A truly beautiful and inspiring place! (Weymouth in general)

Member Name: kiss_me2070

Product:	Weymouth in general
Date:	20/06/09 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful Beach, Lovely Shops, Lots of attractions

Disadvantages: Rude people!

***WEYMOUTH***
Weymouth is a classic seaside resort in Dorset with a fantastic beach and beautiful harbour, which nestles perfectly alongside the Isle of Portland. Weymouth's fine Georgian seafront is an impressive backdrop to the long arc of fine golden sand. With a beautiful beach, esplanade, historic harbour, marina and nature reserve this gives the town a rejuvenated town a combining traditional and modern feel to create a special place to visit any time of the year.

Weymouth beach has been recognised as one of the top 10 UK beach destinations, which reflects their high standards of cleanliness, safety, information, facilities, water quality and environmental management. The seafront has a beach control centre which provides supervision of the beach and promenade for over 3 miles, together with a first aid and lost children centre.

***PLACES TO VISIT***
I haven't listed all the places to visit but I have listed a few great places which are popular in Weymouth.

* Lodmoor Country Park - is a fantastic 350 acre site which overlooks Weymouth bay and is a short walk from the town centre. This is a fantastic place for picnics; family days out and also include an RSPB nature reserve as well. Main attractions here include a Sealife Park, Mini Golf, Miniature Railway and more.
* Bennett's Water Gardens - This is a truly beautiful 8 acre place which has been landscaped to create a tranquil and relaxing walk around beautiful lakes with places to sit and unwind. There are beautiful Water Lily plants, Dragonflies, Kingfishers and also Wild Fowl are a common site here as well as all kinds of pond life.
* Brewers Quay - This is a beautiful redeveloped Victorian brewery which now contains wonderful and beautiful shops, cafes and bars. The shops in here are mainly beautiful craft shops, and hand-made products such as sweets and jam. This is a beautiful place to shop and to eat.
* Discovery Science Centre - includes fun for everyone from toddlers to grandparents there is over 65 exhibits to enjoy which include automatic train sets, shadow walls, weather stations and more. This is open all year and is located near Brewers Quay.
* Nothe Fort - This is a fantastic day out and is Weymouth's number 1 Historical Attraction. The fort is a beautiful building which contains displays and models recounting everyday life of Victorian and World War 2 soldiers. It also explains why the fort was built and will give visitors a clear idea on the history of coastal defence.
* Portland Bill - Has spectacular views and a remarkable history. The Lighthouse is opened to the public and visitors can be given a tour of the lighthouse and can climb all the stairs to the top to see the beautiful views surrounding the lighthouse and the bay.
* Sand Modeller - Weymouth is famous and well known for a fantastic sand sculptor called Mark Anderson who started creating these beautiful sand sculptures in 1988 with his Grandad. His work is truly spectacular and it's hard to believe he sculpts all these beautiful buildings and animals out of sand.

***LOCAL TRANSPORT/PARKING***
There are plenty of taxi firms based in and out of the town centre. There are also local buses which run to and from Weymouth to surrounding areas regularly, and they also have a large train station which is a short distance from the main town and is served by trains coming from London Waterloo and the heart of Wessex Line from Bristol and Bath.

There are plenty of places to park in and around Weymouth. Most of these car parks are pay and display but all are a short walk from the main town and are easily accessible. You can purchase season tickets for parking and there are also allocated spaces for disabled users and mother and baby parking as well.

***ACCOMODATION***
There are places based in and out of Weymouth which are suitable for everyone and to suit everyone's needs. There are guest houses to suit all sizes and budgets which are located in the town centre or just outside the centre if you want a little more peach and quiet. There are gorgeous hotels and Bed & Breakfast along the seafront which looks out onto the gorgeous sandy beach.

You can also stay in self catering flats and houses which are located in the town centre or just outside. They also have some fantastic camping sites and caravan parks as well.

I went on holiday with my Parents, Sister and Nephew, and we stayed in a beautiful self-catering house which was a short walk from Brewers Quay and about a 5 minute walk from the harbour and town. This was very convenient as we didn't need to use any transport to get to and from the town or to and from the beach as they were all within walking distance. The house we stayed at was beautifully furnished and was very clean. This was booked through www.dream-cottages.co.uk which is Dorset's largest Cottage Agency. We have also used them in previous years and are always pleased with the places they provide.

***EVENTS AND ENTERTAINMENT***
There are many events and lots of entertainment throughout the year and you can always check on the website what events are happening when on www.visitweymouth.co.uk. The particular 2 weeks I was down Weymouth which was 12th June - 19th June, there was an Armed Forces Day and Service of Remembrance. This included a military vehicle display, a beach assault with bridge building, Charity and Awareness stalls, an open air church service with a parade and vehicle convoy. This parade includes marching bands, Veterans and military vehicles, and this year I saw the Spit-Fire and Hurricane fly over the bay.

They have many more events during the year including Guy Fawkes Night, Lifeboat Week, Volleyball games, Maritime modelling Festival, Weymouth Carnival and lots more.

***WEYMOUTH TOWN CENTRE***
Weymouth has a large town with plenty of shops including popular high-street brands such as New Look, Debenhams, WHSmith, Monsoon and many more. They also have some beautiful craft shops and some lovely bars and restaurants as well as arcades along the seafront. All the shops are very located near each other so there isn't a great deal of walking to do, to get from shop to shop. They have a 99p shop which is very popular and gets very busy during the day. They also have a Tesco and an Iceland in the town and there is a large 24hr Asda, 10min walk from the main town.

I, my sister, and her boyfriend went out into the town on a Saturday night for a few drinks and we had quite a good time in some of the local bars and pubs. They have a Yates and Wetherpoons in the town but we went to a beautiful modern bar called Dolce Vita, which had plenty of space to sit down and the drinks were reasonably cheap as well. We then moved onto a large pub for another drink, which was also quite nice but me and my sister were shocked that all the glasses and were plastic and you weren't allowed to drink out of any glass bottles. I'm guessing this is just due to health and safety maybe in case they get any trouble in there.

Although there are quite a few small side streets and the paths are small there is good access for disabled users and for people with push-chairs. This town is definately disabled and fmaily friendly with a majority of ramps every-where you go including ramps to and from the beach.

***UPCOMING EVENTS***
Visitors have already started booking accommodation for 2012 when Weymouth and Portland will host all events for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics Games. The waters are credited by the Royal Yachting Association as the best in Europe.

***MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE***
I and my family enjoyed every minute down here. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed looking in all the craft shops and other historical features of the town. The weather was so nice we managed to get on the beach for a few days which was beautiful, as the tide goes out quite a long way and you can walk quite a distance out on the beautiful, golden sand. I always saw life-guards and other staff on the beach offering water to people who were on the beach. You can also hire deckchairs and sun loungers as well.

A short walk from where we stayed is a beautiful place called Newton's Cove where they have lovely rock-pools when the tide is out. I and my sister enjoyed looking in the rock pools and collecting shells for my nephew. We also walked round the fort and saw the amazing, beautiful views out along the bay and out to sea.

Brewers Quay is a beautiful place, and I always find the items in the shop inspiring and beautiful. They do some beautiful gifts in these shops, which are perfect for taking home to other family members or friends.

I thoroughly enjoyed the veterans and vehicle parade. This was inspiring and also very entertaining. It was amazing to see all the old veterans marching who had fought in the war and listening to all the different bands was beautiful. My nephew also enjoyed watching the tanks and other vehicles coming onto the beach and driving over the bridge the military team had built.

***OVERALL OPINION***
I thoroughly enjoyed Weymouth this year and would love to go again. I would love to visit more places outside of Weymouth and learn more about the history of the place and the surrounding attractions. I think this is a wonderful place to go to and there are things for all the family to enjoy, where it's sigh-seeing or learning about the history of the area, it will be an enjoyable experience. I would also go here with some friends for some time away as well, as I think they would also enjoy it here.

I did how-ever find a lot of the people here were quite rude in the sense that they don't say please or thank you and their customer service in the shops are quite poor. My sister also had issue when pushing the buggy around as people were quite rude and didn't move out the way and when she asked politely if she could get passed they would give her evil and nasty looks. I also found that people don't hold door's open for you and other small things like that!

There is some beautiful accommodation around Weymouth and there is plenty of accommodation to suit everyone whether you are just staying for the weekend or longer. I would strongly recommend looking on Dream cottages website at accommodation they offer. The Harbour is a beautiful place to visit during the day and during the evening as well. It looks beautiful at night when everything is lit up and it's lovely to have a drink at one of the pubs next to the harbour.


(Review also on ciao)

Summary: A beautiful golden, sandy beach with plenty of other tourist attractions.