Pembrokeshire is one of the best family destinations in Britain and the reason is variety. In a county you can drive across in an hour there are more than fifty beaches, half a dozen castles you can climb about in, a serious zoo, a dinosaur park, an Iron Age village rebuilt on its own foundations, and boat trips to islands covered in puffins.
The county is also small enough that you are never far from anything, and quiet enough that even in August you can find a beach with space on it.
North of Saundersfoot, and the single biggest family day out in the county — around half a million visits a year. It started as a working farm and grew into an adventure park and zoo: lions, giraffes, penguins and rhinos alongside farm animals, a vintage funfair under cover, indoor play barns and outdoor adventure areas.
The vintage indoor funfair is the thing that makes it work in Welsh weather: real fairground rides in a covered hall, with unlimited rides included. Allow a full day; there is more on the Folly Farm page.
Near Tenby. A trail of life-size dinosaur models through woodland, plus go-karts, crazy golf, an indoor soft play and an astroturf area. Pitched at younger children and does the job well.
Also near Tenby. An activity park rather than a theme park: karting, laser tag, bowling, pirate golf, archery, high ropes and a good deal else, priced per activity or by wristband. It suits older children and teenagers better than the dinosaur park does, and there is a substantial indoor element.
Pembrokeshire has more castles than almost any comparable county, and three of them are genuinely good with children.
Pembroke Castle is the big one: a huge round keep you can climb, a great gatehouse, wall walks, and the Wogan Cavern, a natural cave underneath the castle. Henry VII was born here. There are re-enactments and events through the summer, and it is the best castle in west Wales for children.
Carew Castle combines a Norman castle with an Elizabethan house, a tidal mill — one of only four restored tidal mills in Britain — and a mill pond walk. It is run by the National Park and has a strong events programme.
Manorbier Castle, five miles south-west of Tenby, is a Norman castle above a beach, still with its curtain walls and towers, and small enough to feel manageable.
Cilgerran in the north stands above a gorge on the Teifi, and Llawhaden is a free ruin in the middle of the county.
The county has over fifty and they are not all the same. The ones that work best with children:
Broad Haven in St Bride’s Bay — a village beach with sand, a playground, shops and lifeguards.
Barafundle — reachable only on foot from Stackpole Quay, which is why it is the beautiful one; a good walk with older children.
Broad Haven South — sand, dunes and Church Rock standing in the sea, next to the lily ponds.
Whitesands near St Davids — Blue Flag, lifeguarded, and the surf school beach.
Freshwater East, Saundersfoot and Tenby’s three beaches all have facilities and safe swimming.
Our beaches guide covers them all.
This is the county’s speciality. Boats run from Martin’s Haven to Skomer, where puffins nest within a couple of metres of the footpaths between April and July and are entirely unbothered by people. Boats from St Justinians near St Davids run round Ramsey Island and out to the tide races, and boats from Tenby cross to Caldey Island with its monastery.
Seal watching is reliable from autumn onwards, when grey seal pups appear on the beaches below the cliffs. Dolphins and porpoises are common in the tide races.
For younger children, the shorter round-island trips are better than the long ones. Our islands guide has the detail.
Castell Henllys, in the north near Crymych, is an Iron Age village reconstructed on the exact spot where the original roundhouses stood — you walk into thatched houses on their own excavated foundations, with costumed interpreters in season. It is genuinely different from a normal heritage site.
St Govan’s Chapel, built into a cliff cleft and reached by worn steps, takes fifteen minutes and is unforgettable.
The Tudor Merchant’s House in Tenby is a small National Trust house furnished as it would have been in 1500.
Which it does. Folly Farm’s indoor funfair and play barns are the best answer in the county. Heatherton and the Dinosaur Park both have indoor sections. Pembroke Castle’s towers and cavern give shelter. The leisure centres at Haverfordwest and Milford Haven have pools. And the Blue Lagoon at Bluestone and the larger holiday parks have subtropical pools open to day visitors at times.
Our wet weather guide has more.
Getting here. The main line from Cardiff and Swansea runs through Carmarthen to Haverfordwest, Milford Haven, Pembroke Dock, Tenby and Fishguard. Once here, most families drive.
Distances. The county is small — an hour from end to end — but the roads are lanes and the coast is indented, so journeys take longer than they look.
Tides matter on every beach here. Several of the coves are cut off at high water.
Firing ranges. Castlemartin and Manorbier close sections of coast when firing. Check before planning a walk there.
A south Pembrokeshire day. Pembroke Castle in the morning — the keep, the wall walks and the cavern will take two hours — then out to the Stackpole Estate for the afternoon: the lily ponds, Broad Haven South with Church Rock, and the walk over to Barafundle if legs allow. A castle and two of the best beaches in Britain, and almost no driving.
A wildlife day. Boat from Martin’s Haven to Skomer in the morning for the puffins, if you have booked and the weather holds; Marloes Sands in the afternoon. If the boat is cancelled — and it often is — go instead to the Elegug Stacks on the Castlemartin coast, where the seabirds crowd a rock a few metres from a viewing point, and St Govan’s Chapel down the road.
Under five: the sheltered beaches at Broad Haven, Freshwater East and Saundersfoot; Folly Farm’s farm animals and indoor funfair; the Dinosaur Park.
Five to eleven: the sweet spot here. Pembroke and Carew castles, Skomer’s puffins, rock pooling at Marloes and Manorbier, Castell Henllys, Heatherton.
Teenagers: coasteering, surfing at Newgale and Whitesands, the Blue Lagoon at Abereiddi, the Coast Path, and the fast round-island boats through the Ramsey tide races.
The county is cheap if you are outdoors and expensive if you are not. Every beach and the whole Coast Path are free; the parking is not, and National Trust membership pays for itself in a week here. Folly Farm, Heatherton and the boat trips are the significant costs, and the boats in particular are not cheap for a family.
The pattern that works is one paid day in three, with beaches and the coast path in between.
Folly Farm, for a full day in any weather. Pembroke Castle is the best castle for children.
Skomer Island, from Martin’s Haven, between April and July. The birds nest beside the paths and are remarkably tame.
Broad Haven for facilities, Whitesands for surf lessons, Barafundle if you do not mind the walk.
Folly Farm’s indoor funfair, Heatherton, the castles and the leisure centre pools.
A week, easily. Ten days if you want the islands and the north of the county as well.