# Weymouth lovely Weymouth



## Westbay (Mar 15, 2008)

Like a lot of locals, the thought of venturing into Weymouth over the last 2 years has been terrifying enough to make sure I've given the place a wide berth. The road "improvements" for the Olympics has all but made the place a no-go area.

Well, today I had to visit a shop in the centre of town. And, believe it or not, it was lovely.

Not that I drove in of course - the roadworks might have gone but the new "intelligent" traffic lights are just a bit too intelligent. The answer is the new park and ride at the foot of the new Dorchester / Weymouth relief road. I had made attempts to get the powers-to-be to put in some dedicated parking for motorhomes, but hey, this_ is _Dorset. But the place is huge and if you drive in and head to the far left parking area, there are plenty of spaces that allow you to overhang on to grassy verges. They make a point of saying you must stay within the marked bay, but this morning there was a large van there, parked up with no problems. No caravans and no vehicles over 7.5t.

Now it's out of season the fees are a whopping £1.50 all day, including (up to seven passengers) on the bus into town. That takes less than 10mins and busses run every 15mins.

No overnights allowed, but if you want a stopover it is possible along the exit road from the park and ride (not the new relief road, the old one that the bus takes). As the road passes behind what used to be the big New Look factory there are often vans parked up with no problems. Stay closer to the main road end and its quite green and leafy. And the other good news is, Morrisons (100yds away) has reopened it's café, so breakfast is back on.

And Weymouth beach is as lovely as ever (stay away from the shopping streets - still depressing). Sand sculptures, donkeys, the works. The little rowing boat ferry still runs across the harbour, and fishing boats sport signs inviting you to buy live crabs straight from the pots.

If you don't fancy Weymouth, the same £1.50 parking will give you a free bus up the new road straight to the centre of Dorchester. It's hard enough trying to park a car up there let alone a motorhome.

Park and ride is not open on Sundays (don't ask me why, perhaps they don't think tourists venure out on Sundays) and the last busses back are quite early, so no nights out on the town.


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