Summer Travels: Tenby

I spent a holiday at Tenby once when I was a child - probably aged about 8 - but all I could remember was that it had nice beaches. As we decided we wanted to visit South Wales, I put Tenby into Booking.com as a location, found a hotel that looked good and could be booked with free cancellation (this was during peak covid and we had no idea what the summer would bring) and that decided our destination. We simply could not have chosen better. Everything exceeded our expectations - we thought Tenby would be nice, but it is stunning. The hotel was pretty much perfect, situated at the top of a cliff overlooking the North Bay. There was a terrace with a magnificent view right cross the bay to the town, good food in the hotel restaurant, an outside pool (and good enough weather to swim in it!), helpful and friendly staff, and even an electric car charger in the car park.  

The pictures speak for themselves. Pretty painted houses round the harbour and quirky little streets. 

 

It is also a walled town, with most of its historic walls still standing. Not surprisingly given how lovely Tenby is and that it was August it was busy. Most of the restaurants had queues in the evening, and we discovered that if we wanted to eat in the town it was best to eat early. We had a couple of excellent meals, there but most of the time relied on the hotel restaurant rather than risk getting stuck in a long queue - no hardship as the food was very good. 

Then there were the beaches. This was the beach which began just below our hotel. There was a private path down, a steep zigzag that M and I were very unsure of the first couple of times we went down it, relying on TG to help us round the most dodgy corners, but by the end of the holiday we had mastered it! Most days we went down the scary path and walked into town along the beach rather than round by the road. 

The view below is looking along the beach in the other direction. Our hotel was the white building on the left. The weather really was as lovely as it looks. We didn't swim in the sea, but we paddled and swam in the slightly warmer hotel pool instead.

On the other side of the headland behind the harbour was another very long beach, which I think was the one I remember from my childhood visit. It was possible to take various boat trips from the harbour, but during low tide - which was much of the day while we were there - the boats ran from this makeshift landing stage which was towed up and down the beach by a tractor. 

It really was a lovely holiday and we definitely hope to go back again. We did quite a bit of walking and exploring, but also spent time just sitting on the beach and relaxing in the hotel. I think we all felt that we got the balance about right and came home feeling that our batteries had been recharged. I'll write another post about some of the places we explored.