Pembrokeshire is the far south-western corner of Wales, and the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, designated in 1952, is the only national park in Britain that is predominantly coastline rather than upland. Almost all of it is a strip a few hundred metres deep running around the edge of the county, plus the Preseli Hills inland and a handful of islands offshore. The thing that ties it together is the Pembrokeshire Coast Path: 186 miles of waymarked route from St Dogmaels in the north to Amroth in the south, now a section of the much longer Wales Coast Path, which was the first continuous walking route around an entire country's coast when it opened in 2012.
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Two facts shape what you pack, and both come off the Atlantic. The first is exposure. The coast path runs along the top of cliffs with nothing between you and open ocean, and the wind here is relentless in a way that an inland forecast does not convey: a 15C day with a 30mph westerly feels nothing like a 15C day. The second is the tide. The Bristol Channel has one of the largest tidal ranges on earth, and on this coast that means a beach can shrink from a broad half mile of sand to nothing at all, with the path off it underwater, inside a couple of hours.
What the county is for is the walking, the birds and the water. Skomer holds internationally important seabird colonies, including the largest Manx shearwater colony in the world and puffins that are close enough to photograph without a long lens. Coasteering, the sport of scrambling, swimming and jumping along a rocky shoreline in a wetsuit and helmet, was effectively invented here in the 1980s and St Davids is still where you go to do it. And St Davids itself is the smallest city in Britain, a village of around 1,600 people that holds city status because of its cathedral.
This guide covers the path, the islands, the towns, the tides and the full packing list.
The Coast Path, the Beaches and the Islands
The coast path is the destination, and you do not have to walk all 186 miles of it to get the point.
The full route takes most people eleven to fifteen days and involves roughly the same total ascent as climbing Everest, because it drops to every cove and climbs out of it again. Day sections are the sensible way in. The stretch around St Davids Head, the cliffs between Stackpole and Broad Haven South, and the Marloes peninsula are the three that give the most coastline for the least logistics, and all are circular or bus-served.
Barafundle Bay, reached only on foot from Stackpole Quay, is regularly called one of the best beaches in Britain and has no road, no car park and no kiosk, which is exactly why. Whitesands near St Davids is the surf beach. Freshwater West is the wildest, a long Atlantic strand used as a film location for both Harry Potter and Robin Hood, and it has serious rip currents and is not a swimming beach. Marloes Sands sits under folded rock strata that geologists come specifically to look at.
Boats run to Skomer from Martin's Haven between roughly April and September, and the puffins are ashore from April to late July, which is the window worth planning around. Landings are capped, the boats do not run in swell, and in high season you should book ahead rather than turn up. Ramsey Island, off St Davids, is an RSPB reserve with a large grey seal population, and Grassholm further out holds one of the biggest gannet colonies in the world, visible on a boat trip that does not land. Caldey Island, off Tenby, is inhabited by Cistercian monks who sell the perfume they make.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Towns, the Stones and the Inland Half
There is more here than the shoreline, and the inland archaeology is genuinely remarkable.
St Davids is the obvious base for the north: the cathedral sits in a hollow below the town so it cannot be seen from the sea, which was the point when Viking raids were a live problem, and the ruined Bishop's Palace beside it is as impressive as the church. Tenby, in the south, is a walled medieval town wrapped around a harbour with pastel houses above it, the most conventionally pretty place in the county and the busiest in August.
Pembroke has a genuinely enormous Norman castle where Henry VII was born, with a natural limestone cavern underneath it. Carew Castle nearby has a tidal mill, one of very few left in Britain. Manorbier is a castle, a church and a beach in a single small bay.
Inland, the Preseli Hills are where the Stonehenge bluestones came from, quarried and moved about 150 miles to Wiltshire some 5,000 years ago, and you can walk to the outcrops they were cut from. Pentre Ifan is a neolithic dolmen with a capstone weighing many tonnes balanced on uprights, standing in a field with a view to the sea. Castell Henllys is an iron age fort reconstructed on its own excavated foundations rather than nearby, which is unusual and makes it worth the entry.
One cultural line is worth knowing about: the Landsker Line runs roughly east to west across the county, and north of it Welsh is widely spoken while south of it the place names and the language have been English for around 900 years, which is why southern Pembrokeshire has been called Little England beyond Wales.
When to Go
May and June are the best months, and September is the quiet alternative. It rains in all of them.
Late spring, April to June, is the strongest window. The cliffs are covered in thrift, sea campion and bluebells, the puffins are on Skomer, the days are long, and May and June are statistically among the drier months on a coast where nothing is dry. Temperatures sit around 13 to 17C and the sea is still cold.
Summer, July and August, is warm rather than hot, typically 18 to 20C, the sea is at its least unpleasant, and Tenby and Whitesands are crowded. School holidays fill the accommodation and the puffins leave in late July. Boat trips are most reliable now.
Autumn, September and October, is a good trade: the sea is at its warmest of the year in September, the crowds have gone, seals are pupping on the islands and along the cliffs from late summer into autumn, and the walking is excellent. Storms become likelier through October.
Winter, November to March, is mild by British standards, around 8 to 10C, thanks to the Atlantic, and genuinely wild. Storms come straight in off the ocean, boat trips stop, some businesses close, and the coast path in a gale is not a safe place to be. The coast in winter sun is spectacular and almost empty, which is a real argument for going, but you need to be flexible and you need proper waterproofs.
Is Pembrokeshire Safe for Women Travelers
Pembrokeshire is a very safe county and a comfortable place to walk alone, and the hazards here are the sea, the cliff edge and the tide rather than other people.
The US State Department publishes a United Kingdom advisory and the UK's own FCDO publishes nothing for its own territory, because it advises on travel abroad only. Neither records advised-against areas for ordinary visitors. The named risks are terrorism, which the UK assesses at a national threat level published by MI5 and which is a general rather than a localised concern, and the usual urban property crime in the big cities.
Crime is a small concern. These are small towns and villages entirely used to walkers and holidaymakers, women walk the coast path alone in every season, and the realistic property risk is theft from a car left at a remote beach car park, so leave nothing visible. Tenby has ordinary seaside town nightlife in summer, which means the usual sense about drinks and getting home, and nothing worse.
The cliff edge is the hazard the path itself presents. The route runs close to unfenced drops for long stretches, the ground at the very edge is undercut in places and gives way, and it is often windy enough to push you sideways. Stay back from the edge, particularly in wind, particularly on wet grass, and particularly for a photograph. Walk it in a group or tell someone your route, because signal is patchy on the cliffs.
The tide is the hazard that catches people who are not walking. The range here is very large, and beaches with cliffs behind them, including several of the most beautiful, cut off completely at high water. Check the tide tables for the day before going down to a cove, work out when the exit closes, and never assume you can scramble round a headland. The same range drives fierce currents around headlands and through sounds, which is why Ramsey Sound and Jack Sound are respected by everyone who sails here.
Swimming needs local knowledge. Rip currents are strong on the Atlantic-facing beaches, Freshwater West in particular, and the lifeguarded beaches are lifeguarded only in the main season and only between the flags. The water is cold enough all year for cold water shock, which is a real cause of drowning in Britain and takes effect in seconds rather than minutes. If you want the water, a guided coasteering session with a local operator is both safer and better than swimming off an unfamiliar beach.
Two practical points specific here. The Castlemartin and Manorbier military ranges close sections of the coast path for live firing on a published schedule, including the stretch past the Green Bridge of Wales and the Elegug Stacks, so check firing times before planning that walk. And ticks are present in the bracken and coastal scrub, with Lyme disease present in Wales, so check yourself after walking.
Emergency treatment in an NHS accident and emergency department is free to everyone regardless of nationality or insurance. Beyond that, overseas visitors can be charged for NHS hospital care, so travel insurance still matters, and a UK GHIC or EU EHIC covers medically necessary state care for eligible visitors. Prescriptions are charged in England and free in Scotland and Wales. Pharmacies can advise on minor problems without an appointment, and NHS 111 is the free triage line for anything you are unsure about.
The Pembrokeshire Packing List
Base layers, for wind rather than cold
The temperature here is mild almost all year and that is exactly what makes people underdress. What gets you on this coast is wind plus damp at 12C, on an exposed cliff top, four hours from the car, and wool is the answer to that combination in a way cotton is not: merino keeps insulating when it is wet with rain or sweat, it cuts the chill when you stop, and it does not turn cold and clammy the moment the wind picks up. Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron and 160gsm with no synthetic blend. A merino wool base layer for women is worth packing in July as well as in January, and it doubles as the layer you sleep in if the cottage is cold.
A genuinely windproof shell
A packable rain jacket for women is the most important single item, and the test here is not the waterproof rating but the hood: a hood that blows off in a westerly is useless, so you want one that cinches down and has a stiffened peak. Assume you will use it in every month.
Mid layer
A fleece mid layer in every season. The coast path is five degrees colder than the car park in wind, and boat trips to Skomer and Ramsey are colder again, because you are sitting still in an open boat on cold water.
Footwear with grip
Walking shoes with grip or light boots, and grip matters more than stiffness here: the path is grass, mud and worn rock on slopes above a drop, and wet Welsh grass on an incline is genuinely slippery. Add merino wool socks, and expect them to get wet.
Sun protection, which surprises people
There is no shade anywhere on the coast path and the light reflects off the sea, so a wide brim sun hat with a chin cord, which is the part that matters in wind, plus sunscreen and sunglasses. People burn on this coast on a breezy overcast June day without noticing, because the wind keeps them cool while the ultraviolet gets through.
A dry bag, for the boats and the water
A waterproof dry bag earns its place here more than in most destinations: spray in an open boat to Skomer will soak a camera and a phone, and if you go coasteering or kayaking you need somewhere for a car key that is not a pocket. It also works as a pack liner in rain.
The small things
A tide table for the days you are there, which is the single most useful piece of paper you can carry in this county. A paper Ordnance Survey map, because signal drops out along the cliffs. A refillable bottle, because there is nothing to buy on most of the path. And midge or cleg repellent for still evenings inland.
Essential Resources for Women in Pembrokeshire
Emergency numbers: 999 for police, ambulance, fire and mountain rescue, free from any phone including a locked mobile. 112 also works everywhere in the UK. For a health problem that is not an emergency, NHS 111 gives free advice 24 hours a day and will direct you to the right service, which is the number most visitors actually need.
Coastguard and cliff rescue: call 999 and ask for the coastguard for anything involving the sea, the shore, a cliff or someone cut off by the tide. This is the service to call rather than mountain rescue on this coast, and calling early is the right instinct. In Wales, the non-emergency health line is NHS 111 Wales.
Non-emergency police: 101 for Dyfed-Powys Police, and you will need a crime reference number for any insurance claim after a theft from a car.
Main hospital or clinic: Withybush General Hospital in Haverfordwest has the county's emergency department and is the one to head for. Glangwili General Hospital in Carmarthen covers the east, and Morriston Hospital in Swansea is the regional major trauma and burns centre, which is where a serious cliff or road injury will end up. For anything less, NHS 111 Wales will direct you and a pharmacy can handle minor problems.
Official health authority: the NHS at UK level, with Public Health Wales publishing the Welsh guidance, including on ticks and Lyme disease.
Tides and weather: check a tide table for every day you plan to be on a beach, and read the Met Office coastal and inshore waters forecast rather than the town one, because wind speed is what determines whether the path and the boats are usable.
Military firing times: the Castlemartin and Manorbier ranges close sections of the coast path, including the Green Bridge of Wales and the Elegug Stacks. The national park authority publishes current access, and a red flag means closed, without exception.
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in London, uk.usembassy.gov, covers the whole of the United Kingdom.
US State Department travel advisory: the United Kingdom advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: there is none, and this is not an omission. The FCDO advises British nationals on travel abroad, so it publishes nothing for the United Kingdom itself and both gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/united-kingdom and /uk return 404. In its place, the Government of Canada advice for the United Kingdom gives an equivalent third-country assessment.
Official tourism authority: Visit Wales, with the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority for path conditions, closures, boat operators and firing times, and VisitBritain at national level.
Transport: National Rail reaches Haverfordwest, Pembroke Dock, Tenby and Fishguard, and the coastal bus services that run along the path in season make one-way day walks possible without a car.
Solo women safety assessment: Pembrokeshire is a straightforward and welcoming county for a woman travelling alone, and plenty of women walk the whole 186 mile coast path solo every year. The towns are small, the accommodation is used to single walkers, and crime is not the thing to plan around: the realistic risk is theft from a car left at a remote beach. What deserves respect is the sea and the edge. The path runs beside unfenced cliffs, often in strong wind, sometimes on undercut ground, and the sensible rule is to stay well back, especially on wet grass and especially for a photograph. The Bristol Channel's tidal range is among the largest in the world, so beaches backed by cliffs cut off completely, and you should know the day's high water before you walk down to a cove. Rip currents are strong on the Atlantic beaches, Freshwater West in particular, lifeguards cover only the main season and only between the flags, and the water is cold enough all year to cause cold water shock within seconds. Mobile signal is patchy on the cliffs, so tell someone your route. Call 999 and ask for the coastguard for anything shore-related rather than working out who else to try. Check the Castlemartin firing schedule before walking that stretch. And check for ticks after walking through bracken. Handle the sea and the tide properly and this is one of the most rewarding solo walking trips in Britain.
Reading On
For the country-level picture, start with the UK travel guide for women. For why wool is the right answer to wind and damp at 12 degrees, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
