Why go?

To recapture the nostalgia of childhood family holidays. On Weymouth’s famously golden sands, Punch and Judy still hammer it out several times a day, near the donkey rides and carousel. For a British beach holiday any more quintessential, you’d have to bring out the cucumber sandwiches while swatting away wasps with sticks of pink rock.

A haven of simple pleasures – the Georgian Esplanade is a parade of penny arcades, tea rooms and chippies, dominated by a statue erected in 1810 in the king’s honour – Weymouth is more than its majestic beachfront. Slap on some sunblock and head out in a boat into some of the best sailing waters in northern Europe. The south coast’s sailing capital hosts the Weymouth and Portland International Regatta 2011 next week (www.wpnsa.org.uk).

It also makes for the perfect jumping-off point to explore the Jurassic Coast (jurassiccoast.com) – a 95-mile strip of sandstone cliffs and fossil-rich prehistoric shoreline 185 million years in the making. Gasp at its showstopping centrepiece, Durdle Door, a 200ft limestone arch formed by the erosive lapping of the waves. Hunting for ammonites along this Unesco-protected stretch will stoke any child’s dinosaur fever.