Brewhouse & Kitchen - Southbourne

Southbourne is one of the easier corners of Bournemouth to walk a dog around, and Brewhouse & Kitchen sits right in it: a working micro-brewery with a bar, a restaurant and a handful of bedrooms upstairs, a few streets back from the cliff top. Dogs are welcome in the rooms and downstairs in the bar, and that second part is what makes it usable - you can eat in the evening without leaving a dog alone in an unfamiliar room.

Nothing about the pet terms is published on the property's booking listing. There is no stated fee, no weight limit, no breed rule and no cap on numbers, so ring ahead and confirm what you will be charged and how many dogs a room takes before you commit.

Guests travelling with dogs describe a relaxed welcome rather than a tolerated one, and the same points recur: staff who will find you a fridge or a quiet table, bedrooms that were refurbished recently and feel it, and, more surprising for a pub with rooms, very little noise reaching the bedrooms from a bar that is busy on a Saturday night. A bright green safety light on the bedroom ceiling that cannot be switched off comes up more than once, so pack an eye mask.

The location does much of the work. Hengistbury Head, Southbourne beach and the cliff-top path are all walkable, and the beaches along this stretch take dogs outside the summer restriction months. There is no car park at the property, but a public one sits a street away.

The honest caveat is heat. A stay during a 34-degree spell was hard going: no fans in the rooms, one promised and never delivered, and a dog that suffered for it. The same visit ran into changed door codes, parking spaces blocked by pub equipment and lukewarm food, so the service is not uniformly sharp. It earns a 4.5/5 paw rating.

Best suited to owners of a single steady dog who want a walkable Bournemouth base with a proper bar and kitchen downstairs and the beach a stroll away, and who are travelling outside the hottest weeks of the year.