Lodges in Bournemouth

Seven miles of soft sand, two piers and a pine-scented clifftop. Bournemouth gets the seaside right, and with a lodge in the forests just outside town you can enjoy the beach by day and your own private decking and hot tub by night. Most lodges in Bournemouth are located on the edges of the town rather than in the middle, so you get the quiet without losing the promenade.

Christchurch Harbour lies to the east, Hurn and Wareham forests to the north and west, and Purbeck and the New Forest are both well under an hour away.

Where are the best lodges in Bournemouth?

Think of it as four small patches, so pick your location by the kind of break you're after. Head east to Mudeford for harbour views and calmer beaches. North of town, the pine forests around Hurn and St Leonards put you a short drive from the sea and right on the edge of the New Forest. West towards Wareham, it's heathland, Corfe Castle and Studland, while Milford on Sea, over the Hampshire border, looks across the Solent to the Isle of Wight.

Every park below is 30 minutes or less from Bournemouth Pier.

Prefer castles to sandcastles? Our Corfe Castle lodge guide covers the Purbeck side in more detail. The wider South West England lodges page runs all the way from Dorset to Cornwall.

Bournemouth lodges with hot tubs: our top six

Call them lodges or log cabins, these are the lodges Bournemouth regulars book again and again. All six have hot tub lodges and all take pets. Drive times are from the middle of town, and you can sort the table by distance or size.

Hoburne Park Cottages, Christchurch

Driving Distance: About 18 minutes (9.0 miles) | Sleeps: Up to 7 | Pets: Yes

What to expect: Smart holiday homes right next to Hoburne Park, so you can use the pools, fitness centre and tennis courts, then shut the door on it all. Guests rate it 4.6.

Who will love it? Families who want the entertainment complex on tap. It also suits anyone who'd swap the big town beaches for the quieter sands at Friars Cliff and Avon, which locals favour.

Forest Edge, St Leonards

Driving Distance: About 18 minutes (12.9 miles) | Sleeps: Up to 8 | Pets: Yes

What to expect: A 9-acre site with Wi-Fi and a children's play area. Better still, you'll be able to use the leisure club at Oakdene Forest a mile up the road for free, with a pool, a gym and bars, though some Go Active activities cost extra.

Who will love it? Families who like a quieter base, with Paultons Park, Peppa Pig World and Go Ape all within 20 miles.

Wareham Forest Lodge Retreat, Wareham

Driving Distance: About 21 minutes (11.1 miles) | Sleeps: Up to 8 | Pets: Yes

What to expect: Part of the Evermore Lodge Holidays collection and rated 4.6 by guests, with contemporary interiors and, in many lodges, an outdoor hot tub with views over the trees.

Who will love it? Couples and anyone after peace and quiet. Woodland walks and cycle routes start from the door. The sheltered coves of Purbeck are a short drive south.

Sandford, near Wareham

Driving Distance: About 22 minutes (11.0 miles) | Sleeps: Up to 14 | Pets: Yes | Indoor pool: Yes

What to expect: A lively family site in the Dorset countryside, with an indoor pool, a high ropes course in the treetops and The Boathouse restaurant for nights off from cooking. The beach isn't far.

Who will love it? Big families and groups of friends: with a bed for up to 14, it's the one to book when everybody's coming.

Oakdene Forest, St Leonards

Driving Distance: About 22 minutes (13.9 miles) | Sleeps: Up to 8 | Pets: Yes

What to expect: Part of the Go Active+ Breaks collection, backing straight on to Hurn Forest, with the Castleman Trailway close at hand and the beaches at Bournemouth and Poole about 20 minutes away.

Who will love it? Dog owners in particular, as there's a wide choice of pet friendly lodges and miles of forest to walk them in.

Shorefield Country Park, Milford on Sea

Driving Distance: About 30 minutes (15.5 miles) | Sleeps: Up to 12 | Pets: Yes

What to expect: One hundred acres of parkland with indoor and outdoor pools watched by trained lifeguards. There's also a fitness centre, forest dens, wildlife walks and Cyril's Snake Shack. The entertainment team is a big part of the fun.

Who will love it? Kids of every age, and with the larger lodges sleeping 12 it suits big get-togethers too.

Browse every lodge with a hot tub across the UK, or scroll back up for live availability around Bournemouth, last minute dates included.

Bournemouth beach days from your lodge

The sand runs almost unbroken from Sandbanks in the west to Hengistbury Head in the east, and you can cycle along the whole promenade. TripAdvisor's travellers voted Bournemouth beach the best in the UK in 2024. Bath Road North and Bath Road South are the closest car parks to the pier, and RNLI lifeguards cover the main beaches in summer. A land train also runs between Boscombe Pier and Bournemouth Pier from April to September, then at weekends and school holidays in winter.

Dogs are the catch.

From 1 May to 30 September, BCP Council bans them from its Blue Flag and Seaside Award beaches, and they must be on a lead on the promenade, piers and zig zag paths. Several stretches stay open all year, though:

Beach	Dogs 1 May to 30 September	Good for
Bournemouth Pier and Boscombe	No	Lifeguards, cafés, the PierZip
Alum Chine and Durley Chine	No (Middle Chine to Durley Chine is fine)	Families, beach huts
East of Fisherman's Walk to Southbourne	Yes, all year	Early walks
Hengistbury Head and Mudeford Sandbank	Yes, all year	Nature walks, beach huts
Avon Beach and Friars Cliff	No, apart from Friars Cliff wave wall to groyne H4	Gentle waves, toddlers
Sandbanks	No, but the western promenade by the chain ferry is fine	Fine sand, watersports

From October to April, dogs can go on every beach in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

Bournemouth Beach Lodges at Boscombe

If you really want to sleep on the sand, the council runs 24 Bournemouth Beach Lodges on a raised deck just above the promenade, east of Boscombe Pier. Each sleeps up to six (four adults at most), with a double bed on a mezzanine, a kitchenette with everything you need apart from an oven, and a private deck facing the sea. Stays are 3, 4, 7, 10 or 11 nights from a Monday or Friday, and some take dogs.

There are no hot tubs, and the Beach Lodges are booked direct with BCP Council rather than through us. They're perfect for a weekend for two, but for a bigger group, a special occasion or a garden for the dog, the parks above give you far more room.

Hengistbury Head and Mudeford Sandbank

Walk out along the headland from the pay and display car park on Broadway and you'll see why it's so popular: heathland, woodland and saltmarsh, with a beautiful view to Purbeck one way and the Isle of Wight the other, and over 500 plant species recorded. The land train runs daily from 1 April to 31 October, weather permitting, out to Mudeford Sandbank and its famous rows of beach huts. Cattle graze the reserve, so keep dogs under close control. The visitor centre opens from 10.30am daily.

Things to do from your Bournemouth lodge

When the sea's too grey for swimming, there's still plenty to explore. Here are our favourites, with the practical bits to check before you travel.

Oceanarium, Bournemouth seafront

Walk under blacktip reef sharks, stingrays and Carrie the loggerhead turtle in the Shark Wreck Reef tunnel, refurbished in December 2025. It's a few steps from the pier and open from 10am to 6pm. Booking online ahead is cheaper than paying on the door, and it's a great place to take kids even on the wettest day.

Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, East Cliff

Merton Russell-Cotes gave this clifftop villa to his wife Annie for her 66th birthday in 1901, and it's still stuffed with Victorian paintings and souvenirs from their travels. It's open 10am to 5pm, Tuesday to Sunday and bank holiday Mondays.

RockReef and PierZip, Bournemouth Pier

Fly 250 metres from the end of the pier to the beach on the world's first pier-to-shore zip wire! Inside, RockReef has 28 Clip 'n Climb walls for ages four and up. It opens mainly in school holidays, including the October half term from 24 October to 1 November 2026.

Brownsea Island, Poole Harbour

Catch the ferry from Poole Quay to this National Trust island, where red squirrels dart through the pines and the lagoon fills with wading birds. It opened from mid March this year and closes over winter, and only assistance dogs are allowed.

Moors Valley Country Park and Go Ape, Ringwood

About 10 miles north of Bournemouth, and a short drive from Oakdene Forest and Forest Edge. Expect forest trails, a café, three high ropes courses and giant nets strung 20 feet up in the trees. It's open all year, with dogs on leads welcome.

Further afield, our Beaulieu lodges guide covers the eastern side of the New Forest, and for fossil hunting on the Jurassic Coast, see our guide to Weymouth lodges.

Taking the dog to your Bournemouth lodge

Every park featured here welcomes pets. Oakdene Forest backs on to Hurn Forest, Wareham Forest Lodge Retreat has woodland trails all round it, and Hengistbury Head stays open to dogs whatever the month. Out of season the whole seafront is yours, and a bright January walk from Southbourne to Boscombe with a flask of coffee is hard to beat.

Compare all our pet friendly lodges if you'd like to look further afield. Here's what we'd pack:

A Bournemouth fishing lodge break

Anglers do well here. Throop Fisheries, on the northern edge of town, has about 10 miles of bank on the Dorset Stour plus a mill pool, with barbel, chub, carp and pike all in its record book. Buy a day ticket from a local tackle shop before you fish, and remember the river season runs from 16 June to 14 March.

A lodge at Christchurch or St Leonards puts you about 15 minutes from the river.

When's the best time for Bournemouth holidays?

Bournemouth is one of the sunniest places in the UK, with around 1,765 hours of sunshine annually. The sea peaks at about 17°C in August and drops to about 9°C in January. For swimming, come July to September. For empty sand and dogs on the beach, October to April wins.

One note on events: the Bournemouth Air Festival has been on hold since 2024, after BCP Council stopped funding it, and it didn't run in 2026.

Is a Bournemouth lodge good value for a group?

Often, yes. Sharing one big property, like the 14-berth homes at Sandford or the 12-sleepers at Shorefield, usually works out cheaper per person than a run of hotel rooms, with a kitchen, a lounge and the hot tub thrown in. Lodges to rent around Bournemouth go quickly for the summer holidays, so book early if you need a big one. Pop in your numbers to see how it works out:

Not set on the coast? Try lodges close to home, or head inland with our Shaftesbury lodges guide. Wherever you land, lodges in Bournemouth and the forests around it make it easy to have a lazy coastal day, then come home to the woods.

Bournemouth lodge FAQs

Are there lodges right on the beach in Bournemouth?

Yes, the council's 24 Beach Lodges at Boscombe sleep up to six. They're compact with no hot tubs, so for more space most people stay at a park in Christchurch, St Leonards or around Wareham.

Which Bournemouth lodges have hot tubs?

All six parks on this page have hot tub lodges: Hoburne Park Cottages, Forest Edge, Wareham Forest Lodge Retreat, Sandford, Oakdene Forest and Shorefield Country Park.

Can I take my dog on Bournemouth beach?

From 1 October to 30 April, yes. From 1 May to 30 September they're banned from the main beaches, but Hengistbury Head, Mudeford Sandbank and the stretch east of Fisherman's Walk to Southbourne stay open all year.

Which lodge park is best for families?

Shorefield Country Park, with pools, play areas and an entertainment team. Sandford, with its indoor pool and high ropes course, comes a close second.

Is there anything to do in Bournemouth when it rains?

Plenty. The Oceanarium, the Russell-Cotes and RockReef's climbing walls are all by the seafront, and several parks offer pools.

Can I fish during my stay?

Yes. Throop Fisheries on the River Stour sells day tickets through local tackle shops, and the river season runs from 16 June to 14 March.

When is the quietest time to visit?

November to March, outside half terms. The beaches are empty, dogs are allowed everywhere and lodge prices are usually lower than in summer.