucer in a neighbouring field along with two humanoid creatures.
An investigator from the Ministry of Defence found no evidence of a landing, and speculated that “a local prankster” might have been involved. The story has outlived the investigation: it appeared in Netflix’s documentary Encounters in 2023, and in 2024 Sian Eleri investigated the sightings for the second series of BBC Three and BBC Cymru Wales’s Paranormal: The Village That Saw Aliens.
By road, Broad Haven is the western end of the B4341 — the road stops at the sea here, which is why the village is a destination rather than somewhere passed through.
On public transport, this research pack establishes no bus or train service between Pembrokeshire and Broad Haven — nothing in the transport material names the village, so treat arrival as a road journey unless you can confirm a service elsewhere. Parking is beside the beach at the Broad Haven end, shared with the YHA, and there is a car park close to the beach at Little Haven.
The village and what is around it, at walking scale.
Open any of them in Google Maps for directions and current opening.
Attractions, prices and availability in Pembrokeshire
These come from GetYourGuide's booking widget, which sets their cookies in your browser. Consent to load it and see the attractions and prices.
Background on Broad Haven draws on its Wikipedia article, text there being available under CC BY-SA 4.0.