Ten things, roughly in the order a first visit should take them.
- Brownsea Island — red squirrels, peacocks and the birthplace of Scouting, twenty minutes by boat from the Quay.
- Poole Quay — the working waterfront, the lifting bridge and the seafood.
- Poole Old Town — Georgian merchant streets and the free Cockle Trail.
- Sandbanks — Blue Flag sand on a peninsula guarding the harbour mouth.
- A harbour boat trip — the only way to see how big and how shallow the harbour really is.
- Poole Museum — free, and the Iron Age logboat is worth the visit alone.
- Compton Acres — themed gardens laid out above the water.
- The chain ferry to Studland — four minutes into a different landscape entirely.
- Watersports on the harbour — flat, sheltered water that forgives beginners.
- Old Harry Rocks — the chalk stacks where the Jurassic Coast begins.
Short on time? Do 2, 3 and 6 in a morning: they are within a few hundred metres of each other.