Newport, Pembrokeshire

Newport's accommodation is concentrated in and around the town centre, with a handful of well-regarded restaurants with rooms, traditional coaching inns and long-established guest houses, supplemented by a wider choice a short drive away in Nevern and Fishguard. At the upper end, Georgian townhouses and a former coaching inn have been carefully restored into boutique hotels and guest houses, pairing comfortable rooms with kitchen gardens, sea views or four-course breakfasts built around local produce. These properties tend to book up first in summer, so early reservations are worthwhile for anyone set on a particular room.

In the middle of the market, Newport and its surrounding villages have several traditional inns that combine letting rooms with a working pub downstairs, meaning guests can expect a proper bar, a locally sourced menu and, in most cases, a fire in the colder months. These are good choices for walkers coming off the Coast Path or the Preseli Hills who want a hearty dinner within a few steps of bed, and several welcome dogs in at least some rooms.

At the more affordable end, Newport has a small number of established guest houses and B&Bs, several run by the same families for many years, offering en-suite rooms and breakfasts that draw on the same local produce found in the town's restaurants. Rooms here are simpler than at the boutique properties but the welcome tends to be personal, with hosts who know the surrounding footpaths, tide times and best picnic spots well. Whichever category suits, most of Newport's accommodation is within walking distance of the high street, the estuary at Parrog, or both, meaning a car is useful for exploring further afield but not essential for enjoying the town itself.

Newport rewards both energetic days and slow ones, with the coast path, the beach and the hills all within easy reach of the town centre.

• Newport Sands is the town's beach, a broad stretch of sand at the mouth of the estuary with dunes behind it, popular for swimming, bodyboarding and dog walking, and backed by a golf course.
• Carningli Common rises steeply above the town to an Iron Age hillfort at 347 metres, with the best short, sharp walk in the area and views stretching from Newport Bay to the whole Preseli range.
• Pentre Ifan burial chamber, three miles south-east of town, is the largest and best-preserved neolithic dolmen in Wales, its huge capstone balanced on three uprights in open farmland.
• Parrog waterfront is an easy mile from the centre, with the old lime kilns, moored boats on the estuary, and views across to Newport Sands and the dunes.
• The Pembrokeshire Coast Path runs immediately north of town towards Ceibwr Bay and Moylgrove, a stretch of high, undulating cliffs, sea caves and, in autumn, grey seals in the coves below.
• Nevern village and St Brynach's Church, two miles inland, has an avenue of ancient yews including the famous bleeding yew, plus a Celtic cross and early inscribed stones in the churchyard.
• Cwm-yr-Eglwys, a short drive or coastal walk away, is a small cove with the ruined gable end of a chapel destroyed in an 1859 storm, one of the most photographed spots on this coast.
• The Preseli Hills behind the town offer open moorland walking to the bluestone outcrops at Carn Menyn, source of the smaller stones at Stonehenge, with wide views in clear weather.

Newport's food scene is disproportionately good for its size, built around Pembrokeshire's strong local produce: Welsh lamb off the Preseli hill farms, crab and lobster landed along Cardigan Bay, and laverbread and cockles from the wider Welsh coastal tradition.

The town's dining rooms include Llys Meddyg, a restaurant with rooms built around a kitchen garden and seasonal Welsh cooking, and The Golden Lion and The Castle Inn, both traditional pubs serving locally sourced food alongside real ales. Blas at Fronlas operates as a café and deli by day, using local suppliers for breakfasts, light lunches and packed lunches for walkers heading out onto the coast path.

A monthly food and craft market brings together local producers, and the town's small shops include a butcher and a well-stocked wholefood and deli shop, useful for putting together a picnic before a walk on Carningli or along the cliffs towards Ceibwr Bay.

Camping around Newport, Pembrokeshire ranges from a simple waterside pitch a short walk from town to larger parks set back in the countryside with fuller facilities, giving visitors a genuine choice between a basic, low-key stay and one with more creature comforts. Sites close to the Nevern Estuary put campers within easy reach of Parrog, Newport Sands and the town's pubs and shops on foot, which suits anyone travelling without a car or wanting to leave it parked for the duration of their stay.

Further from the centre, larger holiday parks set in their own grounds offer a wider mix of pitch types, from touring and tent pitches to static caravans, generally alongside amenity blocks, on-site bars and, in some cases, swimming pools or play areas, making them a practical option for families. A little further afield again, smaller and more low-impact sites set in woodland or open farmland appeal to campers looking for a quieter, simpler experience with fewer facilities but a strong sense of place, often within reach of the Preseli Hills as well as the coast.

Across all three types, the appeal of camping here is the same: the ability to fall asleep within earshot of the sea or the hill farms that surround Newport, and to wake up already on the doorstep of the Coast Path, Carningli and the wider Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Booking ahead for the school summer holidays is strongly advised, as pitches at the smaller, more popular sites go quickly.