Along One Of The UK's Best Coastlines Is A National Park With Fresh Seafood, Gorgeous Beaches, And Scenic Cliffs

Welcome to Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, the only national park in the United Kingdom that's designated mainly for its coastline. If you're hunting for puffin-topped islets bashed by endless swell, sweeping beaches that glimmer gold between the dunes and the rock-ribbed headlands, sightings of seals and porpoises in the wild, quaint fishing villages, and more clifftop walking than you can shake a Welsh cake at, you've come to the right place.

The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park forms a loose U-shape around Wales' western region of Pembrokeshire, running from the historical village of St Dogmaels in the north to the south coast near Amroth. Between those two points, it encompasses some spectacularly raw runs of coastline, is interspersed with beaches to suit all sorts of travelers, from families to surfers, and even creeps up into upland landscapes, like the wild, wind-blasted reaches of the myth-steeped Preseli Hills.

All that tickled your adventurous spirit? Many visitors to the Pembrokeshire Coast will come by car, driving into the depths of western Wales on the A40 road — the trip takes just a little over two hours from the arrivals hall at Cardiff Airport (CWL), Wales's main international airport. You can also travel to some places within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park by rail. Direct trains go from Swansea to the charming coastal town of Fishguard in the north of the park, for example, while other services run to the historic town of Tenby on the south coast.

Pembrokeshire's 10 Blue Flag beaches (as per Visit Wales) are just the tip of the iceberg. This region has so many sheltered coves, narrow inlets, and off-the-beaten-path runs of sand that you'd need months, even years, to discover them all. Picking the best is a tricky business, but there are a few locations that come up time and time again.

First, there's Marloes Sands, a dash of pale sand that's skewered with dagger-like rocks at one end and backed by colossal cliffs at the other. It's broken into a series of little coves when the tide pushes up, with various access points from the high cliff path above. Then there's Barafundle Bay, a real beauty that's haloed in sand dunes and oak forests, often ranked among the very best beaches in all of Europe.

Smaller, harder-to-reach bays also beckon those who want to escape the crowds. Check out Church Doors Cove just outside of the village of Manorbier. It's hemmed in by huge walls of stone to the west and the east, and the only way in is via a thigh-busting staircase that clings precipitously to the rocks. There's also the tidal bay of often-deserted Musselwick, which you can only access by foot when the tide is low.

The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park really lends itself to explorations on foot. The reason? Much of the park is linked up by an 186-mile-long national trail known, appropriately, as the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. That weaves and wiggles through old fishing villages, past prehistoric hill forts, and across what Visit Pembrokeshire hails as some of the most fantastic coastline in the entire United Kingdom. Experienced hikers can traverse the path in one swoop, taking roughly two full weeks, while others may prefer to break it into sections and loops for more bite-sized day hiking.

Generally speaking, the more challenging, more dramatic sections of the coast here are in the north, between St Davids (one of the smallest cities in the world) and Newport. That's where the soaring 450-foot-high cliffs of Strumble Head await, with grazing ponies up top, and swum around by wild seals below. Further south, a two-hour day hike loops around the wonderful Marloes Peninsula, beginning at a National Trust parking lot before passing beneath ruins from the Iron Age and gazing out towards the wild island of Skomer, a local haven for seabirds like puffins.

Many coastal walks pass through loveable little towns or villages, places where boats jostle in the harbors and the pubs ooze with character. We're talking places like the charming Welsh village of Solva, which lies along a section of coast famed for its chiseled cliffs and coves. Once you're done walking there, you could reward yourself with a beach picnic of locally caught crab from the celebrated Mrs Will the Fish seafood takeaway. Or, further around the coast in the resort of Saundersfoot, there's The Stone Crab, a highly rated eatery that serves up smoked mackerel and seared bream among oodles of other taste-bud-tingling things from the sea.