July 23, 2017. Sunday. Wales. So much to love: lush green landscape; sprawling hills crisscrossed with farms and hedgerows; the high cliffs overlooking endless expanses of water; huge, wide, and seemingly endless beaches; tiny little coastal hiking trails that hug the sides of long hills and cliffs close to the water; the lovely purple and pink heather in the national parks; the ancient cathedrals and castles; welshcakes; extra mature Welsh cheddar cheese; Joe’s ice cream; cows that stop traffic on main roads as they cross; and of course the teeny back roads that are officially two-way but are barely wide enough for one car – with a 60 mph speed limit, sharp blind corners, and little tiny pull over places in case you meet another car.

We’re on the train speeding back from a truly wonderful three days in Wales. Everyone is sunkissed, windswept, leg-sore, but happy. Overall, we were pleasantly surprised at the quaintness and sheer beauty of the landscape. We’ve seen a lot of amazing vistas and places this summer – the Alps, for example! – but Wales was in its own category somehow. We all want to come back and spend more time hiking the coast and exploring. Part of what we loved was the lack of crowds and generally low-key tourism. There were many times that we were the only car on back roads for stretches at a time, and really the only people around on some of the amazing huge beaches. And even when we hit the more well-traveled places, like Barafundle Bay this afternoon, it still wasn’t crowded.

The trip started on Friday morning, when we caught an 8:45 am train from Paddington Station in London to Swansea in Wales. The trip takes 3 hours, with no transfers. In Swansea we picked up our rental car – a little seven seater we soon named Mumbles (more on that soon). We arrived in a downpour, but we wanted to explore a few recommended spots near Swansea before heading to our Air BnB. We drove south out of Swansea along the long but strange beach area called The Mumbles. The beach itself is not really sandy – more rocky and seaweedy. But the town of Mumbles has a pier at the far end of it that people enjoy. We stopped in Mumbles at Joe’s Ice Cream Parlour to continue our ongoing sampling of international ice cream, sorbet, and gelato. Refreshed, we hit the coastal road and immediately saw gorgeous costal vistas and experienced the humorous attempts of our GPS programs to get us to our destinations on narrow roads that felt more like lanes than anything else. We eventually ended up at a beautiful beach in the Gowers region called Three Cliffs Beach. The rain lessened quite a bit, but the trail down was steep and slippery at times. But at the bottom we crossed some large sand dunes and were rewarded with a humongous wide beach at low tide with beautiful craggy rocks all around. We messed around there for while before hiking up another route.

On the road again, we had a long-ish 1.5 hour ride to the general area of our Air BnB. After a series of small backroads, we finally hit larger roads and, eventually, a four lane highway of sorts. But even that was punctuated with large rotaries, where traffic was backing up a bit (Friday rush hour in Wales, I suppose – pretty minor). We stopped for dinner at a place in Pembroke Dock, in Pembrokeshire. We tried to more local places first (both pubs), but finally decided on a chain-like restaurant that had acceptable food, even if not really served with a local flavor. The rain and sunshine produced a nice rainbow – the first of several on the trip.

From Pembroke Dock, we finally set our course for our Air BnB in the small town of Hook (just outside of Haverfordwest. The route took us on yet more narrow back roads. And here’s the thing about them: they aren’t just narrow, they are also walled in with dirt and bushes hedgerows. So you feel like you are in a narrow chute, which makes all the corners completely blind. It’s cute at first, but nerve-wracking over time! And a bummer since it blocks out the scenery sometimes. Our Air BnB was lovely – a nice four-bedroom house overlooking a lush field. We felt right at home, and the kids were immediately wishing our flat in London was that large! We were all soaked and a little tired, so the large bathtub felt especially good!

Saturday morning we slept in a bit before packing our lunches and heading out. I went to the local grocery store for supplies and a coffee. Super cute / funny small town! On the road, our first destination was Marloes Beach. The drive there was through an amazing series of tiny backroads and included a wrong turn encouraged by our GPS down someone’s lane and to a field of cows. All fun. We finally found the parking lot, paid, and chose a nice loop down to the beach and back again. The first part of the trail took us through beautiful sprawling fields, but then we turned toward the coast and then walked high above the water on an amazing little trail that give us panoramic vistas of the water, cliffs, and beach. The trail eventually took us down to the huge and wide beach itself, where we plopped our things down and all got a little wetter than we wanted to.

A short hike back up and out, and we were on the road again, this time to St. David’s area, Whitesands Beach, and the Coastal Walk. But we kept getting distracted by cool views, beaches, and places! Our first distraction was a pre-planned stop at the Druidstone Hotel and Pub. Several people highly recommended it to us, and for good reason. It is perched high above yet another super wide and deep beach, with a panoramic view of the water. We ordered a variety of local goodies from the pub inside, along with a local pint for me (Lin). The sun was out, and it was just about perfect sitting there eating our scones, jam, and clotted cream, ice cream, and a local special caramel type cake. The kids and I explored the coastal trail that passed right by and around the corner was yet another long view of the coastline.

We pulled ourselves away and drove to St. David’s, stopping only a few times for pictures. St. David’s itself is a cute sleepy little town – the southwestern most town in Wales. We drove through it without stopping in order to hike some trails around Whitesands before sunset. The beach itself was small compared to the ones we had seen at Three Cliffs and Marloes. But we found the trail and immediately got immersed in the wilderness of the Pembrokeshire National Coast. The path hugged the coast, but was mostly high up on the cliffs. There were few points we could hike down to small remote beaches, but mostly the views were from up high. The terrain varied from the cliff coasts to rocky piles and points to gorgeous sprawling fields of heather with the coast in the distance. We opted not to climb up to the highest point overlooking St. David’s and Whitesand since it was getting late, but it was tempting! We drove back into St. David’s for a yummy local dinner that included local sausages and Welsh lamb, among other things. After a quick look at the old and cool St. David’s Cathedral, we were on the road for our Air BnB. More baths and we were soon all in bed, a bit late, as usual.

This morning we were supposed to get on the road early, but we were all too tired. Around 9:30 am we finally got on the road and checked out of the nice house. Our first destination took us through the town of Pembroke, which has a famous castle that Henry VII was born in. From there we headed straight for our first (real) destination, again on the Pembrokeshire coast: Stack Rocks and Green Bridge of Wales. Both are rock formations on the southern coast of Pembrokeshire: the first a series of tall, independently standing rock formations; the second a huge rock arch connected to the mainland/cliff. It was a chilly and overcast, but we were in awe standing there a hundred feet or so above the water. There were some different kinds of sea birds that the kids enjoyed watching (including one that had broken its neck diving into the water – well, they didn’t enjoy that so much). Back on the narrow back roads, we next headed to Bosherston, to St. Govan’s chapel. It was as cute as advertised – basically a tiny little 14^th century chapel built into the rocks itself. A short hike down into the chapel and then through it allows you to enter the large rocky alcove in which it is situated. It was perfect for climbing around the large boulders and exploring little inlets, all under the towering cliffs overhead. The sun was coming out and it was getting just a tad warmer, but overall it was quite a spot to hang out for a spell.

Our final planned site to visit before catching the train was Barafundle Bay and beach. We had only left an hour to explore this area, which is a shame, because it required a hike back in and was a place you could spend lots of time. A short hike over a sprawling field with beautiful coastal views led to a long stone staircase down to the beach itself. Most of us got our feet wet, and Harrison actually got in the whole way after stripping down to his underwear. The beach is a huge and wide alcove in the cliffs, but it is surrounded by cliffs on one side, sand dunes in the rear, and on the other side a forest! It was a bit unique. But we had a train to catch, so we hiked back out, loaded up, and hit the road for Swansea. The traffic was light and we arrived in decent time. We returned the rental car but were denied the promised ice cream from Joe’s (the branch we found online had shut down). A light dinner of sandwiches at Costa, and we were on the train heading for London.

Overall, an amazing time! We will be back at some point in the future, with more time to explore and enjoy the beauty. We’re heading to Scotland in two weeks, so we’ll be curious to see how it compares.