South Beach is about three miles long and is made up of mostly sand and shingle, apart from the Carreg-y-Defaid end, which joins Llanbedrog beach at low tide, where there are more rocks.

The beach is fairly steep and on rough days waves from the southwest boom onto the shore, so it's not really suitable for surfing!

The recently improved promenade offers good parking and access to the beach via board walks over the sand dunes that back the beach. There is a shop and cafe at the eastern end of the promenade and public toilets further west along the seafront.