Broad Haven

This is the Broad Haven on St Brides Bay — not Broad Haven South near Bosherston, which catches people out every summer. It's a broad, gently-shelving beach right in front of the village, with a big car park at the back, toilets, shops and cafés across the road, and RNLI lifeguards through the main season. If you have small children and want sand plus a loo plus an ice cream without a route march, this is the pick of the north-west coast.

The tide goes out a long way and comes back across flat sand quickly, so keep an eye on anyone playing out near the water line. At the southern end, the rocks and the sea stack known as the Sleek Stone give proper rockpooling on a low spring tide, and there's a natural arch worth walking out to. The bay picks up Atlantic swell, so on windy days you'll get respectable surf; on still summer evenings it flattens right off and the sunsets are the reason people book the same cottage every year.

Practicalities: parking fills by late morning in August, though the car park is large enough that you'll usually get in. The seasonal dog restriction applies to the main beach between 1 May and 30 September — walk five minutes south to Little Haven, or come out of season, and dogs have the run of it. The Coast Path north over the cliffs to Druidston and south into Little Haven both start from the village, and both are short enough to do before lunch.