Am I the only person who doesn’t get Tenby?

[Aquabi]

Obviously no offence intended. Different strokes for different folks.

So we have some Canadian cousins coming over in Sumer and as an extended family we are putting together an itinerary. Everyone has said we need to do a typical seaside town. It is pretty much unanimous that everyone in the family chat has decided Tenby is the #1 choice.

Don't get me wrong the actual landscape was outstanding. But I found Tenby a little bit drab given how popular it was. It was heaving which I didn’t mind but I really do not get the hype.

I went a few years ago in Summer and was expecting to find this absolute gem and it was fine. I enjoyed some of the bakeries.

Am I the only person who doesn’t get it?

Went to Tenby in the autumn, dog poo all over the beach. A mountain of poo-filled bags sitting in the car park and even dangling from bushes. But everywhere is the same nowadays.

Well done.

The car parks are crowded because people love it. It's not unlike Tenby, but better.

Your rookie error was taking a car to St Ives 😁

When in Summer will you be doing this perfect seaside town day? Or is it an overnight stay? I do like Tenby, but it didn’t blow me away the way St Ives did (in early summer, and in autumn, not high season) — we used to go there with DS for a bucket and spade holiday before he started school, and I loved it. The light, the buildings, the stone, the coastal path to Zennor, the fishing boats, Godrevy lighthouse, the seals, plus the Hepworth studio and the Leach pottery.

I forget there is more than one Newport in Wales. My eyebrows almost left my face , when I thought you were talking about Newport City 😂

OK, but I've just got to give a shout out the marvellous Newport (City) Transporter bridge. Rare and special and still working. Only 11 left in the world. I recommend a walk over the top.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_Transporter_Bridge

Which beach. - North Beach, Castle Beach or South Beach? The latter is an amazing two mile stretch of golden sand from which you can see Caldey Island. Here’s another view of the harbour. And one of the pretty side streets. I can’t believe someone called it ghastly.

I love it - I’ve got so many childhood memories of Tenby and Saundersfoot

my dad has a holiday home who literally has a panoramic view of North Beach

omg I love the smell as you get down to North Beach

The places that come close for me are Weymouth/Portland

It's tacky because it's completely ruined by tourists. Shops with all the cheap, plastic beach tat. Run down shops, litter everywhere, drunken loud idiots in the afternoons/evenings and shit parking. Oh, and the world's worst supermarket car park. A baby in a buggy was killed there not long ago. Horrid.

Blimey! Didn’t know about the baby in a buggy story - I was last there in 2023

Oh, absolutely awful story. A family came down from England with the best mate of the husband driving the car. No tax, insurance or licence. The wife and older child went to the holiday cottage while the husband and his mate took the baby to the supermarket. The mate crushed the baby and the buggy in the car park.

He was drugged up and drunk, and the parents of the children knew this and still got in the car with him to come all the way to Wales. They deliberately put their children into a car with a man who had no driving license or insurance, and who they knew had been drinking and taking class A drugs. Absolutely disgusting.

Oh my goodness

So where would you prefer?

Maybe they like the beach. Have you never heard of a beach holiday? It's quite a popular concept for a holiday

I don’t get Tenby either… we had holidays there a couple of times when I was really small, one with extended family - so although I don’t remember much of the holiday it still gets brought up at family occasions etc. I then went to Tenby with DH a few years ago when we were staying in the nearby area. Some of the shops are nice enough & we had a walk round etc, but we found it a bit grotty in places & in my opinion there are so many nicer beaches in the uk !? E.g most of Cornwall / Northumberland / Scottish highlands / Anglesey / North Norfolk.

The thing that really put me off Tenby though was there were rats absolutely everywhere. We went not long after the pandemic & apparently there had been an issue with rats getting out of hand around this time ( I googled it after we left & it was in the local press!)
I know every town/village has rats, but I’ve never been wandering around a town in broad daylight and seen multiple rats brazenly walking about. We tried to sit on a bench overlooking the sea & eat a cake we’d bought, but a rat came out of the hedge right in front of us, so we moved on! We could see them scuttling in and out of the hedges all the way along that area. Later in the day we saw them all over the grass in a different area as we walked back up towards town.
The pastel houses are pretty, but that’s about it for me, and I definitely wouldn’t head back.

I love Tenby, but feel that way about Cornwall, don’t get the hype at all.

It’s an awful story, but it’s not a reason to say Tenby is tacky. Awful things happen everywhere. You get shops selling plastic beach tat in all seaside towns too. I’ve never seen any rats there

I spend a lot of time near Tenby and the surrounding areas. I do like it a lot but prefer going outside of school holidays when it is not so busy. The coastal walk from Tenby to Saundersfoot is one of my favourites but will be waiting for it to dry out for a good while yet.

Born and bred in Wales, the biggest problem with living here is all the wind and rain! I much prefer South Devon or Cornwall!

I think it’s a really nice place, and it’s not just the town centre part, you can go to some lovely beaches without going through busy areas.

Idk I don’t like it when people start posts saying that places that others enjoy aren’t all that. There’s something mean spirited about it.

We’ve been to the area loads of times and don’t always visit Tenby - there are lots of other lovely places nearby!

I’ve never even heard of it but I’m not that familiar with Wales 😂
A pity you’re nowhere near Whitby or Scarborough as that’s what I’d recommend.

I LOVE that walk - Tenby to Saundersfoot on the coastal path - it’s got very emotional memories for me - did it in July 2004

But the op’s brief was ‘typical seaside town’, and you couldn’t get more typical than Blackpool, if my experience of seaside towns is anything to go by! (Not unfailingly positive, I have to say. Maybe I should go to Tenby!)

How else would we have got there? By boat?