Do you want to get away from it all for a few days (writes Simon Newsham), somewhere peaceful tucked away in the woods where your alarm call is the birds twittering and the sun shining through the trees? There is such a place a couple of miles north of St Clears in the Welsh county of Carmarthenshire, where you can find Woodland Lodges.

A friendly family-run site with log cabins that can sleep from two up to groups of eight, plus all the cabins have their own sauna, which is a nice addition to what is essentially a base to explore south-west Wales. Each cabin has all you need to self cater during your stay - a fridge/freezer, an oven with grill, microwave, toaster and a television, it's all there. Everything is electric, so take a supply of pound coins. One warning though - the electric meter will whizz round like a whirling dervish if you spark up the sauna.

St Clears is split in two by the busy A40, which hurtles the traffic westward to Pembroke Dock and by-passing the quiet little town, which has some nice pubs and an excellent prize-winning butchers and delicatessen, selling locally produced food for cooking back at the cabin.

Heading south out of St Clears on the road to Laugharne, the brown signs direct you to Dylan Thomas' Boathouse and the village of Laugharne. With it's ghostly medieval castle on the estuary of the River Taf, Laugharne is reputed to be the inspiration for the fictional town of Llareggub in Dylan Thomas’s play 'Under Milk Wood'.

Laugharne has a plethora of pubs, and ironically three of them are within a stone’s throw of Temperance House, but for good home-cooked food try Greens Restaurant by the car park. They offer organic local produce, but beware if you are peckish between three and six pm, as this part of Wales is closed at these times.

Most pubs around St Clears and Laugharne have pictures of Thomas on the wall, and they all claim he was a customer. Thomas spent most of the last four years of his short life in Laugharne not always sober and often quoted “an alcoholic is someone you don't like but who drinks as much as you”.

Take a walk along the cliffs westward away from the castle and the coast path will lead you along the shore, with lambs grazing on the salt marshes - salt lamb is a particularly fine Welsh delicacy. Heading back into Laugharne, visit the churchyard to find the grave of Dylan Thomas and his wife Caitlin, where a simple white wooden cross marks their resting place. Then head down to The Boathouse where Thomas lived and worked. Part tearooms and part museum, it can be visited as long as you arrive well before three o’clock in the afternoon. Just along from the Boathouse is Thomas' writing shed - if not the most expensive shed in Britain, it certainly has the best views.

After a wander around Laugharne, a visit to Pendine Sands is a must. This is a vast beach with firm solid sand, where land speed records were made and broken in the 1920s by Sir Malcolm Campbell and J.G Parry-Thomas. The Museum Of Speed on the beach houses Babs the motor car, with a massive 27 litre aero engine. The car was driven by John Parry-Thomas, who lost his life on the sands when Babs’s drive chain broke at a speed of 170mph, almost taking his head off. The car was buried in the sand after the accident, but was recovered from the dunes, restored and returned to action on the beach in the 1970s. I wanted to open up the modest 1.6 litre 16v engine on my new Renault for a blast along the beach to see what it can do, but unfortunately the beach is in Ministry of Defence hands now, and all motoring activities on Pendine Sands are strictly prohibited.

On the way back to St Clears, take a short drive to Llansteffan, which is just a few miles south of Carmarthen, and climb the steep hill to the castle, perched high on the cliffs. Llansteffan Castle is magical for as many reasons as you care to make up, and (unlike similar attractions in England) it's free to enter and not blighted by those twin spoilsports health and safety. Climbing on the ramparts gives a fine view out over the Tywi estuary, and makes a wonderful playground for a child with sword and shield. At low tide the zig-zag steps from the south of the castle allow you to walk down to the beach below for a spot of beachcombing, or a walk on the sand.

This part of Wales is full of spectacular coastal walks, loads of pubs and restaurants and a very friendly welcome from the locals. Try the Butchers Arms in St Clears - it's on the way out of town on the Laugharne road, you'll get good ale and food including real chips (something that South Wales is particularly good at): no frozen rubbish here, just good locally-sourced produce, and scenery to take your breath away.