Best of British

Parents of very young children often feel that their days of exotic travel are over. Long-haul flights, remote destinations and "independent" holidays are things of the past. Where you go depends on where you can stay: somewhere child-friendly and preferably not too far away. You book somewhere because it sounds like it welcomes kids and it's by the sea. This is as aspirational as travelling life gets.

Before you know it, you've joined the bucket-and-spade brigade, embraced the cliche and spent a family holiday at the British seaside. You eat the fish and chips, go on the rides and build the sand castles. You didn't quite envisage your leisure time being spent like this, but, hey ho, it's all part of the fun. Then again, you hadn't realised that the UK was like this. You have spent so much time on cheap flights abroad that you are unaware of the domestic bliss that is available just a drive or a train ride away.

This spring my husband, our three kids and I spent a week on the Dorset coast. We went there because I had heard of the exceptionally family-friendly Moonfleet Manor Hotel in Fleet, near Weymouth. In metropolitan parenting circles it is very well known - it's as if every other person has either been there or is thinking of going. Hence it has a Fulham-by-Sea feel to it, but this really is the premier league of child-oriented hotels. They seem to have thought of everything: the indoor swimming pool and massive games area for when it's pouring with rain, the outdoor play area for when the sun shines, the well-staffed creche for parents who want an hour to read the paper, listening services, high chairs, cots, Z-beds... You might think that the place is wasted on anyone staying without kids, but they can choose from a wide range of activities: angling, croquet, racquet ball, riding, skittles, snooker, squash, swimming, tennis and walking.

The hotel is well known thanks to J Meade Falkner's book, Moonfleet. He wrote it in the 1880s but set it in the 1750s in a fictional village called Moonfleet. It's a classic adventure story of smuggling and shipwrecks. At the centre is a family called the Mohuns whose ancestral home is Moonfleet Manor. Falkner based much of his story on fact; records show a family called Moone or Mohune had lived in Fleet since the 1500s and it is thought that they built the original Fleet House in 1603. This house was eventually to become known as Moonfleet Manor.

So where exactly did our visit take us? Obviously to Fleet, a tiny village in south-west Dorset, but also to the banks of the Fleet Lagoon. The Lagoon is separated from the sea by the magnificent Chesil Beach. It's the longest shingle beach in the world, starting at the Isle of Portland and stretching 18 miles to West Bay in Bridport. It's also very tall, like a mountain of shingle. The pebbles are all very smooth because they've been ferociously pummelled by the huge waves along this stretch of coast. And they're graded: they get smaller as you go up the coast from Portland. It's said that smugglers arriving on the beach in the middle of the night could tell where they were by the size of the pebbles. Chesil Beach is the type of place you might have visited on a geography field trip, but if you go there with toddlers, at least you will not have an impending exam to test you on the detail and dull your enjoyment of a fantastic landscape.

The other beach we visited in the area was in Weymouth. It could not have been more different. This is classic British seaside: sand, fairground rides, Punch and Judy shows, deck chairs and pedalos. On one side of the beach is the sea; on the other are elegant Georgian houses. The 17th-century harbour behind the seafront gives the area a sense of gentility. Many of the original buildings remain - the Old Fish Market, built 150 years ago, is still in use, and everywhere you look there is a small fishing boat bobbing up and down. In the Brewers Quay area of the harbour there's a gallery, coffee shops and pubs where you can sit outside.

Spending the day on a beach or wandering around a town are no longer the main components of a family holiday. At some point you usually find yourself going to an adventure playground, having a wildlife or farm experience, or visiting an interactive museum. It's debatable as to who needs the constant stimulation more - the parent or child - but either way, Weymouth has it all. The Deep Sea Adventure attraction provides the museum bit; Lodmoor Country Park will give you adventure; and Weymouth Sea Life Park (which includes a marine sanctuary) adds the animal component.

That was the theory, but our visit to the Sea Life Park cannot be counted an unmitigated success with the children. They showed a passing interest in the penguins, otters and seals, a brief flicker of excitement at the sea horses in the "National Breeding and Conservation Centre", and a slight buzz at the shark pool. But the point where they became most animated was at the bouncy castle, which was slightly galling after paying pounds 30 for a family ticket.