What to do on a family holiday in Dorset

[caption id="attachment_4502" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Us at the beautiful Durdle Door[/caption]

Robert, who's 14, is back to tell you about our summer family holiday in Dorset - a place we would highly recommend.

Over to him:

"At the beginning of the summer holidays my parents and I drove to Dorset for a wonderfully relaxing and enjoyable week-long visit. We stayed in a cottage around a ten-minute drive from Weymouth. It had two rooms, a bathroom with a shower, a kitchen area, living room and basically everything you would want in a living accommodation. It was a lovely place to relax in the evening; reading books, watching TV and playing games. 

Weymouth  

[caption id="attachment_4504" align="alignnone" width="1200"] On Weymouth Beach[/caption]

To say Weymouth is busy on a summer weekend is a huge understatement. Parking was hard to come by (although we did find a space every time) and the beaches and streets were bustling with locals and tourists alike. However, it never felt too crowded and there weren’t long queues for refreshments or long waits to get a meal. The beach was lovely – we rented deckchairs for £2 each – and spent a good few hours there on our first day. The sea was amazing to paddle, wade and swim in as there were basically no waves at all - due to the natural defences at Chesil beach.  

There are so many places to get an ice-cream or slushie in Weymouth and even more places to get yourself a quick lunch in the afternoon. Be warned though: a majority of the cafes and shops close relatively early and on our first night we found ourselves wandering the streets for a while before deciding on getting food to heat up at home. Weymouth and the surrounding area is not short of massive supermarkets and we had dinner in our cottage every night bar one, so the shops closing early is not a major problem. 

Chesil Beach 

[caption id="attachment_4505" align="alignnone" width="1200"] The stunning Chesil Beach[/caption]

After relaxing in the sand on Weymouth’s coastline we drove about twenty minutes to a completely different type of beach. Chesil beach is the largest tombolo in the UK and is 28 kilometres of pure pebbles which increase in size as you move across. The stretch is classified as a Heritage site so you are not allowed to take any rocks home with you although you can obviously pick them up. The sheer size of the beach was impressive and it was a beautiful to go and have a look at. There is a great exhibition about the beach inside the visitor centre with lots of things to touch and look at including fossils, animal bones and millions of years old rocks. For a free attraction I would definitely recommend going, if only to have a quick look. 

[caption id="attachment_4506" align="alignnone" width="900"] One of the exhibits at the Chesil Beach Visitor Centre[/caption]

Cycling 

The next day we set out on a cycling trip organised by Jurassic Trails. We got our bikes and helmets then proceeded to begin our journey down the many cycle lanes and general streets in the area. We got lost almost straight away, we’ll blame it on the lack of clear signs, and ended up following a route we made up using the map we were given. We then lost Dad and pulled over but ended up stumbling across a strange sculpture, so really Mum and I came out of the loss pretty well. It was fun and exhilarating cycling around Dorset, although my bottom and legs were aching by the end of it. Even after a lot of wrong turns and small pavements that we walked down with our bikes it was still a thoroughly enjoyable day and cycling up and down the seafront near Bowleaze was one of the highlights of the trip. Although this bears no relevance to this post you may be amused to read that we went cycling on the day of what I can only assume to be some sort of Dorset Marathon which brought the difficulty level up significantly when cycling down the lanes shared for both walking and biking. 

Hiring the bikes from Jurassic Trails cost £54 for the three of us and could be used for the whole day. We thought this was pretty good!

Windsurfing 

[caption id="attachment_4509" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Robert tries out windsurfing[/caption]

On our third day I went windsurfing at the Official Test Centre in Portland.  My only vaguely similar experience in my life was going Water-skiing in Greece three and a half years ago so I entered a complete beginner but came out, quoting the words of my instructor, “a natural”. I got the hang of it practically straight away; there was a secure position, a sailing position and the act of turning around. Once you learn those – which we did on the shore – the only difficulty is keeping your balance and not falling in. The two hour session went by quickly and I would definitely try it again – possibly in windier conditions than the test centre. The water is so shallow and the one time I fell, my feet touched the floor so there is no reason to be scared. The centre also teaches paddle boarding which is an easier water sport that you could attempt if you wanted. 

Robert's two-hour taster lesson was complimentary (lucky us!) but would have cost £49. The Official Test Centre is on Portland, just past Chesil Beach. Although they gifted us the session, they had no input into this blog post.

Castletown D-Day centre 

Earlier that day we visited the Castletown D-Day centre, an activity which my parents weren’t too scared to take part in. The museum was one of the best I’ve been to in a while, due to the fact that there were so many interactive things to do which seemed to be one of the things the owner had been really pushing for when building the centre.
There were tanks and army vehicles you could climb in and move, videos to watch, boards to read as well as proper army uniform and an array of guns that you could wear and pick up. Upstairs was a surprisingly creepy enemy bunker focusing on the Germans and their experience of D-Day, and a tea-room where we coincidentally saw the museum's owner who we had just been watching in the videos downstairs! The centre is only open between 10.30 – 3.30 but it was really fun and interesting, the staff really knew their stuff and it was a really nice place to go. We ended up spending a lot more time there than we had expected to.

The Castletown D Day Centre is situated in Portland, where thousands of American soldiers stayed before they left for France in 1944. It costs £7 for adults, £5 for 12-17 year olds and £4 for children. 

Natural Landscape 

[caption id="attachment_4511" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Lulworth Cove[/caption]

Throughout the holiday went to some beautiful places including Lulworth Cove – a stunning bay with about 100 places to get an ice-cream, Opa Church Cove, a small rocky area on Portland which was once used by smugglers, and the area around the Portland Bill Lighthouse – not to mention many other beautiful views and beaches that we visited. The most amazing place to see however was Durdle Door – a natural limestone arch in the sea.

[caption id="attachment_4512" align="alignnone" width="1200"] The stunning Durdle Door[/caption]

Although quite a long walk from the car park it was a beautiful sight and the rocky beach preceding it was a great place to swim, relax and stare in awe. There were so many places of natural beauty in Dorset and they made the holiday feel much more relaxed than constantly visiting museums and man-made attractions. 

Jurassic Coast 

[caption id="attachment_4513" align="alignnone" width="1200"] An ammonite (fossil) found on Charmouth Beach[/caption]

The most unique activity we participated in throughout the trip was definitely our fossil tour on the Jurassic Coast. Our tour guide Martin, from Jurassic Coast Guides, explained how different fossils are formed and helped us remember what they look like and how to spot them. After the talk, which lasted about an hour, and a toilet break which gladly lasted less than an hour, we set off down the coastline to find some fossils. Martin had explained the places with the best chance of finding a fossil but even before we got to them he had found a few which he let us “find” and keep after giving us the general area it was in. This stayed the case for the majority of the two hours we spent on the beach. Although grouped together, Mum, Dad and I found three, maybe four traces of fossilised creatures to Martin’s 20 or so more impressive ones. The whole experience was really interesting and fun and we came home with a bag full of 14 190 million year old rocks. If you are considering going fossil hunting, on the Jurassic Coast or elsewhere I would definitely recommend doing it as part of a tour or with someone experienced and we would have had no clue whatsoever if we had gone on our own. 

Private fossil hunting walk with Jurassic Coast Guides costs £100. We were fortunate enough to be given one for gree in order to write about. However, no one from the company has had any input into this piece, which is also our (particularly Robert's) opinions.

Dorset Adventure Park 

[caption id="attachment_4514" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Corfe Castle[/caption]

Our hour at Dorset Adventure Park felt much longer – it was one of the most fun activities of the holiday and Mum and Dad really enjoyed it as well even though they were in the water for most of it!  Everything is inflatable and if you only fall off you have to swim to nearest entry point or attempt to climb back on where someone pulls you up by the lifejacket.

Read more about our trip to this brilliant park and also nearby Corfe Castle in this post from Robert.

Sea life and adventure golf 

[caption id="attachment_4515" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Playing crazy golf![/caption]

We only spent an hour or so in Weymouth’s Sea Life as we saw all the different attractions and didn’t stick around at each for too long. However, for younger kids it looked like a great place to visit – there were at least five different schools visiting when we went. Our favourite bit was the “shipwreck” with lots of cool sea life to see inside: jellyfish, crabs and fish and we also liked seeing some otters being fed – one of the events that occur throughout the day. There were seals, sharks, turtles and penguins as well as lots more cool things to see for children to enjoy. We also visited the Pirate Adventure Golf just outside which was really fun. Beware though, we went in the morning around when it had just opened and it was extremely busy, meaning long waits to play the next hole. 

A Pirate Adventure Golf & Weymouth SEALIFE combi ticket (booked online) is Adult £24.95, Child (3-14) £20.95. We were lucky enough to be given these in order to write about them, but the organisation had no input into this blog post.

Overall I loved going to Dorset and is my favourite holiday in the UK in many years – if not my whole life. Coincidence that Jess didn’t come on this one! It was so nice not to go to a bustling city and just visit museums and theme parks – although I could’ve done with a few rides; instead there were beautiful coves and beaches and activities involving nature. On top of that there were so many delicious foods to sample, I’m pretty sure I had more ice-creams than days of the holiday! If you are thinking of going to a place in England I would wholeheartedly recommend Dorset as we spent a week there and there were still loads of things we didn’t do or visit. There are definitely enough things for adults, teenagers and children and I hope to go back again in the future." 

Disclosure: Visit Dorset helped us to plan our holiday, but had no input into this blog post. They have information for everything to do across the county.

Read more on family holidays in the UK: 

A family trip to Cornwall

What to do in beautiful Pembrokeshire

Why we loved Lincoln (and are sure you would too!)

Drayton Manor: not just for little ones (by Robert)

Robert, aged 11, writes:

In half term we went to Staffordshire for a short holiday and on the final day of our trip we went to Drayton Manor, which is a very cool theme park. There was loads to do for all different ages. Here’s what I thought.

Scary, Exhilarating Rides

Shockwave is one of the two main roller-coasters in the park. It is one of the few attractions that go upside down and is unlike any ride I’ve ever been on. It’s actually one of only two roller-coasters in Europe in which you stand up. The carriage adapts to your height, so your feet are on the ground, before sending you on a course of fast loops and turns. I really enjoyed Shockwave althoughI felt like I was going to fall out. This is only because I was one of the smallest people in the ride and the bar didn’t go any lower.

G Force is the other big rollercoaster in the park and was one of my favourite rides. At the beginning you slowly go up a large ramp before starting a loop the loop very slowly, which means you are dangling upside down for a small amount of time. Then you rush down quickly and go through a series of turns, twists and drops, not mentioning a few more loops. G Force is very popular and was one of the only rides at Drayton Manor that I had to queue for. I did really enjoy it though and it was worth the wait.

[caption id="attachment_3426" align="alignnone" width="1200"] The terrifying Maelstrom ride![/caption]

Maelstrom is a brilliant thing to go on if you’re a thrill seeker who isn’t scared of heights. The ride swings you up and down, every time escalating until it gets to the maximum height which is around 74 ft. Whilst spinning like a pendulum you are also spinning around so at some points you are falling forwards, sometimes falling backwards and sometimes falling sideways. I loved this ride and in my opinion it was one of the best attractions in the park.

The Bounty Pirate Ship is like a less scary version of Maelstrom. It still swings you up and down but it is not as high and you don’t spin around. There are people on both sides of the boat so you still go backwards and forwards but going backwards isn’t scary at all. The further to the side you are the higher you will go, so if your child forces you to go on you can let them go at the back and you can sit in the middle where it won’t be so scary.

Air race is a very fun ride which some could find quite scary. Don’t be fooled by the colourful aeroplanes: the ride basically spins you around for the entire time, one loop the loop after another. The ride gradually gets faster and fasters until you are whizzing around. Funnily enough it didn’t make me feel queasy at all although I’m sure some people didn’t get off so lucky!

There were a few of the scarier rides that I didn’t go on. Pandemonium looked very good but was closed when we went and In Stormforce 10 you get absolutely soaked, which I couldn’t face in the British winter time. Apocalypse was the only one of the big rides I chose not to go on as I couldn’t face a 177 ft drop.

Family Rides

I didn’t go on that many of these kinds of rides that weren’t very scary but one attraction that was very scary was The Haunting. Drayton Manor’s haunted house doesn’t actually have anything that should scare anyone over the age of six yet, after going to countless places like The London Tombs and The London dungeons I was expecting a different scenario than what actually happened. At the beginning we were shown a video in which a man told us “Some people see things, some people smell things and some people feel things.” I felt that implied that people were going to touch me and from then on was very scared. The whole thing actually turned out to be some models of ghosts and a chair that moved. Although it wasn’t that scary it was very fun and would recommend going. It is quite long so we had to queue for ten minutes or so.

I didn’t find Ben 10 Ultimate Mission Coaster that great or thrilling, but all the younger kids seemed to love it. In the ride you go quite fast at the beginning before reaching the end of the track and doing most of the ride again backwards. I did quite enjoy it and is perfect for younger children as it is fast but not too scary.

I enjoyed Yogi Bears 4D adventure as you can’t beat a free trip to the cinema. There wasn’t as many special effects as in ones I’ve seen before but we were still squirted with water and I found the film funny and a good way to let my queasiness go away from all the previous rides I had been on.

There are loads of other rides in the park that I didn’t go on. If you want to find out about them go to the Drayton Manor website  

Thomas Land

[caption id="attachment_3428" align="alignnone" width="675"] If you've got younger kids, they'll love Thomas Land![/caption]

A large chunk of the theme park was taken up by attractions all about Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends. As you would’ve guessed I spent nearly all my time in Thomas Land going on Bertie the Bus and Harold the Helicopter. Just joking! There are loads of calm rides to go on and the toddlers and kids seemed to be having the time of their lives. We did pop in for 10 minutes or so and it was very enjoyable.

Overall,  Drayton Manor is a brilliant place to go. Most of the people who go are there for Thomas Land so most of the other rides had no queue. There was so many things to do including a zoo with monkeys and a great reptile house. I loved going and would definitely recommend it.

Drayton Manor is open from November 19th for for its "Magical Christmas season". A family ticket for the park costs £98.

Disclosure: We went to Drayton Manor as part of a "Staffordsheerescape" package, courtesy of Enjoy Staffordshire, although they had no input at all into this blog post. The Drayton Manor package starts at £170 for a family of four, and includes an overnight stay (we stayed at the fabulous Hilton St George's Park, which you will read about soon!), plus admission to Drayton Manor Park and two other attractions. There’s a basket of 10 to choose from in all, including the Snow Dome and Trentham Monkey Forest - so you'll have a fun packed time. You can see the details of the Drayton Manor package here. 

Read what I thought of:

Thorpe Park

Siam Park (the best waterpark in the world!)

Rides and more Dreamland: Margate (by Robert)

[caption id="attachment_2206" align="alignnone" width="1200"] We couldn't go to Dreamland and not buy any candy floss![/caption]

Robert, who's 10, writes about our trip to Dreamland, a vintage theme park in Margate, Kent. We went in December 2015 (you can watch our video below) and we all really enjoyed it.

[kad_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHvTLeZ9R54" width=200 height=100 ]

"Dreamland was fantastic, I loved going through this 1950 retro theme park with fake snow drifting over my head and I had a great time on all the superb rides in the Frosted Fairground. There were amusements, things to eat, an arcade and even a roller-skate rink making it a unique, fun experience with so much to do.

The park was split into two sections, all the arcade games and pinball machines were inside, while all the rides were outside.

We started off in the frosted fairground and the first thing we went on was a proper carousel called The Gallopers. This was great fun as it went quite fast although I thought it got a bit boring at the end.

We also tried out Montopia where you were seated in a spaceship high above the ground and had to pedal your way through the course. I loved this although it might be a bit tiring for smaller kids.

Then we went on a big colourful slide named Born Slippy, but unfortunately when Jess and I tried it we kept stopping during our trip down as we were so big. Anyway, it was still fun.

The attraction Mum and Dad really liked was the Dodgems, they were easy to control, went really fast and it was such fun to bump into other people. Mum and Dad said they were the best dodgems they’d ever been on.

One of our favourite rides was the wooden rollercoaster called Scenic Railway which is actually the oldest rollercoaster in the UK. This was great as it had some large drops and was very exciting but there was a long queue for it, so be warned.

There were plenty of quick classics like the Helter Skelter, Mirror Maze and Ghost Train plus some small calm rides for the youngsters for example The Teacups or the two floor merry go round Double Decker. I especially loved all the quick rides where you spin around and go backwards like The Kiss Me Quick ride (a “ride of love”) and the fast paced Cyclone Twist.

[caption id="attachment_2209" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Jess riding on the Hurricane jets![/caption]

On the Hurricane Jets you were in charge of your rocket and could move it up and down, this was so cool as you could go so high then drop down to the bottom. I had never been on something like this before.

You could also go on the Big Wheel, a relaxing ride that gives you a great view of the whole park, or the smaller rollercoaster that we didn’t go on called the Counter Culture Caterpillar Coaster.

[caption id="attachment_2210" align="alignnone" width="1200"] The view from the big wheel[/caption]

Finally I must let you know about the Jumping Tower which I went on five times! At this attraction you go up then drop down a number of times which I have always loved the feeling of.

There are a few that I haven’t mentioned which we didn’t have time for but I’m sure they’re amazing just like all the ones we did go on.

[caption id="attachment_2211" align="alignnone" width="900"] This was Robert's favourite ride![/caption]

Inside was just as good as it had loads of cheap arcade games to play (mostly using 2p or 10p pieces), more places to eat, the roller rink and other extras as well. There’s not much to say about the arcade apart from there are lots of games and they’re really good. My personal favourite was one where you had to hit monsters with balls and win tickets. On many games you collect tickets at the end depending on how well you’ve done then swap them for a prize. I came away with a Minion Pencil case for 300 tickets. Yay.

Overall it was fantastic; I went on brilliant rides, played fantastic games and stuffed my face with delicious blue candyfloss! We also had pancakes and toasties for lunch."

Dreamland is considered to be the oldest-surviving amusement park in Great Britain, dating back to the 1860s. It closed in 2003, but opened again after a full refurbishment last June. The whole family thought it was great for a trip, although it is now closed for the winter. However, it's open for various events (including a Valentine's Disco) and on 19th-20th March and 25th March to 11th April. From then onwards, it's open  weekends and bank holidays until the end of May. After that it's open every day for the summer.

Find out about the upcoming events here.

It costs: £14.95 for adults and £12.95 for children (this includes the rides), although it was slightly different when we went at Christmas, when it was free entry, but you paid per ride (between £1 and £5 depending what it was).

Read about what else we got up to in Margate here, and also read about our trip to beautiful Broadstairs in Kent too.

Disclosure: We were given free entry and free rides in order to write about our experience for this blog. However, all our thoughts are our own.

We've teamed up with Country Kids this week - pop over to the Coombe Mill website and be inspired by some more country adventures!