Trecco Bay

The beach at Trecco Bay curves gently between two headlands, offering proper shelter from the Atlantic swells that batter other stretches of the South Wales coast. It's a working family beach - the kind where you'll see toddlers building castles while teenagers paddle out on bodyboards. The sand is wide and flat at low tide, revealing rock pools that kids will spend hours fossicking through.

This isn't a dramatic, Instagram-worthy beach. There's no cliff-top walk or castle perched above. What you get instead is straightforward seaside comfort - a bay that faces east, so morning light hits the water without glare, and enough space that even on school holidays you're not shoulder-to-shoulder with hundreds of other visitors. The promenade has the usual suspects: fish and chips, ice cream, a few cafes. A handful of shops near Porthcawl sit just inland if you need anything.

Trecco Bay works brilliantly as a base for families staying at the holiday park right on the seafront - you can be in the sea within minutes of breakfast. If you're doing a wider South Wales park holiday, it's a solid day-trip beach rather than a destination in itself. Allow two to three hours for a proper session. The beach is free, naturally, and works year-round, though summer weekends draw proper crowds. Go on a weekday in shoulder season - May or September - and you'll have the place nearly to yourself.