Poole, United Kingdom

The Canford

Price per night from$127.94

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (GBP101.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

The Canford Photos

Style

Beach-hutted bon vivant

Setting

Steps from Sandbanks

Explore

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Deep in Famous Five territory on the Dorset coast, the Canford is a family-friendly pub stay that packs buckets of seaside charm. Kids and canines are welcome, and with a sandy beach only a stroll away, Blyton-esque larks are on the cards. Back at base, boutique rooms have been individually designed in day-brightening hues and the kitchen pimps classic pub fare with fine West Country produce and an impressive wine list.

Smith Extra

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Cocktails (or mocktails) for two

Facilities

Photos The Canford facilities

Need to know

Rooms

11.

Check–Out

11am. Check-in is 3pm, but both are flexible, for an extra fee and subject to availability.

More details

Rates usually include breakfast. If you're staying on a room-only rate, Continental and à la carte options are available for an extra charge.

Also

One ground-floor room is wheelchair accessible.

At the hotel

Pub garden, beach-hut booths and tiki huts, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, Nespresso coffee machine, tea-making kit, snack basket, minibar and Bramley bath products.

Our favourite rooms

They’re cockles-warmers, the lot of them, but the Feature Boutique rooms have a few extra flourishes – four-poster beds, fluffy robes and freestanding bath tubs.

Packing tips

Binoculars are the must-have accessory at Brownsea Island, the red squirrel haven a short hop across the water.

Also

If you’re getting the gang together for a knees-up, ask about booking one of the three tiki huts in the garden.

Pet‐friendly

Waggy tails are very welcome. There are several dog-friendly rooms, which can each accommodate up to two dogs for £20 a stay and are kitted out with a dog bed or blanket, a water bowl and welcome treats. See more pet-friendly hotels in Poole.

Children

All ages are welcome. There are several family-friendly rooms, with cots, foldaway beds or sofa-beds available on request for £15 a night, and the pub has a dedicated children’s menu.

Food and Drink

Photos The Canford food and drink

Top Table

The conservatory makes a leafy, sunlit spot for lunch. On summer evenings, book a beach hut in the garden – they each have a heater, so bring on the British weather.

Dress Code

Fresh from the coast path, flick the sand from your shoes and come as you are.

Hotel restaurant

Head chef Sam gives classic pub and seaside grub a glow-up, using inventive flavours and seasonal ingredients sourced straight from local farmers and fishers. The day’s catch is dashed straight to the kitchen, pan-fried and plated with sea vegetables smothered in lemon and caper butter, but you’ll also find the full-works fish and chips here – cider batter, mushy peas, curry and tartar sauce. West Country sausages and mash shares menu space with delicate fennel risotto. And if you stay in for Sunday lunch, there are a couple of double-egg Yorkshires with your name on them.

Hotel bar

The Canford strikes a balance between bougie watering hole and well-loved local. Traditionalists can prop up the bar with a post-walk pint and a bowl of pork crackling, but there are also plenty of cosy corners to retreat to with some seaweed-salted popcorn and a bottle from the hand-picked wine list. When the sun’s out, it’s all eyes on the spritzes – the Hugo, a sunny concoction of Plymouth gin, elderflower, prosecco and soda, is a house speciality. And the Boat Shack, an alfresco bar serving seafood and craft cocktails, throws open its shutters in summer.

Last orders

Breakfast is served daily from 8am to 11am, lunch from noon to 5pm. Dinner runs from 5pm to 9.30pm Monday to Saturday, until 9pm on Sunday. The bar pours till 11pm Monday to Saturday, 10.30pm on Sunday.

Room service

Order up to your room between 8am to 9pm, via reception or the restaurant’s app.

Location

Photos The Canford location
Address
The Canford
53 Cliff Drive Poole
Canford Cliffs
BH13 7JF
United Kingdom

The Canford is on the Dorset coast just outside Poole, a short walk from the sandy Canford Cliffs beach.

Planes

It’s a 20-minute drive from Bournemouth Airport, and an hour from Southampton Airport. Your nearest major hubs are London Heathrow, an hour and a half away, and London Gatwick, which is two hours away.

Trains

Breeze into Branksome or Parkstone stations from London Waterloo in less than two-and-a-half hours. From either station, it’s under 10 minutes by taxi to the hotel.

Automobiles

A car will be key for exploring Dorset’s picture-book-pretty coastline and countryside. London is less than three hours away. There’s a free private car park at the hotel, as well as free on-street parking nearby.

Worth getting out of bed for

Your local bucket-and-spade spot is Canford Cliffs beach, a sandy stretch just a three-minute stroll from the Canford. Carry on along the coast path and you’ll come to Branksome Dene, where dogs are welcome year-round. In the other direction, Sandbanks is within reach, where pastimes include paddleboarding, kitesurfing and idly speculating about property prices. 

Budding Attenboroughs will be in clover at Brownsea Island – keep your eyes peeled on the wildlife walk for lagoon birds, lizards and elusive red squirrels. A turn about the ornamental gardens at Compton Acres culminates, as all walks should, with a tea-room pit stop. And at Moors Valley Country Park, keep your pulse rate down by skipping the ziplines and embarking on a mindfulness audio trail instead.

Local restaurants

An exclave of his Cornish-coast empire, Rick Stein Sandbanks is a reliable bet for deftly spun seafood. And at family-run Baffi, homemade Neapolitan pizzas are topped with fior di latte, San Marzano tomatoes and fine Mediterranean produce.

Local cafés

Bag a terrace table at Rockwater, a chic beachfront spot in Branksome, to tuck into brunch staples and Buddha bowls with a sea view.

Reviews

Photos The Canford reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this convivial pub-hotel in Dorset and unpacked their clotted-cream fudge and red squirrel snaps, a full account of their coastal break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside the Canford in Poole…

The Canford, a family-friendly pub-hotel a pebble’s throw from the shore, supplies all the ingredients for a Great British beach break. The setting alone is the stuff that rose-tinted summer reminiscences are made of – promenades wind past gull-padded golden sands on this corner of the Dorset coast, a short ferry-ride from the Isle of Purbeck, which served as the backdrop for some of Enid Blyton’s best-loved tales. Days out follow a suitably storybook agenda of sandcastles, fossil hunting and boat trips to forest-cloaked islands (where, happily, red squirrels are a more likely encounter than treasure-stealing wrong ’uns). When you return indoors, it’s to elevated seafood dishes and hearty pub staples. And in the garden, ice-cream-hued beach huts are repurposed as alfresco booths, made for gourmet picnics with lashings of gin fizz. 

But a different kind of story can also unfurl here – the type that punctuates seaside outings with breakfast in bed, unhurried bubble baths, and a bavette steak paired with a full-bodied Pauillac, and where your seductive Hypnos bed provides the happily ever after.

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Price per night from $127.94