Paul Miles is impressed with the beauty and the busyness of the charming Welsh resort of Saundersfoot…

Until the late 1930s, Saundersfoot was primarily a mining community. Unlike neighbouring Tenby, which has been a popular tourist destination since Victorian times, tourism didn’t arrive at this Pembrokeshire village until much later. It has taken a while to mature.

But over the last two decades, Saundersfoot, with a big sandy bay at low tide, has morphed from a destination catering to bucket-and-spade and hiking holidays to one with fine dining, excellent seafood and superb accommodation. There are fresh places to stay right in the harbour and new learning centres showcasing the village’s coal mining history.

We arrive at Saundersfoot station which is one-and-a-half miles from the seafront and centre of the village. A taxi is waiting to take us to the harbour. At the end of the harbour wall the grandly named Wales International Coastal Centre is part of a recently completed £10million development of Saundersfoot harbour. It is our accommodation base for the weekend.

There’s no check-in, just a key safe. Our first floor ensuite room is like a cabin on a smart ferry and is aptly named Ocean Cabin 1. Two windows look directly onto sandy Glen Beach and the distinctive headland of Monkstone point.

We walk to Stone Crab (stonecrab.co.uk), three minutes’ away at the other end of the harbour wall. Last year it won best seafood restaurant in the Wales Restaurant awards. It’s a tiny space with only 20 or so seats, so booking is essential.

The restaurant is decorated with paintings and sculptures of fish, lamps reminiscent of bamboo fish traps, chunky wooden tables and mid-century, modern, canteen-style chairs. An impressive sharing platter is a huge starter. Oysters, sustainably grown in a marine protected area in Pembrokeshire, are a highlight. But everything is all so fresh and delicious and there’s so much of it that we don’t have room for more.

A couple on the table next to us say they forage for cockles and winkles on the beaches here; and how Pembrokeshire “is like Cornwall without the crowds”. We head back to our beachside cabin, the sky dark and star-studded. Fellow cabin residents are out walking their dog. Glen Beach is dog-friendly year-round, as is the accommodation.

The following day, after a morning dip in the sea, reached by a ramp near the main entrance to the Wales International Coastal Centre, we head up to join the coastal path – past expensive clifftop homes – to St Brides Spa Hotel, which welcomes non-residents. For £15 you can have a cooked breakfast and fabulous views (booking essential). I opt for sautéed mushrooms with laverbread and scrambled egg. It’s a good choice.

We visit the hotel’s spa where, for £40 for 90 minutes, you can enjoy an outdoor heated infinity pool with Jacuzzi jets and more of those views across Saundersfoot beach to Carmarthenshire, the Gower peninsula and beyond. There are steam rooms, a sauna and a relaxation area with herbal teas but it’s the heated outdoor pool that is the most popular spot, sitting on the air-recliner taking in the view.

We walk into the village centre – local residents still call Saundersfoot a village – and have a light lunch at Harbwr Bar & Kitchen, sitting outside. The chips are superb and beers from Tenby Harbwr Brewery go down a treat. Recently, the brewery has taken over another pub in Saundersfoot, the Old Chemist Inn, on The Strand, so you can sit with a real ale more or less on the beach.

We mosey around the shops. Ecoast is a new venture selling everything recycled and upcycled, including bags manufactured from pool inflatables and plant pots made from old fishing nets. On The Strand there are art and crafts shops, including Periwinkle Pottery, where you can paint your own plates and a small gallery, Blackbird Ceramics, of work by potter Richard Prentice, which includes pots inspired by local coal seams. (blackbirdceramics.co.uk)

Walking back to the harbour, we call in at The Old Coal Office, the former administrative HQ for the coal industry which is now an exhibition and information space with more ocean cabins – spacious ones – above it.

The exhibition area is mostly about the mining industry. You can see if you’re strong enough to haul a cart full of coal and even enter a pretend mine shaft. Malnourished children worked narrow seams of high quality anthracite, making fortunes for mine owners. It is said that Queen Victoria insisted on anthracite from Pembrokeshire for her steam ships as it burnt so cleanly.

There are further history displays too, including one about Saundersfoot beach being used for D-Day landing practice during the Second World War. Churchill came to watch. You can also learn about the Rebecca Riots, a series of protests undertaken by local farmers and agricultural workers in response to levels of taxation.

Near the coal office is a tall ship, marooned on the harbour wall. It’s a newly-built display area about all things nautical, from whaling and pirates to smuggling and today’s thriving fishing industry for lobster, whelks and bass. Up on deck, children can enjoy a high ropes course, racing to the top of ratlines.

Back at our ocean cabin, we get ready for an evening out. We return towards Ocean Square, with its new shops and cafes, and then onto the beach as the tide is far enough out. We walk eastwards over the sand towards Coast restaurant coastsaundersfoot.co.uk. Round, marquetry tables, interior decor of bare, painted trees and dark walls all create a sense of theatre. On summer evenings you can sit outside right above the beach.

A seven-course tasting menu paired with drinks such as oyster-infused gin from Llanfairpwll distillery, is a treat for the tastebuds. The food is exquisite as you would expect from head chef Fred Clapperton, formerly of Michelin-starred Drake’s in Ripley, Surrey. More than that, the whole experience is a delight, from light-as-air glassware to stoneware plates and unpretentious staff.

The menu, however, might have you flummoxed. Minimalism reigns. The first course of ‘today’s and yesterday’s bread’ is not a mere offering of rolls and butter but fried bread with thyme curd, black garlic puree and crispy shallots resting in a small bowl of onion gravy, served with fresh bread. Scrumptious.

Perhaps the trend for such shopping list-style menus means that expectations can only be surpassed and tastebuds intrigued? My dessert – dandelion root, pistachio, milk – was heavenly.

The next day, after another morning swim and breakfast – this time in Periwinkle Bistro – we wander along the coast, eastwards, for about two-and-a-half miles to Amroth. There are three short pedestrian tunnels to walk through, the first one at the end of The Strand.

These tunnels, we’ve learnt, were once used by a steam train, Bulldog, carrying wagons of coal to offload onto sailed cargo ships in the harbour. The longest tunnel is only vaguely lit with red lights.

The coast path then continues on the route of the former railway track to Wiseman’s Bridge, a blink-and-you-miss-it village. The path follows the road uphill but is soon a cliff-top walk with views towards Caldey Island, where there’s a monastery and fine beaches. (Boat trips from Saundersfoot in summer.)

We have coffee and delicious cake at the Bothy Tea-room in Colby Lodge woodland gardens in Amroth. (Turn left by Amroth Arms and follow the road until you find the footpath.) As well as the tearoom, a highlight of this National Trust property which is free to enter on foot, is a sweet little walled garden with a gazebo painted with trompe-l’œi scenes.

The house, the former home of wealthy 18th century landowner John Colby who made his fortune from coal mines, is not open to the public but the eight acres of woodland gardens – once busy with mining activity – are worth a wander especially in autumn when Japanese acers are ablaze. nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wales/colby-woodland-garden

The tide is low enough to walk all the way back to Saundersfoot along the beach, admiring the remains of a preserved forest in the sand and the folds and upheavals of rust-tinted rock strata in the cliffs, tangled with yellow-flowering gorse.

In Saundersfoot, we buy fish ’n’ chips from The Marina in the harbour which we enjoy on a bench overlooking the beach. Our weekend is almost over and yet there’s so much we haven’t explored. We haven’t learnt to surf, tried paddle-boarding, kayaked into caves along the coast, gone coasteering, taken a boat trip, nor have we even walked the four miles to Tenby across the clifftops.

There is, however, time to briskly hike over the beach to Monkstone Point and clamber across rocks to look at hidden Monkstone beach. It is a gorgeous expanse of golden sand flanked by rocky headlands, only easily accessible at low tide. It feels remote and wild. There’s no-one else there. I have a farewell dip in the sea. Tenby may be better known but Saundersfoot has hidden gems. visitpembrokeshire.com

NEED TO KNOW…

• Harbour Stays cabins, costing from £55 per night in the Wales International Coastal Centre on the harbour, are available to book through saundersfootharbour.co.uk.

• St Brides Spa Hotel has double rooms from £200 for bed and breakfast and use of spa facilities. stbridesspahotel.com

• Surf and SUP lessons, kayaking and coasteering excursions can be booked at outerreefsurfschool.com.

• To book boat trips to Caldey Island and to spot wildlife visit: saundersfootseasafari.co.uk.

HOW TO GET THERE

• Transport for Wales (tfw.wales) operates trains to Saundersfoot direct from Manchester or Swansea with connections to London.

• Colby Cabs is a reliable local taxi service. Booking advised – 07837 395774.