Things to Do in Dorset for Families During the School Holidays

 Looking for fun things to do in Dorset during the school holidays? You’re in luck! From beautiful beaches and wild country parks to charming villages and historic sites, there’s something for every family in Dorset — whether you want to keep the kids busy, make memories together, or simply appreciate the magic of your home county. 

🍦 Spend Time at Our Amazing Beaches 🍦

Did you know Bournemouth Beach and Weymouth Beach made it into Tripadvisor’s Best Beaches in Europe for 2025? (Yes — we’re up there with the world’s finest!)

✅ Bournemouth Beach — Miles of sand, traditional amusements, ice cream stands — perfect for children and families!
✅ Weymouth Beach — Shallow waters, sheltered sand, and plenty of space for games. More of a traditional seaside town
✅ Studland Bay— Much quieter than it's Bournemouth and Poole neighbours - great for a more restful family day by the sea. We particularly love Knoll Beach. Look out for the ice cream boat! 

Knoll Beach, Studland

🍉 Outdoor Adventures  🍉

Looking for something more energetic?
✅ Dorset Adventure Park (Corfe Castle) — Water slides, an assault course, and lakes to splash in — a wild day for children and adults alike!
✅  The Alpine Adventure Park at Snowtrax offers swings, trampolines, super slippy slides, and much more including a pirate ship situated on it's own island— perfect for children who love a bit of a challenge.

🦉 Get Closer to Nature 🦉

✅ Brownsea Island — Take a short ferry ride from Poole Quay and discover peacocks, red squirrels, secluded beaches, and rich wildlife — a magical adventure for children!
✅ Blue Pool — Wander through this tranquil spot near Wareham, where a dramatic pool glows blue and green, surrounded by heathland and forests — a wonderful opportunity for children to connect with nature. Look out for their special events throughout the year, we love visiting at Halloween! 
✅ RSPB Arne Nature Reserve — Amazing trails, rich birdlife, deer, and beautiful views — a perfect spot for a family wildlife adventure in Dorset. 

Blue Pool

🍃 Enjoy Our Country Parks 🍃

✅ Moors Valley Country Park and Forest — Amazing trails, a miniature railway, high-ropes course, playgrounds, a lake, and it's very own Gruffalo  — perfect for children of all ages!
✅ Avon Heath Country Park — Miles of walking trails, wildlife spotting, a children’s play area, and plenty of space for a picnic with the whole family.
✅ Upton Country Park — Stroll through beautiful gardens, explore the woodlands, let the children burn off energy at the large playground, or enjoy a cream tea in the well stocked cafe afterwards

The Gruffalo at Moors Valley Country Park

 🐷Fun for the Whole Family 🐷

✅ Farmer Palmers Farm Park — Petting sessions, bouncing castles, a dinosaur trail, ride-on toys, and much more — a classic Dorset family day out during the school holidays! (Plus the cakes in the Hen House cafe are 10/10!)
✅ Monkey World — Home to over 250 rescued primates — a wonderful blend of education and entertainment for children of all ages.

Meeting a new friend at Farmer Palmers

🦕 5. Dig Into History — And Some Fossil Fun! 🦕

✅ Lyme Regis  — The Jurassic Coast is a UNESCO World Heritage Site — grab a fossil hammer, go fossil hunting with your children, and uncover ancient creatures!
✅ Charmouth Beach and  Heritage Coast Centre — Learn alongside your children about dinosaurs, ancient creatures, and their stories — and then go and explore the rock pools where you might find your very own ammonite to take home

Fossil Hunting on the Jurassic Coast

🎪 Local Festivals 🎪

Dorset really knows how to throw a family-friendly festival — and summer is bursting with music, magic, and muddy knees (the fun kind). Here's what not to miss during the school holidays in Dorset:

✅ Poole Harbour Festival (25–27 July) — Amazing food trucks, live bands, children’s entertainment, and a chilled holiday-like atmosphere — a perfect Dorset festival for families!
✅ Camp Bestival (31 July - 3 Aug) - The ultimate family festival! Think glittery wellies, circus tents, Mr Tumble, fireworks, fancy dress parades, big-name bands, and a dedicated kids’ field full of crafts, theatre shows, and activities. This one’s family festival royalty — a proper bucket-list experience!
✅ DorsetFest (27–28 June) – A charming folk festival in the countryside with live music, craft stalls, children’s games, storytelling, and plenty of space to run wild.

Camp Bestival - Dorset's biggest festival

Whether you're a local looking to rediscover your favourite spots or planning brand new adventures with the kids, Dorset is packed with unforgettable experiences this summer. From beach days and castle explorations to nature trails, festivals, and fossil hunts, there’s something to excite every kind of family. So pack the buckets and spades and get ready for a Summer full of fresh air, fun and memories that’ll last long after the school holidays end.

Summer Fun at Moors Valley Country Park, Dorset

One of our favourite places to visit in Dorset is Moors Valley Country Park and it's always a fab day out with so much to do! With 1000 acres to explore there are plenty of beautiful walking/cycle trails, Go Ape Tree Top Adventure, cycle hire centre, a steam railway, picnic areas, Gruffalo sculptures and our favourite thing to do, the play trails. Here's a little look at what you can expect to see this Summer:

Play Trail

The play trail is perfect for families and is totally accessible for wheelchairs and buggies. (Although the adjoining Tree Top Trail is not suitable).  It's less than a mile around so ideal for little legs however you can expect to spend most of your day here because you won't be able to tear the kids away from the play equipment!

Featuring giant spiders to climb, a giant ants nest to explore, giant snakes to wriggle through and many more wooden play structures, Moors Valley really does have one of the best play areas I've ever seen.

This Summer, the play trail has been extended to include a brand new area called Bewildernest, one of the largest play areas across the park. Inspired by wild play and the magic of the forest, the Bewildernest area centres around a giant nest of native woodland shrubs with a mysterious maze of tunnels inside to navigate and explore, We can't wait to check this out on our next visit!

Zog Activity Trail

Another popular activity is the activity trail and this year, the trail is all about Zog. If you've not heard of Zog then he is a lovable dragon created by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. We adore Julia Donaldson stories and we've always had a soft spot for Zog, especially after seeing the book bought to life over Christmas on TV!

Visitors can follow the trail through Zog's forest classroom to learn more about the animals and habitats around them. There will be lots of dragons to spot along the way plus hidden images that children can reveal by using a special coloured lens from the activity pack. (Available to buy from the visitors centre for £3).

The Zog trail is buggy friendly and a fantastic way to see parts of the forest you wouldn't normally go to!

We were lucky enough to be invited to a very secret tea party recently with some other local bloggers and we got to meet Zog - Erin was a bit unsure but Elliot loved it. Especially when he got to take a selfie with him!

We even got to ride on the steam train with him - it's not every day you can say you shared a train with a bright orange dragon!

Gruffalo's 20th Birthday Celebrations - 6th & 7th July 2019

2019 marks the 20th anniversary of The Gruffalo book - I know, I can't believe it either! To celebrate his birthday, the Gruffalo will be back at Moors Valley for some special appearances over the weekend, plus free face painting and more. You'll also be able to download a very special activity pack featuring games, crafts and activities - keep an eye out on the Facebook event for this!

Moors Valley Railway - Open Weekend - 13th & 14th July 2019

Moors Valley Railway opens it's doors to the public next month and visitors can take a peek behind the scenes. For train enthusiasts, there is also a Model Railway Exhibition in the carriage shed.

You will also be able to drive a steam train in the "Driver for a Fiver" event which is always popular. We did this a few years ago and I'm not sure who enjoyed it more - Elliot or my husband!

For more information on all the events and play trails, plus parking charges, head over to:

https://www.moors-valley.co.uk/

The Highway Rat Trail - Moors Valley Country Park Dorset

I don't know about you but January seemed to stretch on forever! The weather was cold and gloomy and we've all had various germs at some point or another, it really did feel like the longest month. Last Sunday we decided to get our coats and wellies on and get out for some much needed fresh air - and as luck would have it, the sun was actually peeking through the clouds!

We decided to head over to Moors Valley Country Park which is a lovely woodland area not far from our house. It's somewhere we visit a few times a year and last time we went we were Gruffalo spotting!  This time however we were there to try out the brand new Highway Rat trail which is running from 20th January right through to November. We love Julia Donaldson and ever since we watched the Highway Rat at Christmas, Elliot has loved the story even more!

The trail takes you through the forest where children can spot the characters from the story and complete fun activities along the way. For additional rat fun, you can pick up an activity pack from the Visitor's Centre for £3 which includes stickers, activity pack, crayon and most excitingly, a Highway Rat mask! of course we had to get one ;)

Saying Hello to his old friend, The Gruffalo's Child

The trail is 2km long so perfect for little legs but very muddy in places - not ideal if you're pushing a buggy. Although perfect if you're 5 and just want to squelch in the mud!

The trail took us through the forest and much like last year's Gruffalo trail, it took a different route to what we'd normally take. This is great as we got to see parts of the forest we wouldn't normally walk through and kept things interesting.

 Elliot really enjoyed spotting the rat-themed panels along the route and he had lots of fun doing some rubbings with the crayon and sheet that was in the activity pack.

The trail finished up by the play trails so we were able to detour across and let Elliot have a climb after he'd posed for his mugshot!

After a quick picnic we had a walk down towards the trains and had a quick play in the adventure play ground but the weather had turned and the rain had started so we thought it might be a good time to head home.

We had a wonderful day out and it definitely did help to banish those January blues!

To find out more about the Highway Rat trail, head over to the Moors Valley website

Gruffalo Spotting at Moors Valley Country Park, Dorset

You wouldn't think that going Gruffalo spotting was your typical Mother's Day treat but this is what we got up to! The sun was shining and Spring had most definitely sprung so we packed up a picnic and headed over to Moors Valley Country Park, a lovely big country park on the Dorset/Hampshire border.

I had recently heard about the new Gruffalo Spotter app and Moors Valley Country Park was one of the 26 parks in the Country that the app worked at. It's something completely different and something I've not tried out before but the augmented reality app brings the Gruffalo characters to life.

We arrived at the park nice and early and made our way to the Visitors Centre to pick up our Gruffalo Spotters kit. This was £3 and contains activity and fact cards, magnifying glass, ruler, pencil and an evidence bag to store all your bits and bobs you may pick up on your Gruffalo adventure! The app can still be used without the kit but it might be fun for slightly older kids to fill in as they make their way round the trail. In hindsight we probably wouldn't have bothered with the kit as Elliot was more interested in looking for the actual clues in the forest and not what was in the bag!

Moors Valley have wooden Gruffalo sculptures so of course we had to go and see these first - I wonder if they are true to size?!

The Gruffalo trail began and I immediately noticed that it took visitors along a different route to where we would normally go - we saw parts of the forest we'd never seen before! We followed the clues along the way until we eventually found the mouse. This is where we tested out the app - I pointed my phone at the Mouse footprint sign and all of a sudden we could see the Mouse on the screen! It's really clever and Elliot loved it. At the end you're able to take a photo - we tried to get Elliot to hold his hand up so it looked like he was petting the mouse...not sure it worked very well though hah!

We had a lovely stroll through the forest following the clues but we did take a bit of a detour at lunchtime. We headed up to the lookout point - it was a bit steep pushing the buggy up but worth it at the top for the views and the fact it was so quiet! We had our first picnic of the year - it was so warm and almost felt like Summer.

We rejoined the Gruffalo trail and found the remaining characters. Unfortunately my phone decided to die just as we got to the snake! It's a great app but totally drained my battery. We managed to watch the animation on someone else's phone but what a pity we couldn't get a picture of Elliot and the Gruffalo!

The trail takes you back to the start of the forest but we decided to go the other way and continue walking as it was such a nice day. We ended up at the railway station which was perfect as Elliot was starting to flag....but his tired legs were soon forgotten when we got an ice lolly!

The railway is always a winner with children and you can ride the little steam trains around the park. This weekend they were offering "driver for a fiver" and collecting for charity so my husband took Elliot to have a go at driving a train. I thought he looked the part!!

We ended our visit with a quick stop in the adventure playgrounds - you could spend hours in here, there are so many things to play on. There's a separate play area for little ones but Elliot loves the big slide in the bigger play section!

We always have a brilliant time at Moors Valley Country Park and this time was no exception. I loved the Gruffalo Spotter app and we can't wait to return in the Easter Holidays to do it again!

The Gruffalo's Child at Lighthouse, Poole - Review

One of the first books I bought for Elliot when he was born was The Gruffalo and then The Gruffalo's Child. He has grown up loving the stories and The Gruffalo has become a big part of our lives with trips to see him and even Gruffalo themed birthday parties!

We were meant to see The Gruffalo live show last Summer but unfortunately had to sell our tickets (fellow blogger Laura at Life with Baby Kicks went instead!) as we couldn't make it up to London. 

I was over the moon then when I saw the the live show of The Gruffalo's Child was coming to my favourite, and very local theatre at the Lighthouse, Poole. Needless to say, I snapped up tickets straight away :)

Having watched The Gruffalo's Child on DVD countless times, I was intrigued to see how it would be adapted for the stage. 

When we arrived at the theatre, we were shown to our seats and Elliot was excited to see we were in the front row and very close to the stage. As we were waiting for the show to start, he noticed somebody on stage peering round the tree branch at him...it was only the Mouse! She came down to chat some of the children in the audience and Elliot was desperate to show her his toy Gruffalo! 

When the Mouse jumped back on stage and the lights went down, Elliot was transfixed! With the Mouse narrating the story and including the lines from the book, the show begins in the cave where we meet The Gruffalo and his child. She is feeling bored and despite her Dad's warnings that "no Gruffalo should ever set foot in the deep dark wood", she sets out on an adventure and bumps into some familiar faces along the way....

© Tall Stories

The show features a small cast of 3 and the actor who plays the Gruffalo also plays the snake, the owl and the fox. We have such clear ideas of what these characters should be like after reading the book and seeing the film but the show put a brand new spin on these - who knew the snake could dance! 

The costumes are simple but The Gruffalo Child's furry suit was amazing and so colourful, being so close I could see all the detail and I was really impressed!

© Tall Stories

The show has some musical numbers which are SO catchy, I've had one of the songs stuck in my head since the weekend! The songs really help to bring the story alive and the children really enjoyed clapping along. 

The Gruffalo's Child is a really great show for 3+ kids and definitely a must for any fans of the book, or theatre in general. The show lasts for an hour without an interval so younger children would definitely enjoy it but might get a bit restless sitting sit for that long. Elliot was just starting to get fidgety so it was just the right length of time for us! 

For more tour dates and fun stuff, check out the Tall Stories website here

Ten Things We Are Looking Forward To in 2015

I can't believe we are now in April, this year is whizzing on by! We've got the boring cold months out of the way and now I'm looking ahead to the Spring and Summer - my favourite times of the year. My diary seems to be filling up fast and we have lots of exciting things to look forward to!

Justin & Friends - Mr Tumble's Circus

I blogged about this last week here and we are very excited about this show! Elliot is a big fan of Justin and Mr Tumble and I know he is going to have the best time. The most exciting thing though is the fact Andy Day will be there too - we love Andy!

Dinosaur Zoo

I don't really know too much about this but the Dinosaur Zoo is appearing at our local theatre and we have tickets for next week. It features lifelike puppets which you can get up close and personal too. Elliot is dinosaur mad so no doubt he'll love it!

Just for Tots - Butlins

We did this midweek break last year too and it was so much fun for Elliot. All the activities and shows are geared up for under 5's which is perfect for us. Elliot will be 2.5years old when we go so I think he'll enjoy it even more this time round, especially the character meet and greets. He was a bit shy last year when faced with Mike the Knight and Bob the Builder! Mister Maker will also be appearing there so being big CBeebies fans, we can't wait!

Peppa Pig World

We live within an hours drive of Peppa Pig World so another visit here is a definite for 2015. There's so much to see and do and the gift shop is amazing! The only downside is the crowds - we visited in the Summer Hols last year and it was SO busy, we queued for over an hour for some of the Peppa rides which with a toddler is not fun. We'll definitely be visiting in term time to beat the crowds :)

The Gruffalo Live

If you're a regular reader you'll know about our love of the Gruffalo which started when Elliot was a tiny baby. I'd been waiting for news of this live show for a little while so when tickets went on sale I booked straight away. Excitingly, the show is being performed in the West End so it'll be Elliot's first time in London. No doubt we'll do a bit of the touristy thing while we're there! Which leads on to...

Natural History Museum

This is definitely on our agenda when we visit London, purely to see the dinosaurs! Elliot might be a bit disappointed when he realises Andy isn't there though ;)

Just Sing Choir Live Performances

This ones just for me but singing with my local choir is so much fun and I can't wait for our first live performance this year! I love spending time with Elliot but it's nice to get out on a Wednesday evening and not be "mummy"! 

One Day Like This - from our charity Christmas Concert 2014

Chris & Pui Roadshow

This is another show we saw last year but it was so much fun, as soon as I saw Chris and Pui were visiting Bournemouth again I just had to book tickets. Hopefully we will get to meet Chris and Pui again, they were so friendly and lovely to Elliot! 

Blog On Win - Blogging Conference

I've not really attended many blogging events yet (still class myself as a bit of a newbie!) so I'm very excited to be attending this in October. Hoping to meet lots of lovely bloggers and hopefully learn some useful tips! 

Orlando Holiday

We are taking Elliot to see the sights and sounds of Orlando this year - I am SOOOOOOOOO excited!!! We first went to Orlando on our honeymoon back in 2002 and have visited several times since but this will be Elliot's first time...and longest time on a plane eek. We are going for two weeks but I'm sure we'll run out of time to do everything we want. Top of my agenda is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios but I also can't wait to take Elliot to Disney World - he get excited about going to Longleat so Disney is going to blow his mind! 

Looking at this list just makes me so excited for the coming months - and it will give me lots of fun things to blog about! 

What's the most exciting thing you have planned so far?

Trendy Tot Thursday - sponsored by The Gruffalo!

Today's outfit could pretty much be sponsored by Sainsburys!! Everything you can see in the pic, plus his tshirt underneath was bought there. It is my favourite place to buy little boys clothes, everything is such great quality and it is even better when they have their 25% discount offers! And as you can tell, we love the Gruffalo :)

The coat is great because it's not too bulky. I prefer to layer him up underneath rather than have it get too hot with a big thick winter coat - the only thing I would change is make is slightly longer as his bum is always on show!!

The trousers are perfect for a day at the farm like we had today, they don't show the dirt too much and they also tuck into his wellies. I struggle getting his wellies on with jeans!

Gruffalo Crazy!

If you're a regular to this blog then you know that we adore the Gruffalo! I began reading the book to Elliot from a very young age and now he loves it and anything to do with it.

One of our local Country Parks, Moors Valley has a large wooden sculpture of the Gruffalo which we visited back in the summer (see here) and we decided to go back at the weekend to see our old friend!


Looking back at the photos I realised that Elliot's outfit is entirely Gruffalo-ed!! Even down to his mittens! I just had to share the pics because he looked so cute but anyone would think we were sponsored by Sainburys ;)

Hosting a Gruffalo themed birthday party!

I've blogged about the Gruffalo before but my family LOVE him! It was the first book I bought Elliot and our little obsession has grown from there really. Not a day goes by when we don't either read the book or watch the film, and Elliot can usually be found wearing some kind of Gruffalo tshirt!

We decided to throw a party for Elliot's 2nd birthday and having seen lots of cool ideas on Pinterest, I decided to theme it around the Gruffalo story. Pinterest is brilliant for party ideas and I wasted many an evening looking at pictures of other Gruffalo parties!

The official Gruffalo website has lots of ideas for parties and even have invitations you can print out and customise but I decided to buy some ready made invites from Amazon which were really cute.

Food is always important at any party and I wanted the buffet to be Gruffalo themed too. Obviously we weren't going to be eating roasted fox or scrambled snake (tasty!) but I chose things that with a little imagination could pass as their Gruffalo counterparts! I made a big list of the foods we would be having and basically matched it up to an item from the story - for instance, roasted fox became chicken dippers and poisonous warts were green grapes! I downloaded Gruffalo character pictures from the internet and stuck each one to a little bit of card which had the food name written on it. They weren't as fancy as some of the food labels I'd seen on Pinterest but they did the job and they actually looked pretty good on the day!

For the birthday cake I found some amazing creations but to be honest, I didn't really want to pay out £50+ for something that would get chopped up and put in party bags! In the end my mum found a really nice personalised Gruffalo cake topper on Etsy and she bought a large plain cake from Asda to stick it on. She added a Gruffalo ribbon and chocolate fingers round the edge and it looked really nice, and worked out much much cheaper than the ones I originally looked at.

At the last minute we decided it might be fun to hire a Gruffalo costume out to meet Elliot and his friends and we managed to find a UK based company who did costume hire by post. The costume itself was really well made and looked very authentic, not like some of the homemde Gruffalo's I've seen online!! The company is called Fairy Godmother and their website is definitely worth a visit if you're in need of a Gruffalo costume! We did give Elliot a sneak preview of the Gruffalo (or my husband!) and his reaction was so funny, I really wished I'd recorded it! He gasped and put his hands to his face and you could tell he literally couldn't believe his eyes! He did say he was a bit scared but couldn't wait to tell his Grandparents that he'd seen the Gruffalo! 

Every Gruffalo needs a cave so we managed to put together a very last minute creation that consisted of our gazebo, some camouflage netting and a couple of cheap Christmas trees! We did intend to collect lots of leaves to go in there but the weather has been pretty grotty recently and the leaves were just too soggy. We positioned the "cave" next to the door to another room so my husband could pop in there and change and come out as the Gruffalo! 

The party went so well and Elliot and his friends looked very cute dressed up in their Gruffalo outfits. We had a prize for the best costume and Elliot's little friend Willow won this - she was wearing a homemade owl costume made by her mummy and she looked brilliant! 

Here's a selection of pics from the party :) 

Elliot, me, Mum, Dad and my sisters Sarah and Laura :)