Lulworth Cove Cliffs

The moment you round that final corner towards West Lulworth, the cove stops you dead. A perfect crescent of golden cliffs hemming in turquoise water - it's the sort of view that makes you understand why this stretch of Dorset coast gets rammed with visitors, especially in summer. The cliffs themselves are the real story: those bands of rock tell roughly 185 million years of geological history, layered like a cake that got folded and twisted by forces you can't quite wrap your head around. The walk down takes about ten minutes from the car park, steep in places but manageable for most people. Once you're there, you can poke around the shale and limestone underfoot, wading in the shallows if you've got the patience to change into swimming gear, or simply perch on the pebbles and stare out at Durdle Door in the distance.

This is one for walkers and geology enthusiasts primarily - families with young kids will have fun for an hour or so, but there's not much to occupy them beyond paddling and rock-hunting. The cove fills up quickly on decent weekends, so an early start makes a real difference. It's free to visit, naturally, and operates on open access - just rock up. Allow a couple of hours if you're doing the full stretch and fancy grabbing a coffee in West Lulworth afterwards.

If you're basing yourself at Durdle Door Holiday Park, you're barely a mile away, which makes this an obvious first morning outing. Even from the other caravan spots dotted around Purbeck, the drive's straightforward enough. Fair warning: the car park charges for parking, and it gets genuinely rammed in August.