South-West England Dorset

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Hi all,

I'm going to Dorset next week for 5 nights but I'm really struggling to find somewhere to stay.

I'll be doing the usual photography places and tourist stuff.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
I have booked in here http://www.spurwing.info/ for late May, never been but the write ups are very good.
Its near to Monkey World and Bovington Tank Museum
Your also not far from corfecastle, Weymouth coast road to Bridport/west bay, plenty of little places along there, all the usual, but if your into it, plenty of quite beaches and such south of you, Swanage way but come west a little, unknown coves and such, just google map it
 
In what way, the place is riddled with hotels, B&B Pubs with accomodation.

Sorry I meant a location to stay, somewhere that is not far from everything lol ie Durdle Door, Corfecastle etc etc.

I have booked in here http://www.spurwing.info/ for late May, never been but the write ups are very good.
Its near to Monkey World and Bovington Tank Museum

Thanks I'll take a look,.

Also what about Lodges/Cottage or something like that?
 
Thats why I asked.

Smugglers Inn at Osmington. 20 minutes from Weymouth, 20 minutes from Lulworth/Durdle Door a touch further for Corfe castle. circa £100 a night B&B, right on the cost footpath, not much to shoot on the door step but the sun sets across the bay towards weymouth harbour.
Evening food is good as well

Alternatively you could try the Caravan/holiday park place next door to it. It might be Osmington holiday park. Do not know anything about it so dont know if its open etc.

There is also a holiday park right at Durdle Door - static caravans- again know nothing about it as its not my thing. If you stay anywhere between Weymouth and Wareham you are not more than 30 minutes from any of the jurassic coast and the main attractions.
Even swanage is not too far. I would stay off the Isle of Purbec as weymouth gets snarled up with traffic during rush hours and school time and it adds a lot to any journey.
I would also stay west of wareham. Poole has loads of accomodation but its either the ferry or a 50 minute drive.

Cant think of the brewery but there is a sister Inn in wareham to Smugglers Inn that i have heard good things of.
Hope thats of use
 
Thats why I asked.

Smugglers Inn at Osmington. 20 minutes from Weymouth, 20 minutes from Lulworth/Durdle Door a touch further for Corfe castle. circa £100 a night B&B, right on the cost footpath, not much to shoot on the door step but the sun sets across the bay towards weymouth harbour.
Evening food is good as well

Alternatively you could try the Caravan/holiday park place next door to it. It might be Osmington holiday park. Do not know anything about it so dont know if its open etc.

There is also a holiday park right at Durdle Door - static caravans- again know nothing about it as its not my thing. If you stay anywhere between Weymouth and Wareham you are not more than 30 minutes from any of the jurassic coast and the main attractions.
Even swanage is not too far. I would stay off the Isle of Purbec as weymouth gets snarled up with traffic during rush hours and school time and it adds a lot to any journey.
I would also stay west of wareham. Poole has loads of accomodation but its either the ferry or a 50 minute drive.

Cant think of the brewery but there is a sister Inn in wareham to Smugglers Inn that i have heard good things of.
Hope thats of use

That's great advice, thanks. Unfortunately the Smugglers Inn and Holiday Park are full :( So staying in Weymouth is not recommended?
 
Somewhere around Dorchester wouldn't be bad, fairly central. You can get to West Bay, where Broadchuch was filmed. Some lovely villages to photograph, Milton Abbas, with Bulbarrow hill a mile or so away, Google them :)
 
That's great advice, thanks. Unfortunately the Smugglers Inn and Holiday Park are full :( So staying in Weymouth is not recommended?
Weymouth is ok if you are on the eastern side of the harbour, we found we always ended up sitting in traffic going from one side to the other. If you plan to be out at Sunrise and not back till after dark it would be fine at this time of the year. Lulworth would be about 40minutes from Central Weymouth
 
If you want to stay in Weymouth the Riviera hotel is a great piece of architechture to photograph. The hotel it self is good but I do not recommend the food.
 
Lovely part of the country. Been to Swanage many times, and last summer, the old pier was being re built, so might be worth checking the progress. Prettiest pier (y)
 
I ended up booking in there also, looked like a reasonable location... soon find out :)

Do me a favour then please, let me know what its like and if you should go to Monkey world can you get close enough to get the enclosure fencing OOF or are you too far away .
 
Where you stay will probably becdepicted by what you want to shoot. If I you want to concentrate on coastal landscapes then somewhere between Swanage and Osmington would be best. This will cut your driving and walking time to such locations as Durdle Door, Kimneridge, Chapmans Pool, Corfe Castle, etc.
 
Where you stay will probably becdepicted by what you want to shoot. If I you want to concentrate on coastal landscapes then somewhere between Swanage and Osmington would be best. This will cut your driving and walking time to such locations as Durdle Door, Kimneridge, Chapmans Pool, Corfe Castle, etc.

I stayed in the B&B in Wareham that was mentioned above. I found Wareham to be quite a good location and most things were within a 30 min drive that I wanted to see.

The weather wasn't great so no sunrise/sunset chances but it didn't rain so that's a plus.

It was my first trip to Dorset, it wasn't bad but I'd be in no rush to go back.
 
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