'Off'-Season Bournemouth (Dorset, England)

In the winter, the English seaside is prone to closing down, but Bournemouth and its environs still have plenty to offer.

Bournemouth Centre hosts the winter gardens and is home to many splendid restaurants, along with the usual shops, pubs, and clubs. There are also theatres (Panto over the Christmas period) and, in the winter, an ice skating rink in the BIC.

The surrounding area offers miles and miles of walks, either along the coastal path or to famous sites such as the massive rock arch, Durdle Door. There are picturesque fishing villages such as Lulworth Cove and all the Hardy Country scenery you could need. If you want to get away from the coast, there's the New Forest, with its free-roaming ponies that pop into the quaint towns such as Burley (good pubs and a lot of knick-knack shops).

Quick Tips:

On New Year's Eve itself, the fireworks from the end of the pier are a must.

Best Way To Get Around:

Bournemouth itself is fairly compact, and if you stay in or around the centre, as we did, you can get around very easily on foot. We did not experience the bus service, but we saw a lot of buses!

We found a car useful in reaching the New Forest and the coast beyond Poole, although I would recommend taking a car into the centre of Bournemouth, especially during the January sales.

The best feature of the Carlton Club Apartments is something which no amount of effort could add to other resorts – namely the uninterrupted, spectacular views out to sea (from all except the ground floor apartments). As the apartments are designed to make the most of this sea view, the majority of the units are on the south facing side and are therefore bathed with light in the mornings.

There are only 18 apartments in the Carlton Club Apartments block. They are linked, via a corridor on the ground floor, to the Carlton Hotel (part of the Menzies group). It is the Carlton Hotel which features in the photographs used in the RCI literature. When staying at the Carlton Club Apartments, you have the choice of a fully independent self-catering stay or an indulgent catered break, making use of the hotel facilities in the Carlton Hotel. We opted for self catering and excluding our trips to the hotel pool, we didn't see a single member of staff from when we collected the keys from the hotel reception until we handed them back a week later.

The apartments have been built in an old hotel, by knocking a number of rooms together. Our apartment consisted of what were once the end four rooms on a corridor, made into one apartment by blocking off the corridor with a rather grand and incredibly wide door. Our internal hallway was the width of a hotel corridor and on one side we had two en-suite double bedrooms (each the size of an average hotel room, with a double bed and a couple of easy chairs and coffee table), plus a large lounge. All had almost floor to ceiling sea views. On the other side of the corridor was the dining room and kitchen. The apartment was complete with more crockery and cutlery than you could ever need; including sweet corn forks and avocado dishes. Unfortunately the kitchen is a little too small to construct a magnificent banquet in so unless you order room service from the Carlton hotel the massive cutlery selection may not be fully utilized.

Five of the apartments can be accessed directly from the lift which adds a touch of glamour to the stay and each apartment has one designated parking space. As parking on the sea front is prohibited after 11pm this is essential for anyone wishing to bring their car with them. Additional parking is available at a charge of £10. Strangely, gas and electricity is not covered by the owner's maintenance fees and is charged for separately at the end of the stay.

As these apartments are timeshare only I've no idea what the cost of the room would be but need to enter something in order to submit this review – so I looked up the cost of staying in the Carlton Hotel next door: £195 for one night around New Year, or £460 for a week.

On our last night in Bournemouth, starting to crave curry, we ventured away from Bournemouth city centre and out towards Boscombe (go along the cliff tops with the sea on your right) where we found Sajniz, a very friendly and relaxed restaurant serving Bangladeshi and Indian cuisine. The restaurant has a contemporary, elegant interior with blue linen and white crockery.

The menu is enticing with all the usual favourites (Balti, Biriyani, Massala, Madras, Vindaloo, etc.) and an excellent and extensive choice of chef's specialties. We opted for the specialties and enjoyed a very hot Mumbai Spice (Chicken Tikka cooked with crushed chilies and served sizzling) and much milder Tandoori fish, stir fried with peppers and onions and served with pilau rice.

An excellent evening, I would thoroughly recommend.

A rustic Mexican restaurant just up the hill from the main square in the town centre, Coriander has a relaxed party atmosphere; popular with students and birthday parties.

We were greeted and seated in the upstairs dining area by friendly and enthusiastic waiting staff. The a la carte evening menu contained a wide choice of Mexican food (Nachos, Burritos, Enchiladas, Chimichangas, Fajitas, etc.) and as our party included a Vegetarian and a Coeliac, we were delighted with the special gluten free menu and extensive Vegetarian choices. It was refreshing that the waiter didn't have to keep disappearing to the kitchen to let you know what each dish contained.

The drinks menu included a lot of Mexican and Chilean wines (£10-£20), Sangria, a range of Tequilas, plus cocktails by the glass (£5) or jug (£15) and Mexican bottled beers (Dos Equis, Corona, Paifica Clara & Negra Modello at around £3).

We started with a sampler to share (Tortilla chips with a choice of 3 different dips), followed by a house specialty Chicken casserole (with choice of heat from medium to 999), Tequila marinated Quorn Fajitas and Chicken and Chorizo gumbo. Each main course cost around £9. The portions were large and beautifully presented in chunky rustic crockery to complement the terracotta coloured walls with murals and hanging sombreros and pitchers.

And at the end of the meal were given a jar of Coriander seeds as part of Coriander's loyalty scheme. If you're in Bournemouth long enough to collect six jars of seeds your next main course is free! We took our seeds home with us as a memento.

Coriander is open 7 days a week from noon until 10pm (with a separate lunch menu) and is next to the NCP car park (also open until 10pm).

A popular Italian restaurant in the center of Bournemouth, the Alcatraz Rosso is the smaller cousin of the grand Alcatraz Brasserie, to be found slightly further down the street (127 Old Christchurch Road). Both serve authentic Italian cuisine including pasta and pizza. We chose the more intimate, relaxed and younger feel of the Alcatraz Rosso and had a very enjoyable evening with plenty of good food and wine.

Alcatraz Rosso is open until 11pm, seven nights a week and is also open for lunch during the week (when we peered in, it seemed very popular with business people).
Starters cost between £3 and £5 and main courses between £6 and £15.

Having heard good things about Baan Thai we booked a table before we even left home. And on our first night in Bournemouth found ourselves walking from our hotel to the top of Old Christchurch Road, hoping that the numbers started at the bottom and 203 would be near the top. The top of Old Christchurch Road seemed popular with students and many of the shops were take away restaurants and record stores. It didn't feel like the right place, but just a bit further down on the right was Baan Thai, with a large wood framed window and elegant branding that stood out from the buildings near by.

Inside, the restaurant is tastefully decorated in chocolate browns and creams and furnished with wood and bamboo. A modern Thai restaurant; less cluttered than most. The staff were very welcoming and enthusiastic about the menu they presented to us.

The food was beautifully presented, in traditional clay pots, and tasted delicious. We ate far more than we should have done so close to Christmas, but enjoyed every mouthful! I would definitely recommend this restaurant.

You can reach Durdle Door, by walking a kilometer from Lulworth Cove, up and over Hambury Tout (an ancient burial mound), or more leisurely (lazily?) by driving to the Durdle Door Holiday Park and walking 800 yards from there. We opted for the latter option and choose the scenic stroll though the caravans, which in January, were all empty with curtains open to deter burglars.

The walk to the cliff is fairly easy with only a slight gradient and a well-trodden and well-defined path. Even on New Year's Day the path was busy with tourists, but there wasn't a single burger or ice cream van in sight. At the end of the path down from the Holiday Park you are rewarded with fantastic views of the coves below and first sight of Durdle Door; a natural rock arch over the sea. This is one of the most famous and most photographed landmarks in the area.

A set of steep steps leads down from the cliff top to the sweeping, gravelly beach below. From there you can admire Durdle Door and the cliffs from a different angle. In the summer the beach would be a nice place for a picnic, but on New Years Day it was a little nippy to sit down.