The Riviera Hotel & Apartments - Alum Chine

The Riviera Hotel & Apartments sits just back from the sea at Alum Chine, the wooded ravine that runs down to the water on the quieter western side of Bournemouth, and it is one of the few traditional seaside hotels in the town where a dog can share the evening rather than waiting upstairs. Dogs cost £15 per night, up to two per room, and they are welcome in the bar and grill, so dinner does not have to be a rota of one person eating while the other sits with the dog.

There is a formal side and an informal side to the building, and dogs belong to the informal one. The Cunarder Restaurant and the QE2 and Honeymoon suites stay dog-free, and it is dogs only here rather than pets in general, so the practical shape of a stay is a standard room and meals in the bar. Guests travelling with dogs tend to describe attentive staff, a good spread at breakfast and easy parking, and the hotel reads as a place where dogs are a normal part of the summer mix rather than a grudging exception.

Alum Chine is the reason to pick this end of Bournemouth with a dog. The chine path drops from close to the hotel down to Alum Chine Beach, which lifts its dog restriction outside the summer months, and the tree cover keeps the walk shaded on a hot afternoon. The town centre and the pier are a promenade walk or a short drive along the coast.

The caveats are the ones that come with a large Victorian seaside hotel. Rooms vary considerably in shape and size, some furniture is tired, the walls between rooms are thin, and a sea-view booking can still look onto the car park with early-morning delivery noise. Housekeeping is the one to watch if you are fussy: the dog-friendly rooms have drawn a complaint about dog hair left on a bed cover at check-in, so it is worth looking over the bedding before you unpack. With a 4.4/5 paw rating, it suits couples with one or two settled dogs who want a traditional, unpretentious seaside base and can live with an older building.