When you have children and your portable hotel, it is essential to find the best camping spot on site and the last thing you need is to walk to your car/van a thousand times. Further to this, the barrow doubles up as a push chair for those late night walks around the site with sleepy children or fill it with goodies that you want to sell or what you have bought. The barrow is an esential.

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Offering a natural haven to red squirrels and deer - so no dogs allowed - Brownsea is 500 acres of woodland with trails in the middle of Poole Harbour. The walking is easy and there are great views of Studland and the Purbeck hills, and on a clear day you can just about see some of  the world's most expensive houses at Sandbanks. Brownsea is where Baden Powell started the Scout movement (100 yrs ago this summer). Take the yellow ferry from Sandbanks quay (£4.50 or £12.50 for a family (2+3) and then the National Trust entrance fee is £4.70 for adults £2.30 for kids. www.nationaltrust.org.uk

www.nationaltrust.org.uk

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Corfe Castle is a story-book medieval ruin, set on a hillock above a village on Dorset's Isle of Purbeck - not, in fact, an island, but a peninsular. You could easily spend a couple of hours in the castle and its surroundings, but if the children have enough energy afterwards, you could combine it with a walk over Ballard Down to Swanage (about 5 miles, so take snacks to keep them going). While you wouldn't describe this seaside town as sleepy - chip shops on every corner - there's still something wonderfully old-fashioned about the place, epitomised by the steam railway, which runs up and down the coast, and will get you back to Corfe Castle in about 15 minutes.

Swanage is around 8 miles from Poole.
Corfe castle: tel: 01929 481 294; www.corfecastle.org.uk
Swanage railway: tel: 01929 425 800;
www.swanagerailway.co.uk

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