Harwich Town & Ferry Port – Dog Friendly Pubs & Accommodation

Harwich is a town on the Essex coast in the east of England. It’s a handy place to visit because of the town’s ferry port that has ferries to the Netherlands that are pet friendly. The last train of the day was a few minutes to Harwich International, the ferry port where we were catching the Holland bound ferry.

Harwich Pier

Harich in Essex is also a good place for returning from mainland Europe. However, you might need to stay the night unless your onwards travel is a brief journey.

Pubs & Fish and chip shops in Harwich

Some of the delightful places we enjoyed food and drink while visiting.

The Alma Inn a Dog Friendly Pub

The Alma Inn Harwich

We had researched dog-friendly pubs in Harwich and had recommendations from @ernpup on Twitter to Visit The Alma Inn. This pub was near to the pier and was a delightful place to set down the backpacks.

The Alma Inn

Enjoying a few pints helped the mind recover from the journey. They made the dog very welcome and fed him his dinner. This was on the Quality Street lid that was the best-shape near to food “bowl” we could fit in the backpacks.

The New Bell Inn A Dog Friendly Pub

The New Bell Inn

After The Alba, we popped into another dog-friendly venue, The New Bell Inn. This was another friendly pub, but we had opted to pop in on their Christmas Quiz night. Unfortunately, this meant we could only stay an hour for a drink. The Aspal cider was good, and they were great with Henry, our dog.

Pieseas Fish & Chip Shop

I made an executive decision to leave and visit the chippy we spotted on the way. The plan was to eat a chippy meal on the platform and head for the ferry. Pieseas chippy cooked everything fresh, so we had a 10-minute wait for our sustenance to be ready. Battered sausage, fish cake and chips were the delights of our alfresco meal. It was nice to eat on the platform while awaiting the connection to Harwich International. The chips and mains were delicious and very filling and didn’t dent our budget for this leg.

The Fish House

Just down the road from our pet friendly accommodation were a few takeouts on Google maps. So we headed towards the first takeaway, a chippy that was called The Fish House. This was closing up but could do us a meal. We ordered some traditional English fish and chips. As they were closing, they gave us a pile of sausages to enjoy with the meal.

We purchased wine and beer next, and caffeinated drinks, Red bull and Pepsi Max Cherry to get us going in the morning. Back in the room, we opened the fish and chips. OMG, this was massive even before adding the extra sausages into the mix. These were delicious, as had not had a chippy meal for quite some time. Sadly, there were loads left after filling ourselves up.

Dovercourt & Harwich in Essex

Dog Walk Harwich

The Dovercourt area of Harwich has a pleasant park, a beach and a coastal walk. We got a picnic breakfast of sandwiches and savoury snacks from the convenience store and headed into the park opposite.

Dovercourt Beach

Cliff park was very nice. They well maintained it, had a bandstand and also had a picnic table for breakfast. This was a nice place to see and watch the sea and was popular with other dog walkers. The park was created in 1911 and there’s been a park here since.

beach huts Harwich

From Cliff Park, we were quickly on a coastal path with beach huts and a nice-looking beach. The beach is dog friendly from 30th September until 1st of May each year. The beach was sandy, with lots of seaweed from a recent storm.

Beach Huts Near Gooflife Guesthouse in Dovercourt, Harwich

We first headed towards a historical site Cornwallis Battery where there was a walkway into the sea. This had some lovely views and was nice to walk the dog to the end.

Jetty

The Cornwallis Battery was one of six coastal batteries built to defend the port. They built it in 1940 for use as an anti-motor torpedo boat site. They armed it with a twin 6-pounder gun. 282 Battery of the 515 Coast Regiment manned this.

Cornwallis Battery Dovercourt

After a quick browse of the historic site, we headed for a walk on the sandy Dovercourt beach for the dog to enjoy his 2nd time playing in the sand. This was quite pleasant and nice and quiet, as was January and outside of the peak holiday season.

Harwich Waterfront

The Harwich waterfront is nice for a walk, especially after dark. The lights and ambience are really nice. It was an enjoyable place for a dog walk after food out at the pub.

Boats in Harwich

The harbour is also pleasant to have a mooch around and see the boats. There are a few jetties into the sea and you can get up close with the boats. There’s also a lighthouse to see.

Dog Friendly Hotels in Harwich – Goodlife Guesthouse

Disclosure! Keep in mind that some links in these posts are affiliate links. If you click one of them, I may earn a small commission (for which I’m extremely grateful) at no extra cost to you. Thanks for visiting!

The dog friendly GoodLife Guesthouse is a nice place to stay on the Essex coast. Options for dog friendly hotels in Harwich and the nearby area of Essex were quite limited. The GoodLife Guesthouse was a budget place to stay in Dovercourt, a delightful place with a beach nearby.

Goodlife Guest House

On the home leg of our Interrail adventure, we needed to get the ferry back from the continent. The most viable route for us was the Hook of Holland ferry to Harwich in Essex. The ferry was an afternoon one rather than the overnight one we caught on the way. This meant that we would land late. We estimated our departure from the ferry to be about 10 pm. This meant that crossing the UK to Gloucestershire that late via London was not viable.

We had booked to stay at Goodlife as soon as we had confirmed our ferry booking and times. This required a phone call to establish how dog friendly they were. At the same time checked that we could arrive late at night. The call went well. They are dog friendly and get a lot of guests that arrive on the ferry. After checking, we went to an online booking site and paid for our stay.

To find out more about the facilities, read reviews or make a booking SEE HERE. There are many other options for places to stay, including more luxury options. More info…

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