Llangennith beach

The beach at Llangennith stretches for miles along the Gower Peninsula, and on a clear day you can see why surfers queue up here before dawn. It's a proper working beach - sand that shifts with the tide, rock pools that reveal starfish and anemones when you hunt for them, and enough space that you won't feel hemmed in even on a busy weekend.

What you get depends entirely on the tide and swell. Come for a walk and you've got a golden three-mile sweep to explore. The dunes behind the beach are worth a scramble too, especially with kids who need to burn off energy. If you're here during a decent swell, watching the surfers is free entertainment - they're genuinely skilled, not just splashing about.

It's free to access, and you can spend anywhere from a couple of hours to a full day here. The water's cold even in summer, so unless you're a keen swimmer or surfer, paddling is the more realistic option for most people. On a grey Welsh day the drama is genuinely atmospheric rather than dreary.

Both Broughton Farm and Pitton Cross are within easy reach - Broughton Farm is barely a mile away - making this an ideal base for a park holiday. You're in proper Gower territory here, so combine a beach day with walks to Worm's Head or Rhossili if the weather holds. It's the kind of beach that rewards a quiet morning visit before the car parks fill up.