A Pembrokeshire beach has put itself up amongst Europe’s best - matching anything the Mediterranean has to offer!

With summer on the way, Holidu, the holiday rental portal has analysed thousands of Google Maps reviews to rank the best European beaches for 2026.

While Mediterranean hotspots often steal the spotlight, British coastlines punch well above their weight, with UK beaches featuring 7 times across the full top 25 and Wales alone claiming two spots in the top 3.

Barafundle Bay in Pembrokeshire came 2nd, and Ceredigion’s Traeth Mwnt at 3rd, with both scoring a near-perfect 4.9, matching anything the Mediterranean has to offer!

Tenby’s North Beach came 16th on the list; with Freshwater West at 12th.

Italy’s Spiaggia dei Conigli in Lampedusa topped the list.

Barafundle Bay Beach, is described as a ‘hidden gem’ that captures the essence of untouched beauty.

“Its seclusion and unspoiled landscape make it a perfect retreat for those seeking tranquility away from the bustling crowds, and its growing review count proves more and more people are making the journey,” stated Holidu.

A spokesperson for Holidu added: “We created a dataset of beaches in Europe by analysing the Google Maps database for the term ‘beach’ in all of Europe's coastal provinces. From the 9500+ results, we filtered out all results that were not beaches.

“We then took the Google Maps user rating (out of 5 stars) for each beach and created a ranking based on the top-rated beaches, prioritising those with the most reviews. Beaches with less than 100 ratings were not included,as the average rating for such beaches can be interpreted as unreliable or irrelevant.”

The data for this ranking was collected in May 2026.

The full top 25 can be found here: https://www.holidu.co.uk/magazine/best-beaches-index