Shepherd's huts near Porthcawl

Part of a long, wide 20-mile band of stunning sandy beach and dunes, Porthcawl is a seaside resort coming with the usual trappings of funfair, promenade, sprawling static caravan parks and plentiful possibilities for sea swimming and watersports. Its sandy expanses really are superb with the UK’s highest dunes. But even still, this is Wales, where hill country is never far: forest-clad uplands like Mynydd Margam and Afan Forest Park with more superb walking and mountain biking are nearby. Campsites on Porthcawl’s coast tend to be large, while additional options can be found in the Vale of Glamorgan next door and out by those uplands.

East of Porthcawl, the coastline bends into this extensive, protected tract of vegetated dunes, which includes Wales’ highest and Europe’s second-highest sand dune and valuable habitats for wildlife. It’s a substantial section of a dune system stretching from the Vale of Glamorgan, a few miles southeast of Porthcawl, to Swansea, 18 miles northwest. The nearest pitching to this sandy wonderland can be found in Porthcawl itself.

The Bristol Channel onto which Porthcawl faces can take a battering from the weather at any time of year, but generally, this coast has more sun and higher summer temperatures than the majority of Wales. July is the warmest month, while late August sees seawater temperatures reach their warmest (15°C and higher). The Between the Trees Festival, held in August in the woods behind Merthyr-Mawr Warren NNR, is the liveliest of the area’s annual events.