Farmer Palmer’s Tractor Rides

Thirty years on the same patch of Dorset farmland, and Farmer Palmer still knows how to put a proper smile on a toddler's face. The tractor rides here are exactly what they sound like - bumpy trailer journeys around working fields just outside Poole, with the farmer himself doing the commentary about crops and countryside.

Little ones absolutely love it. The tractors are proper working machines, not sanitised theme park versions, so there's real mud on the wheels and the occasional whiff of diesel. Kids get to see where their food comes from, meet the farm animals, and bounce around on hay bales in the back of the trailer.

Expect to spend a good couple of hours here if the weather's decent. The rides themselves are maybe twenty minutes, but there's usually a chance to feed some animals and poke about the farmyard afterwards. It's gloriously low-tech - no fancy interactive displays or gift shops flogging overpriced tat.

Families staying at nearby Sandford Holiday Park or Haven Rockley Park will find this a lovely break from beach days. The location's handy too, tucked between Poole and the Purbeck countryside. Best avoided in proper wet weather when the fields turn to soup, but on a bright morning with cooperative toddlers, it's exactly the sort of proper farm experience that's getting harder to find.