Bed and breakfast availability
Poole b&b, guest house and hotel accommodation

Visit Poole and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

Poole, Dorset. On the map Dorset and Bournemouth look one vast seaside conurbation and their suburbs do indeed merge, but their characters are very different. Poole's has been largely shaped by its tremendous natural harbour, over 100 miles round, much of its shore still undeveloped, with inlets and islands splendid to explore by boat. From the town's quay right round to Sandbanks, it is an immense park of yachts and other pleasure boats. Its luck in having twice the normal number of high tides means it is seldom muddy. A car ferry plies from Sandbanks to Shell Bay.

Not surprisingly with such a site the town, as distinct from its buildings, is old. In the early Middle Ages it superseded Wareham as the county's chief port. From then till the 19^th century its history was adventurous. Buccaneers, in particular one Harry Page, found it a snug base from which to rob the ships of France and Spain. In 1586, Queen Elizabeth made it ‘a county’, a status it retained till 1888. Smugglers appreciated the surrounding creeks and in 1747 even made so bold as to raid the Customs House, departing with a rich cargo of tea. During the Civil War it was a Roundhead stronghold; in the 18^th and 19^th centuries it became one of the main ports for the Newfoundland trade and provided some of that former colony's first settlers.

Nearby towns: Bournemouth, Christchurch, Dorchester, Keyhaven, Lymington, New Milton

Nearby villages: Ashington, Ferndown, Longham, Milford on Sea, Stapehill

Have you decided to visit Poole or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:

• a Poole bed and breakfast (a Poole B&B or Poole b and b)
• a Poole guest house (also spelt guesthouse)
• a Poole hotel (or motel)
• a Poole self-catering establishment, or
• other Poole accommodation