Saundersfoot

Saundersfoot's accommodation clusters mostly around two areas: St Brides Hill, the rise above the harbour where the village's larger hotels and several guest houses look straight out over the bay, and the village centre itself, closer to the shops and the beach, where smaller hotels and family-run guest houses tend to be more affordable without losing the short walk to the sand. St Brides Hill suits visitors who want the classic seaside view from their room and don't mind a short climb up from the harbour in the evening; the village centre suits anyone who wants to be in the thick of things, close to the cafés, restaurants and the beach itself.

Further out, a scatter of guest houses along the A478 towards Tenby and around Stepaside offer a quieter, more rural alternative, usually with easier parking and marginally lower rates, at the cost of a short drive rather than a walk into the village. This can work well for visitors planning to split their time between Saundersfoot and Tenby, since both are within a few minutes by car from that stretch of road. Across the village, the choice runs from simple, good-value guest house doubles with a cooked breakfast to a four-star spa hotel with a cliffside pool and an AA Rosette restaurant, so budget and appetite for a sea view both play into where to stay as much as location does. As with most small Pembrokeshire resorts, rooms close to the beach and harbour sell out first for July and August, so booking well ahead matters more here than the modest size of the village might suggest.

The village and its immediate surroundings offer plenty for a few days, from the beach itself to the wider coast path.

• Saundersfoot Harbour is the heart of the village, a stone-walled port built for the coal trade in the 1830s and now home to yachts, small fishing boats and sea safari trips, with cafés and restaurants lining the quay.
• Saundersfoot Beach is a Blue Flag, sand beach that holds the tide well, making it a reliable choice for swimming, sandcastles and rock pooling right through the day.
• The Pembrokeshire Coast Path passes directly through Saundersfoot, with a particularly good stretch running north through old railway tunnels to the quieter sands of Wisemans Bridge and Amroth.
• Glen Beach, a smaller, more sheltered cove just south of the harbour, is popular for rock pooling and tends to stay quieter than the main beach even in peak season.
• The Saundersfoot Crabbing Centre, on the harbour, hires out crabbing lines and buckets, a fixture of family holidays here for generations.
• Boat trips from the harbour run seasonal sea safaris and fishing charters out into Carmarthen Bay, with a decent chance of spotting seals, dolphins or seabirds depending on the season.
• Tenby, two miles south along the coast road or the coast path, adds a walled medieval old town, three further beaches and a boat trip out to Caldey Island to a Saundersfoot stay.
• Colby Woodland Garden, a National Trust valley garden a few miles inland near Amroth, makes a good half-day out among rhododendrons, bluebells and woodland walks.

Seafood, unsurprisingly, is the local speciality: crab and lobster landed at the harbour turn up on menus around the village, alongside the wider Pembrokeshire staples of laverbread, cockles and Welsh lamb. The harbourfront itself is where most of the village's cafés, chip shops and restaurants cluster, making the most of the view over the boats and out into the bay.

A handful of more ambitious restaurants have built strong local reputations in recent years, including a well-regarded fine dining restaurant attached to the village's clifftop spa hotel, serving seasonal Welsh menus with sea views. Traditional pubs serve Welsh ales within easy walking distance of the beach, and a local deli on the harbour stocks Pembrokeshire cheeses, meats and other produce for anyone self-catering nearby. In summer, the beachfront ice cream parlours and fish and chip shops are as much a part of a Saundersfoot day as the sand itself, and the village's carnival and harbour festivals through the season usually bring food stalls and local produce out onto the quay.

The countryside immediately behind Saundersfoot, a mix of wooded valleys and low farmland running back from the coast towards Kilgetty and Stepaside, suits camping and touring well without straying into serious hill country; the more dramatic scenery of the Pembrokeshire Coast Path is a short walk or drive away rather than on the doorstep of most sites. Options range from small, family-run touring parks a mile or so inland to larger holiday parks nearer the coast with pools, shops and entertainment, and a handful of sites right by the beach at nearby Wisemans Bridge and Amroth for anyone who wants to fall out of a tent and onto the sand.

Wild camping has no general legal right in Wales, so pitching up on the coast path or open farmland around Saundersfoot without the landowner's agreement counts as trespass, even where it happens quietly; anyone wanting an informal pitch should ask permission first rather than assume it. The weather off Carmarthen Bay can turn quickly even in summer, with squally showers blowing in from the Atlantic, so a decent tent and waterproofs matter more here than the generally mild climate suggests. May to September is the reliable camping season, with June and early July often the best combination of good weather and quieter sites, before the school-holiday peak fills the coastal parks through late July and August.