Higher Moor Farm Campsite

Higher Moor Farm Campsite is minutes away from the 2012 Olympic sailing venue of Weymouth, with its sandy bay, Georgian seafront, first-class watersports facilities, Sea Life Centre and regular events including dragon boat racing and fireworks festivals. (Keep an eye out for the sand modeller, whose family has been sculpting sand in Weymouth for generations.) Portland’s also crammed with watersports options including scuba diving, and you can go fishing and rock climbing here too.

The Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site is minutes away from the campsite with its ancient cliffs, walks, biking and riding trails, boat trips, angling and fossil-hunting: try the long shingle stretch at nearby Chesil Beach or Lyme Regis.

If you like your history a few million years more modern, try Dorchester with its Roman amphitheatre, or go on a history tour of Dorset to take in its castles, stately homes and gardens as well as its ancient forts and landmarks.

For birdwatching and wildlife spotting, the RSPB reserve Radipole Lake is about five miles away from Higher Moor and has regular events, family activities and a visitor centre. There’s also the popular Studland Beach & Nature Reserve along the coast at Swanage, which was the inspiration for Toytown in the Noddy stories and which has all six species of British reptiles dwelling round about.

If you have mini naturalists in the family, they’ll also like walking among the mute swan colony at Abbotsbury Swannery, chattering with the inhabitants at the Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre or feeling fancy at the (free) Fancys Family Farm in Portland.

Elsewhere in Dorset, the appropriately-named Poole with its natural harbour is another highly popular spot with watersports enthusiasts and is easily accessible from Higher Moor, as is the neighbouring seaside town of Bournemouth. For other day trips, try Swanage, Wareham or East Bay – or take a ferry ride to one of the Channel Islands from Weymouth.