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Hi

Wonder if anyone could recommend a campsite in Dorset.  I am looking for facilities that accomodate tents with showers and electric hook up.  We are two families with children ranging from 8 to 11 so a play area and possible area to play football and cricket required.  We also need to be able to take a gazebo.

If anyone could recommend a site that would be great.

Thanks for your time

Hi Steve, how about my front garden? Oh drat sorry mate, that pitch is taken up with a Swift Danette!! Seriously though, Dorset is a big county and very diverse so where you eventually choose to pitch up will depend upon what you want from the surounding area. If you want places of interest to both Adults and the Kids then here in South Dorset would be a good choice as there's lots of good beaches (Weymouth in particular, main beach in the town or try Bowleaze Cove), stunning scenery (Portland), good village pubs, many of which have play areas, tourist attractions I'd recommend to keep all age groups happy would definatly be Monkey World Nr Wool and Bovington Tank Museum also is about 10 mins away from Monkey World.

With regards to sites, well living here means that I've not actually stayed on any of them in recent years (we did stay at a few of them back in the 1980's when we were visiting - liked it so much we moved here!) but I do pass by quite a few of them and have delivered stuff to some of them also so while I can't recommend from a visitor point of view I can give you a bit of an impression. Freshwater at Burton Bradstock has improved over the years, it's almost on the beach and seems like a well kept and clean site, there's an outdoor swimming pool but it's a popular site in summer and can get quite crowded. Bagwell Farm a bit further along the coast and nearer to Weymouth is in a very lovely spot and I have heard good things about this site. Osmington Corner Camp Site is little more than a terraced field by the main road between Wool and Weymouth, I'd rate this one as 'rough camping'. East Fleet again not been in recent years but some neighbours friends always stay there and say it's a very friendly site. Some of the Haven Holiday sites take tents andso if you are looking to stay at one of these I'd say the best one out of them all would be Seaview, it's the furthest one out of Weymouth but it's in a nicer area than the others. I personally wouldn't go to any in West Bay near Bridport as once upon a time this was a really nice little fishing village but now a lot of the little shops have closed down and now there's a huge caravan park slap bang in the middle, we used to go over there all the time for a drive out but have seen it go downhill over the years sadly.

Going further along from Weymouth, Swanage may be another good choice, it's a nice little town, quite a few shops (great fish & Chips!) traditional beach and attractions, Swanage Steam Railway is good, The Blue Pool at Furzebrook is so peaceful and if it's ruined castles you like then there's Corfe Castle nearby. Once you get past Wareham and going onto Bournemouth & Poole however the countryside gives way to more built up areas and there's a less open feel than the South Dorset coastal areas.

Anyway hope some of this has helped.

we have just come back from Nordern Farm campsite.  it's a working farm with 3 large fields for camping on.  it's relatively quiet and you wake up in the morning to sheep grazing around your tent on the field! 

my kids thought it was smelly (city kids!!) but they enjoyed it.  certainly on donkey field there is plenty of space for kids to play.  you can go and see the cows being milked and there was a calf about to be born when we were there too.  the play area is smallish but my kids found it fine.  there's plenty to do around and about too.

showers and toilets are excellent.  very clean and spacious, with plenty of room for everyone.

hth.

Hi - you wont better Bagwell Farm campsite only few miles from Weymouth, over looking the stunning Chesil beach.

very friendly well kept site.

 Big pitches elec hook ups,shop, plenty for the kids to do.

Car boot sales at weekends.

Large fields for dog walks.

Red Barn does take away meals.