Dorset Days #snaptrip

For some reason, Dorset has always eluded me in my travels around the UK and I have wanted to visit for a few years now.  As half term was fast approaching and with it the teen’s imminent departure to New Zealand for six months, I was desperately searching for a few days away that the six of us could enjoy together and that wasn’t going to cost a fortune.

Booking a holiday for a family of six can be difficult and costly.  I was looking at hotels first of all and even for a couple of days, the cost was too high as we needed two rooms.  After a while, my head was spinning with the number of times I had searched our dates and party details on too many sites and I was starting to feel despondent.

We had all agreed on Dorset as our destination and then as if by magic, I received an email from Snaptrip asking if I would be interested in a discounted break with them.  Intrigued, I took a look at the website and within minutes I had found the perfect holiday rental in Swanage, Dorset which was an excellent price, had great facilities and was only a short walk from the beach.

Snaptrip is a site dedicated to helping you find the perfect UK holiday with a huge range of holiday rental cottages throughout the UK.  They personally pick all of the properties and ensure that they are of the highest quality and make them available at a discounted price.  The site is really user-friendly and you can quickly search for properties in a certain area, at a certain time or according to preferences such as a hot tub or a property where pets are welcome.

The listings are really detailed with lots of photos of the property so that you can get a real feel for the size and layout.  There is a list of all of the facilities within the house as well as a description of the location and things to do near by.  I felt happy that I had made the right choice for us as the house was well-equipped and it looked spacious enough for my lively children to run around in.  It also had wi-fi and the bed linen and towels were provided with this property which was a bonus as we didn’t have to pack quite as much stuff into our already over-loaded car.

Swanage is a beautiful town and being Midlanders, we are all always happy to see the sea.  One of the main routes into Swanage is via a ferry which we did a few times during our stay and the children thought that it was a wonderful experience each time we went on board.

The house was perfect.  Lots of space, clean and well-equipped, we couldn’t have been happier and it was the perfect base from which to explore the area but also a nice place to spend the evenings together either sitting in front of the fire or playing games.  We all certainly made ourselves at home.

We all fell in love with the bits of Dorset that we saw during our short stay and these were some of our highlights;

Swanage Beach

Swanage is quite a small town but the beach and the amusement arcades where my children wanted to be.  They all love the beach and we visited every day for a game of football or a walk.  It is a beautiful golden sandy beach with the backdrop of the Jurassic Coast cliffs and the clear blue sea, it is the perfect place to take the family.

Peppa Pig World

One of the main reasons for visiting Dorset was to take my daughter to Peppa Pig World.  She has wanted to go for two years and because it is about four hours from where we live, we have never been able to do it before.  I really wanted to take her before she grows out of Peppa and it was about an hour’s drive from Swanage.  Paulton’s Park is the park where Peppa Pig World is located and it was perfect as A and I spent the day with Peppa and Daddy and the boys went off around the rest of the park and enjoyed the rides for bigger kids.

As we walked underneath the Peppa Pig World sign, my daughter squad my hand and said that this was the moment she had been waiting for her whole life.  It didn’t disappoint either.  Lots of lovely brightly coloured children’s rides, houses to visit, characters to see and brightly coloured plastic trees and flowers all around, Peppa Pig World is a must for Peppa fans.  A absolutely loved every minute of it.

To top it off, there were even penguins which was perfect as A had been learning all about penguins in school .

There were lots of smiles and A was so happy to have finally been to Peppa Pig World, it is a fantastic fun place to spend a day.

Chococo

When I was chatting online to someone about visiting Swanage, Chococo came up in the conversation as somewhere not to be missed and I am so glad that we didn’t miss it.  Chococo is no ordinary chocolate shop.  They hand make all of their chocolates using fine origin chocolate and seasonal, local ingredients, including fresh Dorset cream and my goodness you can taste it.  Not only does the chocolate taste good but the range and flavours are fabulous.  The children were all open-mouthed at the amazing range and loved the fish, chips and peas which were made out of chocolate with green jelly beans as peas.  I treated myself to a box of their chocolates and they were divine; the children all had a variety of things from the shop too and nothing lasted very long.  I am very relieved to say that you can buy their chocolates online.

There is also a cafe at Chococo and both times we went, I had a salted caramel hot chocolate which was the best hot chocolate I had ever tasted and that alone is worth a return visit to Dorset for.  Brightly decorated and very family friendly, the cafe is well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Event though we only managed a short break (Monday to Friday) in Swanage, we made the most of it.  Having a nice place to call home for the break made a huge difference and I would definitely recommend Snaptrip if you are looking for the perfect family holiday.  I know that we will definitely return to Dorset again too as there is still so much we haven’t seen or done and you can visit Snaptrip for a great deal on a last minute cottage in Dorset. If you do decide to book with them use the code STRESSY2015 to claim a £25 discount on your booking.

We were given a £100 discount on our Snaptrip break.  All opinions and images are our own.