Dog-Friendly Holiday Cottage in Dorset, near Weymouth

Plenty of places say "dogs welcome" and mean "dogs allowed, grudgingly." Apple Cottage is different. This is a whole 1700s stone cottage — the entire home, not a room in someone else's — with three bedrooms sleeping up to five, a lounge with a log burner, a conservatory and a dining room. Well-behaved dogs are part of the family here, and the layout suits them: hard floors in the busy areas, a warm log burner to dry off in front of after a wet clifftop walk, and a boot-friendly entrance for muddy paws.

The single biggest reason dog owners choose Apple Cottage is the garden. It is very large and fully enclosed, so you can open the door and let your dog out without a lead — a rare luxury on a self-catering holiday. Birds and wildlife visit throughout the day, there is a BBQ and a fire pit for long summer evenings, and free driveway parking for up to five cars means the whole family (and the dog) arrives in one go.

You do not need to get back in the car to walk your dog here. A nature reserve sits directly across the road from the cottage, so a morning stretch of the legs is a two-minute stroll away. The village shop and Post Office are around half a mile down the lane, an easy there-and-back with the dog on a lead. The cottage sits in classic Dorset countryside between West Stafford and Crossways, with quiet lanes, footpaths and open country on the doorstep. Dorchester is roughly four miles away, and the coast at Weymouth is about eight miles south.

Dorset has some of the best year-round dog beaches in England, and several are a short drive from the cottage. Ringstead Bay, a quiet pebble-and-shingle bay on the Jurassic Coast, welcomes dogs all year round and is about twenty minutes away. Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove are also dog-friendly year-round. Do note that Weymouth's main town beach has a summer dog ban (1 May to 30 September) — see our dog-beaches guide for the honest, up-to-date rules.

Dorset is generously dotted with dog-friendly country pubs where a water bowl appears before you have taken your coat off. Dorchester, a proper market town with Thomas Hardy connections and good museums, is your nearest hub for pubs, cafés and shops. Many of the region's headline attractions — the Jurassic Coast, Corfe Castle grounds, the Cerne Abbas Giant viewpoint — are happy for dogs on leads.

Apple Cottage is family-run and Sandra, the host, lives next door, so there is a friendly face on hand without ever feeling watched over. She has been a Superhost on Airbnb for eight years with a 4.84/5 rating from 77 reviews, and a striking number of those guests are dog owners and families who return year after year. Linen and towels are provided, the kitchen is fully equipped, there is free WiFi, a 43" TV with DVD player, board games and books, a washing machine for muddy-dog days and a workspace if you need it.