This Charming Welsh Village Inside A National Park Is A Coastal Beauty With Award-Winning Beaches And Fresh Seafood

The southwestern tip of Wales is a corner of the U.K. that offers up gorgeous beaches, stunning clifftop views, and idyllic fishing towns, one after the other. Among them, the little village of Saundersfoot hugs its own wide bay, and oozes the time-old charm of a proper Welsh seaside town — think fishing boats bobbing in the local harbor, hearty pubs that have been around for centuries, and long stretches of sand out front that turn into family vacation hubs when the summer sun shines.

The other great selling point of salt-washed Saundersfoot is surely its location inside the boundaries of the famed Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. It's been a designated reserve since the 1950s, and extends out to the west before pushing up and around several more headlands to the north, unfolding in a majestic show of lagoons, soaring rock stacks that lurch straight from the Atlantic, and even more sweeping beaches washed by endless waves.

The good news is that all that Welsh coastal wilderness isn't too hard to reach, because Saundersfoot happens to be one of the more accessible villages within Pembrokeshire as a whole. That's down to the location on the far southeastern edge of the national park, just a bit over an hour outside of Swansea, the second-largest city in Wales, and under two hours from the underrated, affordable capital of Cardiff. The upshot? Cardiff Airport, which is the country's main international hub, is also under two hours from the beach town.

Saundersfoot is a beach resort at heart. It spills into Saundersfoot Bay and is fronted by the long, wide, beige powder of Saundersfoot Beach itself. The proximity to the village center, coupled with good protection from the open ocean (the beach faces east, away from ocean swells) and a shallow shelf, makes it a doozy for families on the hunt for classic swim and sandcastle-building sessions. As one visitor put it on Tripadvisor, Saundersfoot is a "typical oldie worldie British seaside resort ... Great place to spend a sunny day, with a bucket and spade, and have fun."

But the beach on the doorstep really is just the tip of the iceberg. Other little sections of sand are accessible by foot to the south and north of town. In one direction, you'll come upon Coppet Hall Beach, a Blue Flag-awarded spot (read more about what a Blue Flag award really tells you if you don't know yet) with tide pools clinging to its cliffs. In the other direction, a 45-minute hike can bring you to Monkstone Beach, where shark fin-like rocks emerge from the sea, and lower tides reveal a stunning run of pure golden sand that's rarely busy.

And then, of course, there's the rest of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, home to one of the U.K.'s best coastlines. Don't expect to get through all of it in a single vacation, for the path that links the reserve from end to end is a whopping 186 miles. Thankfully, there are some eye-popping gems close to Saundersfoot. Church Door Cove is a case in point. Only a 20-minute drive west from the village, it's only accessible when the tide drops low, when you can walk steep steps down to see a colossal archway carved out of the Welsh coast.

Saundersfoot wasn't always a thriving vacation town, you know. It really boomed into life in the 1800s during the height of the Industrial Revolution, and you can still see the remnants of the old train lines that connected the mines to the port here. However, they've since been transformed into walking paths, and the big coal ships have been replaced with the boats of local fishermen bringing in the catch of the day.

Talking of the catch of the day, there's seafood at every corner in little Saundersfoot. Rated 4.7 out of 5 on both Google and Tripadvisor, The Stone Crab often takes center stage for all things salty and sea-related. It's won multiple Welsh restaurant awards for its ocean-inspired menu, which runs the gamut from smoked mackerel sharing plates to whole grilled lobster with fries.

The laid-back bar-come-eatery of HARBWR is just down the road, too, beckoning with a terrace that looks out across town and the harbor beyond. It's run by a duo of local chefs and brewers, and features a menu of hearty seafood plates — battered cod, hake burgers — that are perfect for refueling after a long coastal hike, especially when paired with an ale crafted in the nearby charmer of a coastal town that is Tenby.