14 Best Beaches In Gwynedd

It is the real choice here and it is not obvious which is better. Barmouth Beach and Aberdyfi Beach have a town at their back, which means somewhere to buy the thing you forgot and somewhere to go when the wind gets up. Tal-y-bont Beach, Llwyngwril Beach and Fairbourne Beach are the quieter sort, and quiet is wonderful with children until somebody needs a lavatory. With very young children the town beaches are the more forgiving choice, even though the empty ones are the better memory.

In our records, nothing much at all: both are on the same run of coast, both flagged outdoor only, both rated all but identically, and neither carrying any further detail. That absence is itself informative. It tells you these are small, plain, sandy stops of the same kind, and that a family who liked one will like the other. Go to whichever is nearer to where you are staying and do not spend an evening comparing them.

Harlech Beach takes some beating for sheer room, and space is the thing children actually use on a beach: somewhere to run without being told to come back. Llanbedrog Beach is the more sheltered feeling of the two peninsula entries and the better choice if the wind is up, which on this coast it often is. Between them you have the two ends of what Gwynedd offers, and either would carry a family day comfortably.

Something else, honestly. Fourteen out of fourteen are outdoors with no indoor space flagged anywhere, so a wet day removes this entire category rather than reducing it. The saving grace is that weather on this coast moves quickly and a morning written off is not always an afternoon written off, so it is worth keeping the towels in the car. For a full day of rain, look at the museums and indoor listings in the surrounding counties instead.