Start from 23 curated places around Bournemouth, GB, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
WestBeach
A seafood restaurant right on the sand by the pier, where the tables look straight out over the bay and the kitchen leans on the day's catch. It is the town's prime spot for fish with a view, equally good for a long breakfast or sunset dinner.
The Crab at Bournemouth
A dedicated seafood restaurant built around crab and lobster, with a long-held reputation for cooking the local catch simply and well. It is the sit-down, special-occasion fish choice away from the seafront bustle.
Trails & outdoors
Hengistbury Head
A headland nature reserve at the eastern end of the bay, with a circular walk over heath and Iron Age earthworks to a coastguard lookout and big views to the Isle of Wight. It is the wildest walk close to town and one of the coast's best birdwatching spots.
Alum Chine
A wooded ravine cutting down through the cliffs to the beach west of the centre, with a gently graded path through subtropical planting. It is a shaded, easy descent from the clifftop to the sand and a quieter way onto the beach.
Things to do
Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum
An eccentric clifftop villa built by a Victorian hotelier and stuffed with the art and curios he collected from around the world, now a museum left much as the family kept it. The building, with its sea views and gilded interiors, is as much the draw as the collection.
Oceanarium
The town aquarium beside the pier, with themed zones from an Amazon river to a walk-through shark tunnel, plus penguins and otters. It is compact, well-laid-out and the obvious move with kids when the weather turns.
Landmarks & sights
Bournemouth Pier
The Victorian pier at the foot of the town centre, the hinge between the gardens running down from the high street and the seven-mile run of sand. Walk to the end for the wide sweep back along the bay to the cliffs at either side.
Bournemouth Lower Gardens
A ribbon of Victorian pleasure gardens following the Bourne stream from the town centre right down to the pier, full of flowerbeds, a bandstand and an aviary. It is the green spine of the town and the natural walk from the shops to the sea.