For a second opinion on The Bull Hotel, read Nigel Summerly's review from Times Online

The hotel: from the outside, The Bull is a traditional Regency coaching inn on a hotchpotch street of 17th-century houses. It comes with a fabulously salty soundtrack of surf and seagulls, a reminder that it’s only a fossil’s fling from Dorset’s Jurassic Coast.

Inside, though, you can forget tradition. The owners, Richard and Nikki Cooper, former music-industry consultants, have filled the place with delicately distressed antique pieces and supersized studies in modern art, turning The Bull from chintzy backwater boozer into a Babington-esque boutique bolt hole.

The rooms: the Coopers do a confident line in decadence, so expect dazzling designer wallpapers, bold paint schemes (racing greens, fitzrovia reds) and big wrought-iron beds, set off by dainty dressing tables worthy of Marie Antoinette. You’ll also get a flatscreen TV, DVD player and Tivoli radio.

Some of the details are a little lacking, though. There are no full-length mirrors, no face cloths and no glasses in the bathroom, though the fun-over-functionality focus does mean there are full-size, yummy Neal’s Yard toiletries.

And be warned: guests sleeping at the front must endure late-night revellers visiting the nearby kebab shop, followed by early-morning stallholders setting up for business on Saturdays and Wednesdays (when they say Bridport market is on the doorstep, they’re not kidding).

Overall, however, the carefree flamboyance outweighs the niggles.

What about the food? The Bull bills itself as a gastropub, but the restaurant is more of a Scandinavian bistro, serving food that is admirably pure and simple.

Our starters, just-caught Lyme Bay scallops (£7.50) and bruschetta of roasted peppers (£6.50), were truly tasty; and the mains, slow-roasted Dorset lamb and fish fricassee in a vermouth sauce (both £13.95), were melt-in-the-mouth moreish.

The puddings were less delicate – treacle tart and bread pudding (£4.50 each) both tended towards the leaden and were served without cream. I suspect an oversight by the waiting staff, who were so anxiously sweet, I didn’t like to complain.

So, now we’re fed and watered... go to town on some fancy food shopping at Bridport farmers’ market. This is the stamping ground of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and the market, staged on the second Saturday of every month, stocks his River Cottage goodies. The town also has classy organic bakers and top-notch butchers, ethical cafes and agreeably dusty old bookshops.

Down by the sea, the Jurassic Coast offers a beautiful, heart-pumping hike, and the hotel will drop you off and pick you up, so there’s no excuse for sloth. Summit the south coast’s highest point, 626ft Golden Cap, or forage for fossils around the photogenic Cobb at Lyme Regis.

The Coopers will even lend you Lulu, their springer spaniel, for those soft-focus stick-throwing moments.

The Bull Hotel (01308 422878, www.thebullhotel.co.uk); doubles from £70, B&B

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