Experience the best of Weymouth

George III holidayed at Weymouth from the 1780s, and the seafront still has Georgian terraces behind a wide esplanade, with a statue of the king and a Victorian jubilee clock. A broad sandy beach curves round Weymouth Bay, and the inner harbour, full of fishing boats and yachts, is lined with pubs and old warehouses. Nothe Fort, a Victorian fort on the headland, looks over the harbour mouth.

The Isle of Portland, joined to the mainland by a causeway, has the Portland Bill lighthouse and quarries that supplied the stone for St Paul's Cathedral. Chesil Beach, a shingle bank 29 kilometres long, runs away to the west, and Abbotsbury has a swannery and subtropical gardens. East along the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO-listed shoreline of cliffs and fossils, lie Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door. The Osmington White Horse, a hill figure of George III on horseback, is cut into the hillside.

Fish and chips on the harbourside, crab sandwiches from the Portland boats and Dorset apple cake are the local tastes. The bay's shallow water warms quickly, so the sea is gentlest in late summer, while the long autumn is calm and the headlands are quiet.