95 miles of stunning coast line, beaches and fossil hunting is what you can expect from the Jurassic Coast. This stunning location has been on our must travel list for a while now and was the main point of our road trip, we stayed for 3 nights in neighbouring Axmouth and spent 2 full days discovering this truly gorgeous place.
We booked the accommodation through Air B&B and they were the best hosts that we have had, they filled the fridge for us with essentials and some goodies too including strawberries, clotted cream and scones! They even baked us some banana bread, I mean come on! It was a great base for exploring and here’s what we did:
Day 1:
We decided that we would do the longest drives today and the shorter ones the next day so we headed to Lulworth Cove, it was about an hour drive or so and the heat was incredible. We parked in the Lulworth Cove car park, which is massive and have loads of overflow spaces. We walked down to the cove and it was really busy, it is beautiful but it was really busy and no space on the beach on the cave at all. We decided to walk up to the coastal path to have a look from the top, the views really are something else, we saw Stair Hole first which was brilliant, we headed down to have a look but we couldn’t get down to the bottom with Hugo (without him pulling us to our doom)
We then carried on the walk and could see some of the views and the whole of the cove too which honestly is stunning.
After that we headed into Lulworth Village for something to eat, there was a few restaurants to choose from and luckily because we went pretty much at opening it was really quiet so we got a table quickly and were served straight away.
After lunch we decided to walk to Durdle Door, there is a dedicated path and they said it was supposed to take around 30 minutes. I will warn you though, it is mostly uphill and nearly killed us in the heat. We walked down to Durdle Door & Man O War Beach (again this hill will make you want to die on the way back up!!)
We decided to go to Man O War as it wasn’t as busy as Durdle Door Beach, although it’s all stones it’s beautiful. The sea is crystal clear and the kids absolutely loved being in the water, word of advice though there are a number (a LOT) of steps to get to the beaches, there are no refreshments anywhere near the beach as the closest ones are at the top of the hill at both ends.....take plenty of water with you!
After the kids played for a bit in the sea, Graham very graciously said he would make the long walk back to the car and bring it to the Durdle Door entrance so we didn’t have to make the long walk back again just had to get back up the hill.
We headed back to Lulworth Cove (in the car!) to get some ice cream before heading back to Axmouth and had some tea before all collapsing from the walk!
Day 2:
We decided to stay closer to base today after the previous day and headed to Charmouth Beach to look for Fossils (what Jurassic Coast is known for), we went in the museum to see some fossils and then get some tips on what to look for before heading onto the beach, we were only able to go on the East side of the beach as that where dogs are allowed. We searched for about an hour but couldn’t find anything to bring home with us!
As there wasn’t much available to eat at Charmouth we decided to head to neighbouring Lyme Regis for some lunch, it was really busy because of the weather and parking was a struggle but we eventually found somewhere. We walked down the front and headed into a local pub for lunch before looking at some of the shops.
It was starting to get too warm for everyone so we headed back to base to get out of the sun for a while and once it had cooled a little we headed to Axmouth Harbour and do some crabbing, it was so much fun and we caught (and released) loads of crabs.
Then we went back to pack up and get an early night ready for the next day!
Overall, the Jurassic Coast is amazing! Stunning views, plenty of activities and very dog friendly. You could easily spend a week here exploring the many different places and attractions, we will definitely be back here!