Hotels in Bournemouth, United Kingdom

A little about Bournemouth...

Bournemouth is a large town and tourist resort, situated on the south coast of England. With a population of 164,000 it is the largest settlement in the ceremonial county of Dorset, though in the historic county of Hampshire. The town is a regional centre of education and business, and forms the main part of the South East Dorset conurbation, with the adjoining town of Poole. It is also the largest town on the English south coast between Southampton and Plymouth. The town is most notable as the home of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, The Arts Institute at Bournemouth as well as Bournemouth University and the Bournemouth International Centre. The town is also home to several financial companies including JPMorgan Chase, Nationwide Building Society, Liverpool Victoria and Standard Life.

The Russell-Cotes Museum is located just to the east of the Central Gardens near to the Pavilion Theatre and next to the Royal Bath Hotel. The museum includes many fine mostly 19th century paintings and the family collections acquired when travelling e.g in Japan and Russia. It was Sir Merton Russell Cotes, one of Bournemouth's most prominent Victorians, who successfully campaigned to have a promenade built; it runs continuously along the Bournemouth and Poole shoreline.


The Royal Bath Hotel, located near the sea and just to the east of the Central Gardens, has attracted many important visitors over the years, including Oscar Wilde, H. G. Wells, Richard Harris, Sir Thomas Beecham, Shirley Bassey, and prime ministers Lord Beaconsfield (who stayed for three months to help his gout), Gladstone, Asquith and Lloyd George. Royal guests have been Edward VII and Edward VIII when each was the Prince of Wales, George VI when he was the Duke of York, Queen Wilhemina of the Netherlands and Empress Eugenie of France.

Recently, Bournemouth has become the venue of the Professional Darts Championship "The Premier Legue". It is hosted at the Bournemouth International centre and has received much acclaimation by the fans as 2006, Raymond Van Barneveld hit a '9 darter' against 'one dart' Peter Manley. It was hotly rated as one of the favourites to become the new host for the PDC World Championships as the last site, Circus Tavern, could not hold the growing numbers of fans.

Bournemouth, once referred to as "God's Waiting Room", has in recent years become a much younger and vibrant place. It has a large student population (including many exchange students) and many young people are drawn there by its extensive nightlife, including clubs with 24 hour licences, often open until morning. The town has many nightclubs and pubs, most of which have taken advantage of the recent change in licensing laws to stay open after the traditional pub closing time. Bournemouth applied for the most 24-hour licences of any town/city in the UK. However drinking alcohol outside in public in Bournemouth is not allowed. St. Peter's Road and Fir Vale Road (one which has several large clubs/bars on it including Toko, Bliss and Elements) is closed after 10pm on Friday and Saturday evenings with large gates stopping local traffic driving down it. Only taxis picking people up are permitted to drive down the road.

Bournemouth is well served by the rail network with two stations in the town, Bournemouth railway station and Pokesdown railway station to the East. Parts of western Bournemouth can also be reached from Branksome station. Bournemouth station is located some way from the town centre, due to the town's founding fathers not wishing to have a station within the town boundary, which extended 1 mile from the pier.