Where to Stay in Saundersfoot: Harbour, Hillside or Holiday Park

Saundersfoot is Tenby's easier-going neighbour: one big sandy beach, a working harbour, a village centre you can cross in three minutes, and a coast path that runs through old railway tunnels to the next two beaches. It's flatter than Tenby, simpler to park in, and the holiday-park belt on the hills behind means it holds a lot of families in summer without the village itself feeling like it.

Everything we hold a record for around the village is on hotels, B&Bs, campsites and caravan and holiday parks. Here is how it lies.

The harbour and The Strand

The village centre is the harbour, the beach in front of it, and the few streets of shops, cafés and pubs behind. Stay here and everything is on foot: the beach, the harbour wall, the Coast Path in both directions. Milford Street and the High Street have the village's small hotels and guest houses — the Gower Hotel and Harbourlight among them — and most of the cottage stock in the village is in the terraces around here.

The trade-off is August. The harbour car park fills by mid-morning and the front is busy until late. If you're staying in the centre, arrive with the car, park it, and leave it.

St Brides Hill and the spa hotel

The road climbing south out of the village towards Tenby is St Brides Hill, and St Brides Spa Hotel sits on it, looking down over the harbour. This is the one hotel in the county most people can name, and the reason is the position as much as the spa. Cottages and apartments on the hill share the view and are a five-minute walk down — and a steeper one back.

Coppet Hall, Wisemans Bridge and Amroth: along the tunnels

North of the harbour the Coast Path follows the old tramway that carried coal to the harbour, through three tunnels, to Coppet Hall and then Wisemans Bridge and Amroth. It's flat, pushchair-friendly and one of the best short walks in the county — see Amroth to Tenby for the whole stretch.

Wisemans Bridge is a hamlet with a pub on the beach and a surprising number of caravan parks on the slopes above it. Amroth is the last village before Carmarthenshire, with cottages along the front and parks and campsites behind. Both are quieter than Saundersfoot and a twenty-minute walk or a two-minute drive from it.

The holiday parks on the hills

Saundersfoot's real capacity is on the high ground between the village and Kilgetty: a belt of caravan and holiday parks — Sunny Vale, Moreton Farm, Trevayne Farm and the rest — with more around Kilgetty and Begelly. Statics, lodges, touring pitches and in some cases tents. This is where a family with a car and a week gets the most beach for the least money, at the cost of driving or a long downhill walk to the village each day.

Getting here without driving

Saundersfoot has a station, but it's a mile and a half inland on the Pembroke Dock line and there's no bus timed to trains — it's a walk down the hill with luggage or a taxi. Tenby is three miles south and the 351 bus links the two. The New Year's Day swim is the village's other season.

The honest bit

We haven't stayed in these places and don't rate them; the lists are what open data holds, with websites where it has them. For a hotel or B&B on your dates there's a Booking.com search on this page and on the Saundersfoot hotel list. It's a paid link and is labelled as one.