Aberdovey Bar

The sandbar that emerges at Aberdovey shifts with the tides, revealing a golden finger of beach that splits the estuary. You'll find it just south of Borth, where the Dovey River meets Cardigan Bay - a proper natural phenomenon that changes shape season to season.

It's the sort of place walkers and nature enthusiasts come for rather than sunbathers. The bar itself is best explored at low tide when you can actually walk across it without getting your boots wet. The views back towards the Welsh hills are decent, and on clear days you can see for miles across the bay. Families with young kids might find it interesting for an hour or so - there's something satisfying about walking on a ribbon of sand in the middle of water - though it's not exactly a traditional seaside beach with ice cream vans and donkeys.

The real appeal is geological and ecological. This is an active, living sandbar, not a fixed feature, so you're watching the coast do its thing in real time. Birdwatchers do well here too, particularly in spring and autumn migration.

Allow ninety minutes to explore properly, longer if you're keen on photography. Time your visit around low tide - tide tables are essential. There's no facilities at the bar itself, so head into Borth for a cuppa afterwards.

Stay at Cambrian Coast Holiday Park just up the coast and you've got proper access to this stretch of Cardigan Bay. It's the sort of walk you'd build into a wider coastal ramble rather than a destination in itself, but that's rather the point.