Big Trail Adventures
Landscape on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids

Self-guided · Pembrokeshire · Wales

Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids

Your walk from Pembroke to St Davids

One hundred and three kilometres of the middle Pembrokeshire coast — the Milford Haven waterway, Marloes Peninsula opposite Skomer Island, and the sweeping surf beaches that lead to Britain's smallest city.

Build your tripSee your route
Distance
103 km
Ascent
1,655 m
Stages
2 – 5 days
Grade
Moderate
5.03 verified reviews

“An amazing and very memorable experience”Bhagyashree & Akhil · Tour du Mont Blanc

Read the reviews

This middle stage has the most varied ground of the three, and the best wildlife — Skomer and Skokholm lie just offshore, their puffins and seabirds visible from the clifftops without a boat trip if you time it right.

It finishes at St Davids, Britain's smallest city, home to a 12th-century cathedral and a good place to rest before the wilder stage ahead.

Trail Essentials

Start
Pembroke
Pembrokeshire
End
St Davids
Pembrokeshire
Distance
103 km
64 miles
Total Ascent
1,655 m
5,430 ft
Difficulty
Moderate
Hilliness
Hilly
Time to Complete
Explorer
5 days
~21 km/day
Hiker
5 days
~21 km/day
Fastpacker
4 days
~26 km/day
Trail Runner
3 days
~34 km/day
When to Walk
Best Good Avoid
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC

Pembroke to St Davids — the stage in numbers.

Here's how this section looks for most walkers. Everything here is a starting point — the planner below rebuilds it around your own pace and dates.

Distance
103 km / 64 miles
Total ascent
1,655 m
Start
Pembroke
Finish
St Davids
Days walking
2–5 days
Difficulty
Moderate
Best months
May–Aug
Part of
Pembrokeshire Coast Path

A typical 4-day schedule

Walked at our hiker pace, this is where most of our customers finish each day. Take more days and we'll split the longer stages; take fewer and we'll lengthen them by using the stops in between. We know every option along the route, so your days end up the right length whatever pace you choose.

Suggested day-by-day itinerary for the Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids
DayStageDistanceAscentWalking
1Pembroke toSandy Haven25.9 km326 m7½ hrs
2Sandy Haven toMarloes Sands30.6 km485 m9½ hrs
3Marloes Sands toDruidston25.1 km405 m7½ hrs
4Druidston toSt Davids21.8 km439 m7 hrs

How this stage unfolds.

Your trail divides naturally into three parts — not by day, but by water. First the sheltered Haven, with its castles and dockyards; then two peninsulas pushed out into the open Atlantic; and finally the long sweep of St Brides Bay, running north towards the smallest city in Britain.

Pembroke to Milford Haven
01

Pembroke to Dale

The Haven

A castle at your back, a working waterway at your side, and the open sea still two days away.

You begin beneath the walls of Pembroke Castle, birthplace of Henry VII, and for two days the water beside you is the Haven — sheltered, tidal, busy. You pass Wales's only Royal Dockyard at Pembroke Dock, founded in 1814, cross the Cleddau Bridge high over the estuary, and drop into Neyland, where a bronze Brunel marks the terminus he chose for his South Wales Railway in 1856.

Refineries share this shore with Iron Age forts on Little and Great Castle Head and Monk Haven's Victorian folly tower, and the mix is more interesting than it sounds. By Dale, the open sea is one headland away.

Milford Haven to Dale
02

Dale to Musselwick Sands

The Two Peninsulas

Two headlands out in the Atlantic, with a Tudor landing beach, a lighthouse, and Skomer's puffins along the way.

The walking turns serious past Dale Point. At Mill Bay, a plaque marks the spot where Henry Tudor came ashore in August 1485, on his march to Bosworth; above it stands St Ann's Head, where a lighthouse has guarded the entrance to Milford Haven since 1714. Then the coast opens out: Marloes Sands, backed by red sandstone cliffs and the Three Chimneys, with Gateholm, a tidal island carrying traces of Romano-British settlement.

From Wooltack Point you look across to Skomer; boats leave from Martin's Haven, and the puffins are in residence from April to late July. This is the stretch you'll describe first when you get home.

Marloes Peninsula
03

Musselwick Sands to St Davids

St Brides Bay

One wide bay of havens and surf beaches, and at the end of it, the smallest city in Britain.

St Brides Bay is one long arc, and you walk the whole of it. The havens come first — Little Haven, whose pubs include The Castle, then Broad Haven — before Malator, a turf-roofed house sunk into the hillside above Druidston, known locally as the Teletubby house.

Newgale's two miles of sand lie behind a pebble bank thrown up by storms, and Solva's harbour keeps lime kilns two hundred years old. Past Caerfai and Caer Bwdy, where purple sandstone was quarried for the cathedral, you turn up a final lane into St Davids, Britain's smallest city — cathedral, ruined Bishop's Palace, and the right place to stop walking.

Build your trip

Customise your Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids.

Pick your pace, party size and dates. The itinerary, distances, nightly stops and the price all update live — no commitment until you're happy.

  • Days sized to your walking speed
  • Each night ends at a stop with accommodation
  • Pricing reflects party size and seasonality
  • Save and share the itinerary with your group
Hiker · 4.0 km/h
2 walkers
Pembroke to St Davids
Days
4
Distance
103 km
Walking
33 hrs

Your day-by-day itinerary updates live in the Your itinerary section below.

Trip total
£1,218
£609 per person · 4 nights · party of 2
See my trip
Your live itinerary

Build your itinerary above.

This is the itinerary you're building. Change the pace, party size or start date in the planner above and every stage, distance and date updates here.

This route. These nights.
One clear price.

You are booking the itinerary above: your walking days, your overnight stays and the support that carries you between them.

Your Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids adventure
Configure your trip in the builder above and it will appear here.
Per Person
—
Trip Total
—
Deposit Today
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Organising this trail for friends? Build a group trip with individual payments

  • Free cancellation to 60 days
  • Confirmation within 24 hrs
  • ABTOT financially protected
Not quite ready?
Prefer to talk? 0131 560 2740 hello@bigtrailadventures.com

We'll start planning your trip right away. Not happy with anything? We'll adjust it or refund you — no questions asked.

ABTOT Member 5690

The Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust Limited (ABTOT) provides financial protection under The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 for Big Trail Adventures (member 5690). Protection is provided for non-flight packages. Full details in our booking conditions.

And that price covers far more than the places you sleep.

Your Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids is planned from first step to final check-in. The stays, luggage, navigation, local knowledge and a real team behind you are all part of the same trip.

What's included?

Self-guided, but properly supported. You turn up, you walk, you eat well, you sleep well. We handle the logistics.

  • Custom itinerary planned around your pace

  • Comfortable accommodation booked for you

  • Daily luggage transfer where available

  • GPX + day-by-day route notes

  • Big Trail Adventures app for door-to-door navigation

  • On-trail route support

Not included

  • Travel to Pembroke and from St Davids
  • Lunches and evening meals (we'll recommend the best places)
  • Travel insurance

Your Trail Book.
The trip in your pocket.

This is not a generic guidebook. We build a private Trail Companion for your dates, your direction, your overnight stops and every day of your Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids.

01

Trail Book

08:12
A day in the Trail Companion: Hendaye to Ibardin with distance, ascent, estimated time, route map and elevation profile

Wake up knowing the whole day

Your exact Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids itinerary — from the place you sleep to the next front door, with the turns people miss and the stops worth making.

02

Trail Book

13:36
Live navigation in the Trail Companion, showing the route on the map with distance remaining and the elevation still to climb

See the trail respond to your pace

Follow your stage offline, see what remains and get a live estimate based on the pace you are actually walking. Your GPX is already cut into each day, ready for Garmin, Coros, Suunto, Apple Watch, Komoot or OS Maps.

03

Trail Book

14:32
The private share link, showing walking progress on the map for friends and family at home

Let home follow the adventure

Family and friends see where you are and when you last updated — no app, no account.

Explore the Trail Book

Where you'll stay

A comfortable base each night, whatever the coast throws at you.

Small family-run B&Bs in Milford Haven, Dale, Marloes, Broad Haven and St Davids, plus walker-friendly inns like the Griffin at Dale. All en-suite where the village allows, with breakfast and proper drying space.

  • Fresh Welsh seafood in St Davids
  • Drying space for wet kit as standard
  • St Davids as a natural rest-day stop
  • Book ahead for the smaller Marloes stops

Every trip is planned around your dates and party, so we can't promise you a specific inn — but we can promise the kind of welcome that makes a walking holiday feel like a proper holiday.

Self-guided, fully supported

A self-guided Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids, explained.

Self-guided means the walking is yours and the logistics are ours. You set off on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids when you want, walk at whatever pace suits you, and stop where you like — there is no group to keep up with and no leader setting the schedule. Everything that makes an independent long-distance walk hard work to organise is handled before you arrive.

There are no fixed departure dates. Choose your own start day, tell us how many nights you want, and the planner rebuilds the 103 km route around it.

You walk
103 km from Pembroke to St Davids, Pembrokeshire — alone, as a pair, or with your own group. No guide, no strangers.
We plan
A 2 – 5 day itinerary built around the pace you pick, with sensible daily distances and the ascent spread properly across the route.
We book
Walker-friendly B&Bs, inns and small hotels along the trail, reserved in your name with breakfast included.
We move your bag
Door-to-door luggage transfer between every stay, so you walk with a daypack.
You navigate
GPX files for every stage plus written route notes — the trail is waymarked, and we flag the few places people go wrong.
We stay reachable
One number for the whole trip, answered by someone who has walked the route.

Your trail, whether you come alone or bring everyone.

We remove the awkward parts at both ends: quiet reassurance for a solo walker, and no unpaid-invoice chasing for the friend who gets a group moving.

Going solo

Independent, not unsupported.

We lend solo walkers a satellite GPS tracker. It updates automatically, even away from phone signal, so you can walk freely while the people at home follow your progress.

  • Fixes your position from satellites, not phone masts
  • Posts automatically every 30 minutes — nothing to remember
  • Keeps working in the glens, on the cliffs and out of signal
Walking solo with us
15:00
The satellite GPS tracker page, showing the day's route and the walker's live position on the West Highland Way
A group trip page showing each walker's payment progress

Bringing friends

Lead the adventure. Don't become the treasurer.

Plan a private Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids with us and get one shared trip page. Every walker pays their own deposit by card and adds their own details—no bank transfers or payment spreadsheet.

How group trips work

Trail Companion and satellite tracking comparison

Shares your position over the mobile network. You update it when you want to. Needs a phone signal to send anything

Reviews from walkers

What it's like to travel with us.

Every review here comes from someone who actually travelled with us — we only ask once the trip's over, and we don't edit what they say.

From walkers on our other trails.

Different routes, same team doing the planning, the bookings and the hand-holding — so these say a lot about what to expect here too.

“An amazing and very memorable experience”

We had a really wonderful experience and are very happy that we went ahead with the trek. It was challenging at times, but overall it was an amazing and very memorable experience. The scenery, the trails and the whole journey were absolutely beautiful. Bhagyashree did have some issues with her knee during the trek, which made a few sections difficult. We didn't let that stop us — we completed most of the trek and, wherever necessary, adapted our plans and took a bus or train for certain stretches rather than putting too much strain on her knee. Managing the trek despite the knee issue made the achievement feel even more special.

Thank you once again for all your help and guidance in planning the trek. Will definitely recommend Big Trail Adventures to all.

Bhagyashree & Akhil · Tour du Mont Blanc · August 2026

“Solo or in a group, I would do this again tomorrow!”

One of the best experiences I have had. I did this solo and felt supported all the way with the BigTrailAdventures team, especially in inclement weather. The vistas were incredible and overnight accommodation was faultlessly organised. Pushing myself during the day ( I ran rather than walked the trail), and then being fed and watered in a hotel in the evening was a treat.

The planning was exceptional and all details were covered.

There is a special time every day when you are overcome with the beauty of the nature that you are seeing, the sweeping vistas and the gratitude for being able to experience this. It rejuvenates your soul.

Lisa · Coast to Coast · May 2026

“Awesome support from start to finish”

The hike, which challenged me in different ways each day, was great. There was so much to see in every direction. The Highlands are simply stunning, clouds and all. The stays were good for the most part, some better than others (one night my room was above the kitchen so it was quite noisy until late into the night and the haunted Inn was a bit much for me :)). The Rowardennan Hotel and Craig Nevis guesthouse were my favorites. All of them offered great breakfasts and most had dinner options with good selections as well.

The planning was amazing. No glitches, except for one minor one at the start where the luggage van changed their drop off location without my knowledge. Thankfully Craig was there in the morning and quickly figured out where they were and even dropped off my luggage for me. Everything else was planned and executed perfectly; my itinerary for each day included great detail of what to expect. The app was awesome and my friends and family loved tracking me every day with the GPS. I had read that the West Highland Way is very popular in spring (when I initially had planned to go) and late summer. It took a lot of back and forth communication about potential dates but Craig very patiently worked it all out. All communication was prompt and thorough. I very much appreciate all the support I received prior and during my adventure!! Thank you Craig!

There are so many moments I will carry with me for a long time, like my first glimpse of the Highlands, all the water everywhere, the coos, day 2 along Loch Lomond when I wished I was a mountain goat and was grateful that it did not rain, arriving at Kingshouse after 19 miles, midges (haha), and so much more.

Nicole · West Highland Way · August 2026

Things walkers ask us.

How fit do I need to be?

On the Hiker pace of four days you'll cover around 25 km a day with 400 metres of cliff climbing. You should be comfortable walking a full day with a daypack and steady undulations. The Explorer pace at five days brings the daily distance down and gives you time for a boat trip to Skomer.

When should I walk it?

May through September. May–June is when the seabirds are on Skomer and the cliff wildflowers are at their best. July and August are busiest — book accommodation months ahead. September gives you long light and quieter beaches.

Do you include luggage transfer?

Yes — bags between 20 kg are moved every walking day. You walk with a daypack. The Marloes Peninsula section has a few overnight stops that are a short taxi from the trail — we plan and book the transfers so everything meets you in the evening.

What kind of accommodation do you book?

Small family-run B&Bs in Milford Haven, Dale, Marloes, Broad Haven and St Davids, plus walker-friendly inns like the Griffin at Dale. All en-suite where the village allows, all with breakfast and drying space.

How do I get to the start and finish?

Pembroke has its own mainline station on the direct line from Swansea. St Davids has no station — the finish is best reached by bus or taxi to Haverfordwest station. We'll help you piece the connections together.

Is this a self-guided Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids walking holiday?

Yes. Every Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids trip we run is self-guided: you walk the route on your own, at your own pace, with no group and no guide. We do the planning and the logistics — an itinerary of 2 – 5 days built around the pace you choose, accommodation booked in your name along the 103 km route, your main bag moved between stays each day, GPX files and route notes for every stage, and a real person on the end of the phone while you're out there. You choose your own start date; there are no fixed departures.

What's the difference between a self-guided and a guided Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids trip?

On a guided trip you walk with a leader and a group to a fixed schedule. Self-guided means the day is yours: start when you like, stop for lunch where you like, walk fast or slowly, take a rest day. The route is waymarked and you navigate with the GPX and notes we provide. Everything that makes a trip complicated — accommodation, luggage transfer, the shape of each day — is arranged for you before you arrive.

Can I walk the Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids without a guide?

Yes — the Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids is a signed long-distance route and thousands of people walk it independently every year. What most walkers want help with isn't navigation, it's the 103 km of accommodation, the bag transfers, and getting the daily distances right. That's exactly what we take off your hands, while you still walk it under your own steam.

Who books the accommodation and moves my luggage?

We do, both. We book walker-friendly B&Bs, inns and small hotels in your name at each overnight stop, with breakfast, and arrange door-to-door luggage transfer between them so you walk with a daypack. You'll get a full itinerary with every address, check-in detail and transfer time before you travel.

How many days do I need for a self-guided Pembrokeshire Coast Path Stage 2: Pembroke to St Davids?

Most people take 2 – 5 days for the 103 km. Our planner lets you set your own pace and number of nights, so you can stretch the trip out with shorter days or compress it if you're used to back-to-back big days — the itinerary, accommodation stops and price all update as you change it.

Craig, founder of Big Trail Adventures

Not sure this is the right stage for you?

Craig has walked this middle stage in every season. Tell him your dates and party size and he'll come back with a route that fits.

Email Craig

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