SWANSEA: The free marina trail that ends with a sweet, and a prize draw

Collect a sheet from a hotel reception on Somerset Place. Walk the marina answering questions as you go. Hand it in at an estate agent’s office next to the Tower, and the children get a sweet.

That is the Swansea Marina Summer Trail, free to do, back for a second year and running until the schools go back.

It is run by the marina office of Dawsons and Morgans Hotel, who put the first one together last summer.

The direction has been reversed this time. Last year’s trail ran from Dawsons to the hotel. This one starts at the hotel and finishes at Dawsons.

The route is new as well, with different statues and artefacts along it, so anyone who did the 2025 version is not walking the same loop twice.

The sheet is a round of numbered questions rather than a tick list, each one tied to something you have to stop and look at properly, with walking directions in between.

The aim, the two businesses say, is to get people looking at the sculptures, signs and artefacts around the marina that most of us walk straight past.

Where to pick it up, and when you can hand it in

Trail sheets are at reception at Morgans Hotel on Somerset Place, and you can collect one at any time of day.

The finish is the Dawsons Marina Office next to the Tower, and that end has opening hours: 9am to 5.30pm Monday to Thursday, 9am to 5pm on Friday, 9am to 4pm on Saturday.

So you can walk it on a Sunday, but you cannot hand it in on one. Worth knowing before you set off with a tired six-year-old and the promise of a sweet at the end.

The route is flat and paved the whole way, and plenty of last year’s entrants did it on scooters.

Prizes still to be announced

Every completed sheet handed in also goes into a draw at the end of the summer.

Entering means filling in a name, contact number and email at the bottom of the sheet, so it is worth a glance before you hand a child’s over.

The prizes are coming from local businesses and have not been confirmed yet. Dawsons says details will follow on its social channels.

It has been put together with families in mind, though there is nothing to stop adults doing it, and no time limit beyond the end of the holidays.

The free options this summer

It joins a thin list of things in the city that cost nothing over the holidays. The beach toy library on Swansea Bay prom was restocked last month, so a forgotten bucket and spade need not end the day.

The marina is also one of four Blue Flag sites in Swansea this summer, alongside Langland, Caswell and Port Eynon on Gower.