Bay trips and historic discoveries
Visit iconic Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove. Take a stroll around Elizabethan Mapperton House and Gardens. Play golf at West Dorset and sip wine at Furleigh Estate. Hunt down fossils on Chesil or learn about them at Bridport Museum and there's fresh air and fun at Farmer Palmer’s Farm Park.
Kids ahoy!
This is the Jurassic coast and there are fossils waiting for you down on Chesil Beach. Or check out some that nature made before, at the Bridport Museum. Discover the Ammonite Pavement at Lyme Regis, the Charmouth Fossil Walks, or just great beaches at Charmouth, Lulworth, Kimmeridge and Swanage.
Enjoy more fresh air and fun at Farmer Palmer’s Farm Park, home to slides, sandcastle building, a go-kart track, a dinosaur discovery trail, and plenty of furry friends. Meet the marine life of the Jurassic coast, including wrasse, bass and crabs, at the Lyme Regis Aquarium. Or buckle up for a RIB ride around the bay.
Meet the Spanish beach chimpanzees at Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre, the largest in the world with 250 primates. Steam through the lovely Purbeck countryside in the Devon Belle observation car on the Swanage Railway. Or brave the high ropes, zip wires and wobbly bridges of The Tunnel Tree Tops.
Head to Lister Gardens to pass a pleasant hour or so over the mini golf, putting green, table tennis, woodland boardwalk and award-winning seafront gardens. Or feed the free-range birds, handle a snake or a tarantula, and meet the armadillo, zebra, lemur or flamingos at Axe Valley Wildlife Park.
For the grown ups
Visit iconic sites such as Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove. Stroll along The Cobb and emulate Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Take a boat trip with City Cruises to Swanage from Poole with on-board commentary. Or check out the ammonite slab on Monmouth Beach.
Take a tour of Town Mill, a 600-year-old working watermill milling flour from the flow of water over the waterwheel and pop into the shop. Head to twice-weekly Bridport Market for local produce, clothing, jewellery, antiques, and flowers and plants. Or potter the valley garden at Mapperton House with its dovecote and courtyard.
Swing your clubs around the 18-hole course, driving range and putting green at Bridport and West Dorset Golf Club, with sea views across Lyme Bay and Chesil Beach. Or discover Portland along the lovely coast road for a sunset walk around the Portland Bill lighthouse.
Tour the vineyard at the Furleigh Estate and taste the wine on a Friday or Saturday. Don’t forget the cheese! Catch the latest cinema releases, music and theatre productions at The Marine Theatre. Wrap up your day touring and sipping the finest craft ciders at Dorset Nectar Cider.
