With half term planned in south Wales Tenby was on top of our list of places to visit. I love that feeling of discovering somewhere new and we were totally spoilt by south Wales with its beautiful beaches and ruined castles around every corner. Tenby looked like the perfect place to spend a day with two energetic kids and a dog and we weren’t disappointed.

Exploring Tenby with kids (and a dog!)

We drove to Tenby from our holiday cottage which took about an hour. We parked the car in a long stay car park and found ourselves at the top of South Beach. Did you know there are an amazing four beaches in Tenby? There’s South Beach, Castle Beach, Harbour Beach and North Beach – and we walked all of them!

Tenby is based on a hill and is well known for its rows of colourful houses. The photographs we saw before we visited just don’t do it justice. We walked along the coastal path until the kids just couldn’t take looking at the beach anymore. They needed to be on it. The weather was beautiful, if a little blowy, but they practically ran down the steps and onto Castle Beach. Thankfully the tide was out and they loved exploring the caves and playing on the sand.

As the tide was out we were able to walk across the sandy beach to St Catherine’s Island. We paid £15 for the four of us (and the dog) to climb up the rocky steps and onto the island. It was amazingly atmospheric, and just a little scary in the wind! The kids loved it.

After our windswept trip to explore St Catherine’s Island we headed back to mainland Tenby to warm up with a hot drink. We found a wonderful (dog-friendly) cafe overlooking Castle Beach.

Then it was time for more exploring and we headed up the hill and through an ancient gateway where we discovered more beautiful scenery – Harbour Beach. The tide was out so we walked down to the harbour and straight onto the beach. We were able to walk past boats and out onto North Beach. With the tide out the beach stretched for miles! The kids looked in rock pools and found all kinds of sea life which the dog enjoyed sniffing (a wireless dog fence is great for keeping track of the pooch on the beach).

Little Sis was happy to find this huge rock she could climb. We may have got our shoes a little wet but it was worth it.

It was time for lunch and we walked back across the beach and up into Tenby where we found a great little pub (dog-friendly!) for lunch. This gave us enough energy to carry on exploring Tenby – looking in the lovely shops and eventually finding the ancient Tenby town walls.

There was so much to see and do we almost wished we had based ourselves in Tenby for the whole week. It’s a very family-friendly place and we loved our day out with the kids and the dog.

You may also be interested in our other posts about Wales:

Exploring Newton House at Dinefwr