Blink, and you might miss the city of St Davids (Ty-ddewi). With a population of around 2,000, this is by far the smallest city in Britain – more of a one-street village with a handful of tea rooms, souvenir shops and restaurants, a flower-filled village square and just one proper pub.
For such a sleepy little place, the city gets pretty busy in summer when the hoards descend on Whitesands Beach just a few miles to the northwest. This is a renowned Blue Flag beach, consistently lauded as one of the best in Wales, if not in the entire UK. It’s a vast expanse of sand that stretches for a mile along some of Pembrokeshire’s finest coast, with waves that lure large numbers of surfers.
It’s typical of St Davids that, for such a hugely popular beach, there’s only one way to get to it; a tiny, winding country road that wiggles down to the café and car park. In peak season, when there are way too many cars to wedge into the car park, the road gets blocked and the sputtering queues stretch back almost all the way to St Davids. This is why it might be a far, far better idea to stay at the beach itself, where a neat little campsite occupies a prime spot within surfboard-dragging distance of the waves.
Whitesands Camping is a very low-key place; open from Easter through the end of October, this runway-shaped strip of land has just a shower hut and toilets at one end and the beach at the other; a magnet for hardy, winter surfers and summer bathers alike. During the school holidays, the site expands to include an additional 14 acres of fields that slope down to the beach, and provide the best views around. There’s no reception (don’t bother to book, when you get there, just ask for Famous Pete who runs the site) but there is “Ma Sime's Surf Hire” (surf hire and lessons) on site in August and a café in the beach car park. In any case, campers don’t come here for the facilities. It’s the beach, the sea and the waves that pull in the punters. If you’re new to the sport and aren’t yet fully kitted out, don’t worry – you’ll find that you can hire all the bits and pieces you need back in St David’s.
With all the comings and goings to the beach, it’s perhaps not the quietest location, but once the sun starts to dip and the last shuttle bus leaves for St David’s, this special place is transformed. With a bright moon ethereally lighting the sea and the gentle wash of waves for a soundtrack, this is ‘city’ living at its very best. Not to be missed