Joanna Rossiter

8 crowd-free day trips for the bank holiday weekend

  • From Spectator Life
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Worbarrow Bay, Dorset

In December 1943, just a few weeks before Christmas, the residents of this remote coastal village were told to pack up their belongings and leave their homes so that they could be requisitioned by the army for training in the run up to D Day. The villagers left a note on the church door, saying that they would return one day, but the army kept hold of the land and they never went back. The result is a village frozen in time – complete with school room and telephone box.

Not only is it eerily atmospheric but it’s rare to find more than a handful of tourists wandering through the abandoned cottages. An easy ten-minute walk takes you to Worbarrow Bay – an unspoilt beach which rivals nearby Durdle Door for beauty and yet courts less than half the crowds.

Shere, Surrey

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Shere, Surrey

Famously used as the setting for hit rom-com The Holiday, Shere is what family day trips are made of.

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