There are seven miles of sand here and most people use about four hundred yards of it, all of them within sight of Bournemouth Pier. Walk fifteen minutes in either direction and the crowd thins out to almost nothing.
Behind the beaches there is a second landscape that visitors rarely hear about at all: some of the largest surviving lowland heath in Dorset, sitting in among the housing estates.
The busy middle
Bournemouth Beach is the long one — seven miles of sand under the East and West cliffs, with the pier, the gardens and a run of kiosks along the promenade. This is the postcard, and in August it is the crush.
Boscombe Beach to the east has the Grade II listed pier, plus climbing boulders and a slackline if you want something to do with your hands. Durley Chine Beach, just west, sits at the foot of the chine with a cafe, a pub and a kiosk behind it.
West, towards Poole
This is where it gets good. Alum Chine Beach is the largest of Bournemouth's four chines, Blue Flag sand with a tropical garden on the cliff above it.
Branksome Chine Beach has a beach shop, a restaurant and — the rare thing — a car park directly behind the promenade. Its neighbour Branksome Dene Beach is a few minutes' walk and considerably quieter, under a properly dramatic cliff.
Canford Cliffs Beach is the tranquil one, sandy cliffs and wooden huts. Flaghead Chine Beach, off Haven Road, is wide and shelves gently, and is where to go when you have had enough of everybody.
Out on the peninsula, Sandbanks Beach holds more Blue Flags than any other resort in the country. Shore Road Beach on the way out to it is the wind and kite surfing one — worth watching even if you have no intention of getting wet.
East, towards Christchurch
Fisherman's Walk Beach is acres of sand at the bottom of the zig zag, and quieter than the cliffs on either side of it. Southbourne Beach is wide, quiet and Blue Flag, down the same path from the high street.
Keep going and you reach Avon Beach, sandy and Blue Flag, just past the quay where Christchurch Bay begins.
Parks and gardens
Poole Park is the big one, wrapped around a saltwater boating lake, with cafes, tennis, bowls and watersports. Hamworthy Park is on the harbourside and has its own beach, a paddling pool and a view out to Brownsea Island — a good answer when the seafront is heaving.
Compton Acres is ten acres of separately themed ornamental gardens above Poole Harbour, Italian Villa and all.
In Bournemouth, Meyrick Park is wooded parkland just north of the town centre and belongs to the dog walkers, runners and cyclists. Boscombe Chine Gardens runs down the chine to the seafront with mini golf and a cafe, and Knyveton Gardens nearby has bowls, tennis, a nature trail and a sensory garden. Both hold Green Flags, as does Alum Chine Tropical Garden, planted in the 1920s on the clifftop.
Coy Pond Gardens has ponds, exotic trees and a gentle riverside walk at the Branksome end of the chain. Further out, Alexandra Park in Upper Parkstone has play areas, a cafe and free street parking, and Muscliff Park comes with a community centre, a youth centre, a play park and a petanque terrain, which is not a sentence you write often.
The heath
This is the part people miss. Canford Heath Nature Reserve is 344 hectares and one of the largest surviving heaths in Dorset — go far enough in and it feels genuinely remote, ten minutes from a dual carriageway.
Turbary Common is the largest heathland in north Bournemouth and a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Kinson Common nearby folds woodland, heath, marsh and meadow in among the housing.
On the harbour, Ham Common gives you heath, a beach, a lake, woodland and the Purbeck hills in one walk. Luscombe Valley Nature Reserve is another SSSI — gorse, grassland, reeds and ponds that come and go with the season.
Inland, Stour Valley Nature Reserve runs three miles of footpath, meadow, hedgerow and woodland along the river, and Redhill Common packs heath, grassland, scrub and woodland into seven hectares, and has a Green Flag for it.
One thing worth saying plainly: heathland burns. Much of what is above is protected for the reptiles and ground-nesting birds that live nowhere else. Stay on the paths, keep dogs close in the nesting season, and never light anything.