Exploring Tenby & Pembroke Castle

At this time of the year its easy to feel the drag of winter and I always find January and February especially long months and I think if it's possible getting away even just for a few hours can do you a world of good. Last month we decided to bundle the kids in the car and head to Tenby in West Wales for a night, it's one of our favourite places and when the sun is out it's a truly spectacular place to be.

It's only around a 2hr drive and we booked ourselves in at the Premier Inn, we have actually stayed at this one before when I was 38weeks pregnant with my youngest, it was our last trip as a family of three and even since then has had a special place in our heart. The hotel is pretty new to the area, about 2yrs old, the other options are mainly B&B's which are not always the best option when you have two young children running around. It's also located right in the centre of town and close to both of the beaches and all the cafes and restaurants.

Once we arrived we had a quick coffee in our room before heading down to castle beach for an afternoon of building sandcastles - yes its the middle of winter but the sun was out and provided us with the most beautiful sunset. There are also a few caves on the beach which we enjoyed exploring. What I love most about Tenby is all the colourful and individual houses that look out across the bay and have become somewhat iconic for this area, you cannot help but feel happy passing pink and blue pastel houses. 

We stayed on the beach until the sun had sunk below the horizon and then we made our way back to the hotel and some much needed food after a busy day. After food we headed to bed as it was forecast for another sunny day and we wanted to make the most of our time here. We woke up early, filled up on breakfast and decided to spend a few more hours on the beach before heading over to Pembroke Castle which was only about 20mins away.

We knew it was only going to be a quick little getaway but with such stunning views and clear blue waters it was hard to say goodbye although we were all keen to tick off another castle on our list of ones still yet to explore. It was pretty easy to get from Tenby to Pembroke and as soon as we had a glimpse of the castle which lies right in the middle of the town, we were all eager to see what was inside.

Pembroke Castle is really impressive and stands on a site that has been occupied since the Roman times. There are loads of rooms to explore and turrets to climb and the staff in the shop where you pay to enter are really friendly and informative. My eldest and I climbed right to the top of one of the turrets where a flag was flying and it was surprisingly very high and gave us a great view of Pembroke Town and the farming land further afield. My youngest also really enjoyed running around in the castle grounds and there is also some stairs going deep below the castle where there is cave called Wogan Cavern and they have found flint tools from the Middle Ages here.

Even though our mini break was a rather quick one it really did us a lot of good to reconnect and slow down after the busy Christmas period. We love spending as much time outdoors as possible so the long hours on the beach were bliss for us. We have a few more mini breaks like this lined up over the next few months and cannot wait.  Check out the vlog and see what we got up too