Bournemouth

Bournemouth boasts seven miles of safe golden sands along with a vast variety of shops and restaurants, buzzing nightlife, endless countryside offering peace and relaxation and beautiful award-winning gardens.

Bournemouth Town Centre is rapidly growing with more and more shops and boutiques opening throughout the pedestrianised shopping precinct. The spiritual and relaxing courtyards and enclaves along with swathes of gardens with benches make it a pleasurable shopping experience. The Lower Gardens run adjacent to the town centre and many events take place here particularly in summer with big screens for watching football or tennis events, the bandstand, the 2CR balloon which takes you up into the sky for views of the whole area, candle lighting for the younger children and firework displays throughout the summer on Friday evenings.

According to a recent survey, the population of Bournemouth is the happiest of any UK town, making people who live here considerably happier than the national average!

No major UK tourist resort has won as many awards as Bournemouth. In 2007 Bournemouth seafront secured four prestigious Blue Flag awards. These awards confirm the cleanliness of the beach and the care that goes into maintaining it. Last year major work was completed making the beach almost twice as wide with soft white sand sweeping down to the blue waters.

The beach has provisions for disabled visitors with free use of land trains, which run from Alum Chine and Boscombe, cliff lifts and no pier tolls. There are also beach wheelchairs for ease of access onto the sand.

Available for hire on the beach are deck chairs, sun beds, windbreaks and parasols to make sure you enjoy the day in comfort. For the more adventurous among you or your families, Boscombe beach has just introduced the first artificial reef in Europe. Go on - try surfing!