Where to Stay in Tenby: An Honest Local Guide

Tenby is small enough to cross on foot in fifteen minutes and steep enough that you'll notice. Where you sleep changes the week more than the size of the town suggests. A flat inside the walls and a house on the Esplanade are two different holidays, and most of the difference comes down to stairs, parking and noise.

Inside the walls

The medieval core, and the reason people come in the first place. Three beaches, the harbour, the museum on Castle Hill and every restaurant in town are within a ten-minute walk.

Two things to settle before you book.

Parking. Most properties inside the walls have none. The streets are permit-restricted, the car parks outside the walls fill by mid-morning in August, and the pull back up from the harbour with a week's shopping is a genuine hill. If a listing says parking is "nearby", ask where and what it costs — sometimes "nearby" is a fifteen-minute walk and a daily ticket.

Noise. We list 23 pubs in and around Tenby, and a good share of them are inside the walls. Around Tudor Square and the top end of the town that carries until closing time from Easter onwards. The lanes running down towards the harbour and Quay Hill are quieter without putting you out of it.

Best for couples, car-free trips, and anyone who would rather be in the town than near it.

The Esplanade and South Cliff

The Victorian terraces above South Beach, looking out at Caldey Island. These houses were built for the view and most of them still have it.

It's two minutes down to the sand and about five back into the walled town, and it sits outside the worst of the parking problem — a fair number of properties along here have a space, which inside the walls they almost never do.

Best for families who intend to use the beach properly, and for anyone staying more than a few nights.

Heywood Lane and out towards the golf links

Bigger houses, gardens, driveways. Fifteen to twenty minutes' walk into town or a short drive.

This is the practical end for larger groups and for dogs, because the year-round dog stretch of South Beach is down this way, towards Giltar Point and Penally.

Penally and New Hedges

A mile or two out, usually cheaper for the same size of house. Penally sits above the burrows with the Coast Path along the top and a station on the Pembroke Dock line. New Hedges puts you between Tenby and Saundersfoot.

Worth taking seriously if you're staying a week and driving anyway.

Four mistakes people make

Booking inside the walls with a car and no plan. Solve it first, not on arrival.

Assuming the dogs can go anywhere. Pembrokeshire's beach restrictions typically run 1 May to 30 September, and Tenby's town beaches are restricted ones. The southern end of South Beach is the exception and takes dogs all year. Read the sign at the access point — details change.

Only thinking about July and August. Out of season this is a different and arguably better town: weather coming in across the bay, empty walls, log fires, prices well down. Half term and Christmas still book out.

Booking the Ironman weekend by accident. It takes over Tenby for a weekend in September. Roads close and beds go months ahead. Excellent if you want it, less so if you didn't know.

Timing

Houses sleeping six or more in the school summer holidays want booking in January rather than April. A cottage for two, two or three months out, is usually fine outside bank holidays.

See places to stay in Tenby, where to eat, or what to do with children.