visiting tenby wales
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Visiting Tenby beach and places to eat in Tenby

We had a lovely 4 days in Tenby, on the Pembrokeshire coast of Wales. N did find it funny everytime we saw the road signs approaching Tenby, showing the Welsh version of the name, Dinbych-y-Pysgod (he thought Pysgod sounded rude). The weather was perfect too for Easter holidays. So sunny and warm, very little wind. Just perfect for walking the town and wandering on one of the Tenby beaches.

visiting tenby wales

Tenby itself is a pretty harbour town, with so many pastel coloured houses. It was quite busy while we were there probably due to the weather, and it being bank holiday and Easter holidays.

There are several Tenby beaches: North beach, South Beach and Castle beach, all sandy and good for visiting at low tide. At high tide there’s only a small bit of sand left. Check out tide times to work out when’s best to visit.

looking across Tenby beach at high tide at evening with railings in front
harbour at tenby with boards
tenby harbour at low tide
closer shot of coloured houses around Tenby harbour

We stayed at Heywood Spa hotel which was about a mile out of the town centre. We certainly worked our leg muscles walking in and out of town a couple of times a day up and down the hills.

The centre has a number of nice clothes shops, and lots of independents. There’s also lots of restaurants – although many only open day times.

looking down a street in Tenby

We didn’t get to do everything on my list while in Tenby. I’d wanted to walk over the beach to the island, and check out the castle remains. Instead we were happy enough to spend time on the beach on the afternoon we spent in the town.

stretch of sand north beach tenby

We don’t get the beach very often, so it was really good to be back at the sea. Chips on the beach tasted good (thankfully the seagulls aren’t too bad on the Tenby beaches), sitting on my lovely Tesalate towel (previous gifted product, no sand getting everywhere!).

eating chips on the beach

We sat and watched people enjoying the sun. And walked down to the sea.

The sea was warm enough to paddle. N loved doing that, jumping the waves, and dancing in them.

We had a lot of laughs.

paddling in the sea
sand ripples on the beach
selfie on the beach with sea behind and sunglasses on
walking on sand with shadow ahead

Eating out in Tenby

We were amazed that for a seaside town we could only find one proper fish and chip takeaway (and that was off the seafront). And one restaurant that did takeaways but had long waits and wasn’t open in the evenings. Madness that we struggled to get chips to eat on the seafront. The ones we did get from Oh My Cod were really good though, plus N thought the name was really funny.

Normandie pub restaurant

We also ate in Normandie, a casual pub restaurant. We’d popped in at lunchtime to check if we needed to book for the evening, but we were fine going in early. Being only two people gave us no issues, but other people were being turned away. If you’re a group bigger than 2-3 people, I would recommend booking a table in advance. We saw a lot of restaurants with queues and people being turned away, even for early dinner time between 5-6pm.

Normandie staff were really friendly and helpful. The guy I’d asked about booking earlier in the day, remembered us when we arrived. The pizzas were off on the day were we there, but I was pleased to see a lot on the menu I would have chosen to eat.

N had scampi and chips which he said was really good. I had the chicken goujons in peppercorn sauce with a salad. They weren’t the breaded goujons as I expected, just chicken pieces. It was a delicious meal though, good portions, and good value.

scampi and chips in Normandie pub
creamy peppercorn chicken

Will’s restaurant

We chose Will’s Restaurant for another evening meal. We’d checked the menus on the wall before booking, but then panicked when checking the website, as the food was different on that menu and seemed overly fussy.

Our meal was a mixed bag. We couldn’t work out whether the front of house was just having a really bad day, or it’s always like that.

Firstly we were given strange menus. They didn’t match the website or the door menu. Thankfully it turned out she’d given us the Sunday menus and the correct menu was the one at the door. We ordered a starter to share. A cheese bacon, lettuce and tomato burger for N minus the mayonnaise. For me, a halloumi, pesto and avocado burger, minus the bun and replacing the chips with salad, plus an extra side of coleslaw.

We’d been the first into the restaurant for evening service, but waited a long time. Then our main meals arrived with no sign of the starter. The waiter was oblivious when I said we’d not had our starter yet. The meal was taken away while he went to find out the issue. It turned out the waitress hadn’t put in the starter order.

They offered to bring out the starters with the main as that was already cooked. I said yes, although the teriyaki chicken skewers then arrived just as N was finishing his meal, with me having finished mine a while previously. N didn’t then have room to try any of the starter, but luckily I had room. I was also missing the additional coleslaw side order I’d requested for my main meal order.

I knew that the person taking the order seemed confused which is why I’d repeated the order to make sure she’d got it. Not writing it down was obviously the issue. I noticed her using an ipad for other larger tables, but it seemed that should have been normal for everyone.

chicken teriyaki skewers at will's restaurant tenby
halloumi avocado and pesto salad at will's restaurant
burger and fries at will's restaurant tenby

Luckily the food quality made up for the mistakes made. (we weren’t the only ones with issues. A table behind us ordered not long after us, but only had garlic bread started by the time we left. No sign of other meals, and they’d also had an incorrect drinks order). All of our dishes were cooked really well and portion sizes were good. We would eat there again and it’s good for children, a nice relaxing restaurant.

tenby harbour with colourful houses

If you’re in Tenby for a holiday or a day trip, it’s a lovely place to spend time in. For parking in Tenby try looking at Parkopedia

Have you been to Tenby before?

Where would you recommend visiting or eating?

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