Merley Court Holiday Park

Make room in the itinerary for a trip or two to Wimborne for its minster and its indoor market, the biggest undercover market in the south of England: it has a huge flea market and car boot every Saturday, fresh local produce including meat, cheese and fish, antiques, jewellery and vintage gear to rummage through… start saving up. Nearby Dorchester and Swanage markets are worth a punt too, and heaps more shopping is available in Bournemouth and Poole. Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch are the main day trips for visitors to this part of Dorset, with Portsmouth further along the coast to the east and Weymouth and the Isle of Portland easily reachable to the west. All have miles of award-winning beaches, a myriad of museums, theatres and restaurants, boat trips, sea fishing and watersports for all sorts of landlubber and seafarer holidaymakers; combine both with a comb around the Jurassic Coast to see what fossils you can find (even if it’s an unidentifiable shard of bone, be sure and tell the kids it’s from a T-Rex). If you’re more of a sea dog than an urbanite, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is first class for a gander around historic ships and pretending you’re Horatio (or maybe that’s just us). The National Museum of the Royal Navy is here too and there are several other attractions on offer including the Mary Rose, harbour tours by boat and Action Stations with simulators, tech experiments and a giant climbing tower; one ticket covers all dockyard attractions and is valid for a year. A harbour cruise from Poole, the biggest natural harbour in Europe, should also be firmly added to the diary – look out for the Very Posh houses of the Sandbanks peninsula if you feel like gnashing your teeth in envy (it has the fourth highest land value in the world and the moniker of Britain's Palm Beach). Land fans are loaded with options in the area: try exploring and pony-trekking in the New Forest (the main visitor centre at Lyndhurst has info on this and heaps more foresty things to see and do); golfing at Dudsbury or making your way around the several National Trust properties in Dorset including Brownsea Island, one of the best wildlife-watching spots in the south-west. For a rainy day at Poole, the Tower Park Leisure Complex has a water park, cinemas, bowling and an award-winning soft play centre. And, as the kids will remind you even if we don’t, Peppa Pig World is in the vicinity too, along with other famed kid-friendly attractions like Monkey World at Wareham, the theme park Adventure Wonderland at Christchurch, the formidable Tank Museum at Bovington and swinging about at Go Ape! in the Moors Valley Country Park.