The Griffin, Dale

The Griffin is a relaxed and friendly waterfront pub in a village overlooking a wide bay skirting the entrance to Milford Haven. It's a great place to stand outside in the summer with a pint in hand, watching the board-sailors and dinghies skimming across the bay and the giant tankers servicing Britain's busiest oil port in the distance. Recently arrived licensees have raised the level of food on offer by a couple of notches, specialising in local produce, and the village fishermen keep the restaurant supplied with seafood for the specials board. Children are welcome – they have their own menu – and snacks are available for walkers following the Coast Path, which passes the door. Popular Welsh ales such as Tomos Watkin or Reverend James are on tap, and in winter there are regular quizzes and theme nights to keep the locals happy.
• Haverfordwest, 01646 636227, griffininndale.co.uk

Cresselly Arms, Kilgetty

This attractive pub is beautifully situated near the water's edge overlooking a wooded reach of the Cleddau estuary – the highest tides flood across the road to reach the pub doorway (regulars check their tide tables and wear wellies). About 250 years old, the Cresselly Arms was upgraded in the 1890s, since when it has hardly changed at all. Its unspoiled interior is featured in Camra's Guide to the Heritage Pubs of Wales. Amenities are cheerfully basic – there's no food – but this all adds to the character of what is a proper, old-fashioned country pub. Beer is served straight from the barrel by jug, there's a roaring fire in winter and a wealth of pictures reflecting the pub's long-standing connection with hunting and village cricket. Sit outside on an early summer evening and you can watch the pleasure boats arrive on the tide.
• Cresswell Quay, 01646 651210

The Old Point House, Angle Village

The Old Point House is a farmhouse pub, dating from around 1500, with a fantastic setting on a headland overlooking Angle Bay. Originally a one-bar local serving the village fishermen and farmhands, this Grade II-listed building has been sympathetically extended and upgraded over the years, without losing any of its charm and character – it still has its wooden settles clustered around an ancient fireplace. Known as "the lifeboatmen's local", the pub has had a long association with the RNLI station a short walk around the headland along the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, and its maritime links extend to the charts and old photographs which decorate the pub walls. There's a large beer garden, dogs and children are welcome (and will enjoy playing on the nearby foreshore), while seafood pie (£8.95) and fish chowder (£5.25) are among the favourite dishes on an extensive restaurant menu.
• Angle Village, 01646 641205

The Stackpole Inn, Stackpole

A pretty pub in an attractive village, the Stackpole Inn manages to pull off the difficult trick of being both a genuine village local (with its own choir) and also a destination food pub – it was named Best Gastropub in Wales at the 2011 Great British Pubs awards. All this is even more remarkable when you discover that the pub is only a dozen years old, having been converted from the former village post office. A free house with a leaning towards Welsh beers such as Double Dragon and Reverend James, it is handily placed for exploring the nearby coastline, including Bosherston Lily Ponds and Barafundle Bay. Walkers (and their dogs) are welcome and can enjoy light lunches in the bar or beer garden, while the award-winning restaurant has a daily specials board featuring locally caught fish. Bed and breakfast is available, with doubles from £90.
• Jason's Corner, 01646 672324, stackpoleinn.co.uk

Hope and Anchor, Tenby

Dating from the early 1800s, the Hope and Anchor was traditionally the place where fishermen from nearby Tenby harbour gathered to celebrate a profitable catch, and the walls are a mass of maritime memorabilia. These days it is a lively and welcoming watering hole on the way down to the much-photographed harbour, as popular with locals as it is with summer holidaymakers. Part of the reason for the popularity is the great selection of cask ales on offer, always in good condition. Food is of the reliable "pub grub" kind and is good value in a holiday town where eating out can be pricey. Children are welcome and there is a cramped but popular beer garden where you can sit in the sun and watch the bucket and spade brigade go by.
• St Julian Street, 01834 842131

Tafarn Sinc, Rosebush

This quirky corrugated iron pub high in the Preseli hills was built in the late 1870s as the Precelly Hotel when a local entrepreneur attempted to promote this moorland village as a health resort. It didn't happen, and the "Tin Shed" became a village local, gradually falling into disrepair until being rescued and refurbished in the early 1990s. Extended and painted in ox-blood red, it is now one of the county's favourite country inns, popular with the local hill-farming community, walkers and pony-trekkers alike. Stepping inside is a bit like entering a Welsh folk museum – it's an Aladdin's cave of photos and artefacts dedicated to the area's slate mining, farming and chapel-going heritage. Food is traditional Welsh – home-cooked ham and eggs or faggots and peas – as are the beers, which include Red Kite and the specially brewed Cwrw Tafarn Sinc.
• Clunderwen, 01437 532214, tafarnsinc.co.uk

The Sloop, Porthgain

A tiny harbour on the rugged north Pembrokeshire coast, Porthgain was once an industrial centre, quarrying slate and granite and exporting bricks. Remains of these industries still provide a dramatic backdrop to the harbour, now the preserve of fishing and dive boats and a popular visitor destination. Overlooking the harbour is the Sloop, a cottage pub dating back to the 18th century, which catered for the slate-workers. It underwent renovations in the 1990s, but happily these extensions have not been at the expense of the character of the pub, and in summer you'll find coast path walkers, fishermen and village cricketers supping pints in the bar, while families enjoy the sun in the beer garden. There's a good menu covering everything from locally caught crab (fresh crab salad £13.95) to various curries.
• Haverfordwest, 01348 831449, sloop.co.uk

Teifi Netpool Inn, St Dogmaels

Situated on the tidal Teifi Estuary, St Dogmaels is a former fishing village with a working corn-mill, a ruined abbey and several good pubs. Worth seeking out is the Teifi Netpool Inn, slightly off the main thoroughfare and once the hub of the local salmon industry; the "netpool" of the name was a noted salmon netting pool in the river below the pub. Many relics of the industry are on display, including a coracle. A well-run village local, the Teifi Netpool is being gradually refurbished, and the new-look restaurant serves good-quality pub food seven days a week. There are real ales from Breconshire Brewery, including the popular Ramblers Ruin, and Welsh ciders on draught. Families will appreciate the large outdoor play area on the adjoining village green.
• 01239 612680, teifinetpoolinn.com

Nag's Head, Abercych

The Nag's Head stands at the entrance to the long and thickly wooded Cych Valley (pictured). Once the home of the village blacksmith, it was originally a tiny two-room pub but was extended in the 1990s with the acquisition of a couple of adjoining buildings, one of which became the pub restaurant. Another of the buildings became a micro-brewery, brewing Old Emrys ale especially for the pub. Brewing ceased there in 2002, but it has just been recommissioned, and now Old Emrys is being brewed once again, alongside two other regular beers. With its warren of rooms, wooden tables and settles, the interior is full of character – look out for the huge collection of old beer bottles and the stuffed "Giant Rat of Abercych" (actually a coypu) killed locally around 1950. There's a riverside beer garden and children are welcome. The extensive menu includes plenty of vegetarian options and home-cooked specialities such as sausage and potato pie.
• Boncath, 01239 841200

The Fishguard Arms, Fishguard

It would be easy to miss this tiny terraced pub in the centre of Fishguard, but for those who like their ale houses traditional and unspoiled, the Fishguard Arms is worth making the effort to track down. The street door leads to a passage, off which are a front bar and a back bar – and that's about it. Separating these two wooden-floored bars is a serving area with an unusually high traditional counter – a feature that has helped make the pub one of Camra's Real Heritage Pubs of Wales. It's the kind of unpretentious and welcoming pub, fast disappearing, where customers still value the old-fashioned virtues of a lively chat over a pint or two. There's no food (you'll probably be directed to the chippie up the road), while a changing range of beers is served straight from casks behind the bar.
• 24 Main Street, 01348 872763

Keith Johnson is the author of the Pubs of St David's, Fishguard and North Pembrokeshire (Logaston, £9.95, avaiable from pembrokebooks.co.uk) and editor of the monthly magazine Pembrokeshire Life