Bournemouth is built for walking. A near-continuous ribbon of sand, promenade and clifftop runs the length of the bay, and you can piece together anything from a flat half-hour stroll to a proper half-day hike. Here are the walks worth knowing, with a note on how hard each one is.
The quick take
- The flat promenade is the easy option and links every beach and pier.
- The clifftops give the best views, with cliff lifts and zig-zag paths down.
- The chines are short, sheltered valley walks between clifftop and sand.
- Hengistbury Head is the wildest walk, out at the eastern end of the bay.
- Wear proper shoes for the cliffs and check the tide before low-level scrambles.
The seafront promenade
The promenade is the backbone of the coast, a level path at beach level that runs for miles without a single hill. It is the most accessible walk in town, good for pushchairs, wheels and anyone who wants the sea on one side and the cliffs on the other without any effort. Because it links every pier and chine, you can walk as far as you like and cut up to the clifftop, or turn back, whenever you please. Cafes and kiosks are dotted along the way, so you are never far from a coffee.
The clifftop paths
For the views, get up onto the cliffs. The grassy clifftop paths run high above the sand with the whole bay laid out below, and on a clear day you can see across to the Isle of Wight in one direction and towards the Purbeck hills in the other. The paths themselves are mostly gentle. The effort comes in getting up and down.
Cliff lifts and the zig-zags
At a few points along the front, the old cliff lifts (funiculars) carry you between the promenade and the clifftop, which saves a stiff climb. They do not always run, so treat them as a bonus rather than a plan, and be ready to use the zig-zag paths instead. Those zig-zags are steep in places and can be slippery after rain, so take them slowly and keep dogs and children close to the inside of the path.
The chines
The chines are the steep little wooded valleys that cut down to the sea, and each makes a short, sheltered walk in its own right. Alum Chine is the best known, with a subtropical garden threading down to the sand, while further east the greenery around Fisherman’s Walk offers a gentler, shaded descent with its own cliff lift nearby. They are ideal on a windy day, when the valley walls take the edge off the weather.
Hengistbury Head
For something wilder, head to the eastern end of the bay. Hengistbury Head is a low headland and nature reserve where the tidy seafront gives way to heath, harbour and long open views. The climb to the top is short but exposed, and the walk out along the sandspit towards the beach huts is flat and easy. Wear proper shoes, pack a windproof layer, and keep back from the crumbling seaward edges.
A note on dogs and seasons
If you are walking with a dog, timing matters. The central beaches carry a seasonal dog ban through the summer, while the clifftops, the western beaches and Hengistbury stay open to them. Our guide to dog-friendly Bournemouth sets out where and when you are free to let them off the lead, which saves a wasted trip.
Where to start
Any of these walks can be a gentle stroll or the start of a longer day on the coast. Pick your stretch of sand first and build the walk around it: our beaches hub covers each one in turn, with the facilities, parking and character of every section so you can match the walk to the day.