Dog-friendly Rousdon and around

Right at the foot of the Cobb and about as close to the water as a pub gets in Dorset, with a beer garden facing Monmouth Beach. Palmers list it as dog friendly, and Monmouth Beach next door is open to dogs all year, which is the whole point of drinking here. Rooms above the bar.

Palmers' pub on Marine Parade with a large sun-trap garden that opens straight onto the sand, which makes it the obvious stop after a walk out to the Cobb. Well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome, and there is permanent shade in the garden for hot days. Log fire inside through the winter.

Small, carefully done bed and breakfast a short walk above the seafront, five rooms and no children under twelve. Two of the rooms, Church View and the sea-view Premium room, take one small dog under fifteen kilos with the house Pooch Package added. Cats and other pets are not accepted.

Georgian coaching inn on the hill above the harbour, where John Fowles wrote and where the sea view rooms look down over Lyme Bay. Several bedrooms including sea-view ones are dog-friendly at £10 per dog per night; book direct and say the dog is coming so you are put in the right room. Their own guide to the town's all-year dog beaches is unusually accurate.

Handsome 1735 house in gardens above the Cobb, the smartest address in Lyme and the best lawn to eat lunch on. Dogs are welcome in the gardens, the bar and the sitting room, but the hotel no longer takes them in any of the bedrooms, so this is a lunch stop rather than a dog-friendly stay. Worth knowing before you book.

Small Palmers local up the hill from the seafront, away from the holiday crush, with five ales and craft keg from the Bridport brewery. Palmers list it as a dog-friendly house, so muddy paws off the Undercliff are expected rather than tolerated. No rooms.

Rebuilt seaside pub a few steps up from Lyme's Cobb Gate, doing shellfish and Dorset beer under a nautical roof. Dogs are taken in the front pub and everywhere outside, but not in the rear restaurant, so ring ahead if you want a table with the dog rather than a spot in the bar. Rooms upstairs are let as a boutique stay.

St Austell's inn on the seafront at the bottom of Broad Street, with bedrooms over the bay. Dogs are allowed in every part of the inn except the main restaurant, and a set number of bedrooms are dog-friendly at £20 per dog per stay. Dogs must be on a lead in public areas and not left alone in the room.

Small Palmers pub in the middle of Charmouth, home cooking and five ales, a short walk from the fossil beach. The bar area is the dog-friendly part and the landlady makes a point of meeting new arrivals; the dining side is not. A sensible stop after a morning on West Beach.