New for 2026, this Dorset tour is based at the Durley Dean Hotel in Bournemouth, the hotel is a solid choice for operators, with evening entertainment, an onsite pool and spa, and a short walk away from the beach. This tour includes excursions to some of the most popular attractions in area, A visit to Swanage and a journey on the Swanage Railway, entry to High- cliffe Castle & a cruise around Poole Harbour. Highcliffe Castle, this magnificent building, once lavishly furnished in the 18th century French style, remained a family home until the 1950s. Whilst two fires destroyed the rich interiors in the 1960s, the Castle’s renovated exterior is testimony to the remarkable skills of craftsmen and women who carried out a huge repair and conservation programme in the 1990s. The buildings residents, amongst whom was Harry Gordon Selfridge, who founded the London based department store Selfridges. Mr Selfridge lived in the Castle between 1916 and 1922, and is buried with his wife at St Mark’s churchyard just across the road from the Castle. The Swanage heritage railway operates full-size steam and diesel passenger trains along the five and a half miles of line from Norden to Corfe Castle and down to the Victorian seaside town of Swanage.