The bucket-list things to do — and who runs each one.
Here’s the bucket list for your day ashore: the most extraordinary thing to do at each stop, who runs it, and how to book it direct — so you can weigh it against your ship’s excursion and pick what suits you.
In port at Poole, the bucket-list move is Jurassic Coast Circular Cruise: Poole to Swanage & Back. Below: 1 bucket-list things to do on a Poole port day — worth weighing against whatever your ship offers.
Sail through 185 million years of Earth's history along UNESCO's Jurassic Coast, passing limestone stacks, fossil-laden cliffs and hidden coves. This is the only place on Earth where a near-complete sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rock is exposed — and the sea is the finest vantage point.
Book itPoole: Jurassic Coast Circular Cruise$32 per person
Step ashore on the National Trust's enchanted Brownsea Island — a car-free, crowd-rare haven in the heart of one of the world's largest natural harbours. Home to one of England's last surviving colonies of native red squirrels, this is a genuinely rare wildlife encounter in an impossibly scenic setting.
We have not yet verified a bookable operator and price for
this one, so we are not quoting either.
Poole is one of England's oldest and most storied ports — a medieval powerhouse of privateers, wool merchants and trans-Atlantic traders. A guided walk through the preserved Old Town unlocks layers of history invisible to the untutored eye, from the 13th-century Guildhall to Tudor merchant houses still standing on the quay.
We have not yet verified a bookable operator and price for
this one, so we are not quoting either.
Corfe Castle is one of the most dramatic and evocative ruins in all of England — a Norman fortress that controlled the Isle of Purbeck for centuries before Parliament ordered its deliberate destruction in 1646. Approached through a chocolate-box village in a gap in the Purbeck Hills, the first sighting stops you in your tracks.
We have not yet verified a bookable operator and price for
this one, so we are not quoting either.
Compton Acres is the finest privately owned gardens in the south of England — ten distinct, immaculately maintained gardens including a rare and authentic Japanese Garden, an Italian Colonnade and a wildflower-meadow English Garden, all set above Poole Harbour with glimpses of water through the trees.
We have not yet verified a bookable operator and price for
this one, so we are not quoting either.
Sandbanks is one of the most valuable and beautiful peninsulas in the world — a narrow strip of golden Blue Flag sand flanked by the warm, sheltered waters of Poole Harbour on one side and the open Channel on the other. Exploring it by kayak, guided by a local expert, is simply the finest way to experience its beauty.
We have not yet verified a bookable operator and price for
this one, so we are not quoting either.
Your day in PooleNothing picked yet — tick what you fancy
$0for two, booked direct
Now plan the rest of it
You know what to do on the day. Here is the trip it belongs to —
each one opens as a whole plan, not a list: where to fly in, every port, what it runs.
