Pembrokeshire is a county of lanes, not a town with a ring road. Almost every good beach and castle has its own car park, and almost every one of those parks fills on a fine morning in the holidays. The mistake is treating the first space you see as a plan. The other is treating a figure copied from last summer as a price.
Charges and hours sit on the council parking page. They move. This is which park is which, and who actually owns it.
Park once, for the day you are having, and walk. Do not hunt a space on the sand at eleven in August. Do not drive into Tenby looking for a harbour bay. Do not assume a National Trust membership covers a council park, or the other way round.
Many coastal parks charge only from 1 March to 31 October. Winter is often free on those sites. The board on the day is the tariff. A screenshot from 2025 is not. If you can leave the car at home, do that — our without a car piece is the other half of this.
This is the fact that catches people who parked at a National Trust beach in the morning and then fed a council machine in Tenby with the wrong assumption.
Pembrokeshire County Council runs the town parks and a string of coastal ones — Broad Haven on Marine Road, Newgale, Dale, Quickwell Hill and Merrivale in St Davids, and the whole Tenby cluster. Pay and display, PayByPhone on many sites, a mix of seasonal and year-round charging. The charges table is the live list.
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park charges on fourteen of its parks, including Oriel y Parc in St Davids, Little Haven, Nolton Haven, Solva, West Angle, Freshwater East, Manorbier and Poppit Sands. Seasonal, typically 9am to 7pm. Thirty minutes free (an extra hour for Blue Badge). Their parking page is the document.
The National Trust is a third system. Marloes, Martin’s Haven, Stackpole (Quay, Broad Haven South, Bosherston, Stackpole Court) and Porthclais near St Davids are Trust parks. Members who check in park free; non-members pay. JustPark is how most people do both. A Trust day ticket is valid that day in the Trust’s other Pembrokeshire parks. It is not valid in a council park.
St Davids City Council runs Whitesands. That is not a county park and it is not a Trust park. See below.
The usual window on the seasonal sites is 1 March to 31 October, charging 9am to 7pm. From November to February a large number of those parks are free. That is why a February walk at Newgale costs nothing at the barrier and an August one does not.
The window is not universal. Some town parks charge all year — Haverfordwest, Narberth, most of Pembroke Dock, Tenby North Beach. Tenby’s multi-storey has a summer/winter split and 24-hour charging on the upper floors. Read the board. Do not generalise from one park to the next.
Coach and motorhome tariffs exist on a shorter list. Height barriers exist on some of them. A high-top that fitted at Oriel y Parc will not fit under Tenby multi-storey.
Whitesands Bay is the main surf beach on the St Davids peninsula, and its car park is the one that fills. St Davids City Council owns it. Charging runs 1 March to 31 October; November to February it is free. Confirm the day’s rate on the city council parking page or at the hut — do not quote a blog, including this one.
The last stretch of road down to the park is narrow. On a fine August morning it is a queue. Arrive early, or use the Celtic Coaster around the peninsula, or park in St Davids and walk the coast path in.
Broad Haven on St Bride’s Bay — the village beach, not Broad Haven South on the Stackpole Estate — has a council long-stay on Marine Road. Seasonal. It is the family beach with shops behind it, and it fills, just later than Whitesands. Little Haven next door is a National Park park. They are a walk apart. You do not need to move the car. Broad Haven South, Barafundle and the lily ponds are National Trust, reached from Stackpole. Different system, different road.
Treat these as a set. Stackpole Quay is the walk to Barafundle; Broad Haven South and Bosherston serve the lily ponds; Marloes is the walk to the sands; Martin’s Haven is the Skomer boats; Porthclais is the old harbour below St Davids.
Members park free if they check in. Non-members pay. Signal is patchy on the headlands — download JustPark before you leave the A40. Coaches and motorhomes are barred from several Stackpole parks because the lanes will not take them. If the Quay is full, use another Trust park or come back; do not wait in the lane.
For a week of beaches, a membership generally pays for itself here. The land is free either way — see free things — the parking is the cost. See Pembrokeshire’s beaches.
Tenby has its own site on this network. This page is only the county-level decision: use it as a day base, not as a place to circle.
The council’s Tenby list is South Beach, North Beach, the multi-storey on Upper Park Road, Salterns, The Green, the harbour, the leisure centre and The Croft. North Beach is the large year-round long-stay below Castle Hill — useful for Tenby Castle if you walk up. South Beach is seasonal and closer to that sand. Salterns is the big one on the way in. The Green is the other seasonal long-stay.
The multi-storey is the default for a town day: Upper Park Road, 712 spaces, height about two metres. From May 2026, floors 1–3 charge around the clock in the summer season; the ground floor stays short-stay with a daytime window. Summer and winter tariffs differ. Confirm on the charges table.
Do not aim for the harbour. It is tiny and mostly permit. Park once, walk to Castle Hill, and treat the town beaches as a walk, not a driving tour. The Tenby site covers the rest.
Britain’s smallest city has three visitor parks and no station.
Oriel y Parc, the National Park visitor centre on Caerfai Road, is the one to use for a city day. Seasonal charging, EV points, coastal buses in the park, and the centre of St Davids five to ten minutes on the level. The cathedral sits in its hollow below; there is no cathedral car park for ordinary visitors.
Quickwell Hill (off Nun Street) and Merrivale (down toward St Justinians) are the council pair, both seasonal long-stay. Useful overflow, not a reason to skip Oriel y Parc. Whitesands is a separate trip, two miles west. Do not park in the city and expect to drive down at lunchtime in August.
Haverfordwest is the county town and the main station. The multi-storey is the cheap all-day park; Scotchwell and Rifleman Field are the other large long-stays. Both the multi-storey and Scotchwell have height barriers that will stop a motorhome.
Pembroke has The Commons (seasonal, near the castle), The Parade, and short-stay on South Quay and Long Entry. The signed “Castle Parking” can leave you with a steep climb — look before you follow the signs. Narberth has Townsmoor for a food-town afternoon. Pembroke Dock is Gordon Street for the ferry and the station.
Pay and display and PayByPhone cover most sites. Take a card and some coins — machines fail and signal drops. Blue Badge holders usually still pay, sometimes with extra time; read the plate.
The council sells weekly and seasonal permits — a Parking Passport, a COAST permit for a defined list of seasonal parks, and longer tickets. Whether any beat paying daily depends on how many days you are here and which parks you use. The permits page is the arithmetic.
Motorhomes belong on the sites that list them, or on a campsite. Overnight sleeping in the parks is not the idea. A wet day fills every covered town-centre park and empties the beach ones. See Pembrokeshire in the rain.
A St Davids and Whitesands day. Oriel y Parc for the city. Separate, early, for Whitesands — or the Celtic Coaster and no second park at all.
A Stackpole day. National Trust, early, at Stackpole Quay or Broad Haven South. Do not add Tenby to the same morning.
A Tenby day. Multi-storey on Upper Park Road, or North Beach for Castle Hill. Walk. Do not relocate to South Beach by car.
A Broad Haven day. Marine Road. Walk to Little Haven. The Puffin Shuttle if you would rather not drive the lane to Marloes.
A castle day. Pembroke on The Commons or the level park by the gate; Carew has its own on-site park. They are a short drive apart.
Park once. The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park is a walking park with tarmac at the edges. The car’s job is to reach one of those edges. After that, the day belongs to the path.