Pembrokeshire Coast A487

The Pembrokeshire Coast A487 stitches together about ninety-five kilometres of Britain’s only fully coastal national park — red sandstone headlands, empty coves and harbour villages between St Davids and Tenby. This is Welsh slow travel at its most elemental: salt wind, gorse on the cliffs, and lanes that demand mirror discipline in a classic or low-power campervan. Plan two or three days; the kilometre count understates how often you will want to stop.

Leave St Davids — Britain’s smallest city — with its low Norman cathedral that has anchored pilgrimage on this peninsula since the early medieval period, and pick up the A487 toward Whitesands and the open Atlantic. The road dips through farm gateways, climbs to headlands where seabirds wheel, and drops into harbours where boats sit on mud at low tide. A worthwhile detour north to Pentre Ifan reaches one of Wales’s finest Neolithic dolmens, a capstone balanced on slender uprights with views toward the Preseli Hills. Further along the coast, Martin’s Haven is the launch point for boats to Skomer Island, where puffins nest in cliff burrows from roughly May through July (book ahead in peak weeks).

Tenby at the southern end rewards walking in through the medieval gate: pastel Georgian terraces frame a working harbour. Between the two ends, the Pembrokeshire Coast Path runs parallel to much of the A487 — even an hour on a cliff section gives a perspective no windscreen can match. Light here changes fast; grey mornings often burn into copper sunsets on the sandstone.

The A487 itself is well surfaced and manageable at a steady pace for older vans, though access lanes into St Davids, Martin’s Haven and Tenby’s old town are tight. Wild camping without landowner permission is generally illegal in Wales, and enforcement is active in the national park — use Caerfai Bay and other designated campsites near St Davids, farm pitches along the coast, or sites around Tenby rather than roadside overnighting. May–June bring puffins and wildflowers; September empties day-tripper crowds while Atlantic weather at St Davids Head turns dramatic. Summer school holidays slow the A487 near beaches — start early or base two nights in one place instead of treating the coast as a single transit. Treat the coast as a string of bases rather than a single transit. Two nights near St Davids and one near Tenby (or the reverse) beats packing and unpacking every morning. Book Skomer boats early in May–July; sailings cancel in rough Atlantic weather, so keep a flexible inland morning for Pentre Ifan or St Davids cathedral if the sea is closed out. Height barriers and narrow streets in Tenby’s old town mean park on the edge and walk to the harbour — classic campervans fit better than large American motorhomes. Carry binoculars for cliff-top fulmars and seals in coves; the Pembrokeshire Coast Path is free to walk in short sections from many car parks. Fuel is easier in larger towns than in the smallest harbour villages — top up when you can. September’s quieter roads and still-swimmable sea often outshine crowded August for slow travellers.