The seaside resort of Bournemouth and the port of Poole dominate the southeast of the county, which is otherwise mostly rural. Poole is home to Tower Park, the largest leisure complex in Europe. The conurbation, though large now, was little more than a small town on Poole quay, surrounded by heathland, in the mid 19th century. Sandbanks, a spit in Poole harbour, has the third-highest land value in the world, but was worthless a century ago.

Blandford St Mary is home to the Badger brewery of Hall and Woodhouse, whilst Weymouth is acknowledged as the first ever holiday resort, used by King George III, and is still a popular seaside resort. Jutting out into the English Channel is the Isle of Portland.

Dorset is famed in literature for being the native county of author and poet Thomas Hardy. Many of the places he describes in his novels in the fictional Wessex are in Dorset. The National Trust own Thomas Hardy's Cottage, in woods east of Dorchester, and Max Gate, his house in Dorchester. Stalbridge was home of Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Poet William Barnes, authors Theodore Francis Powys, John le Carré and P.D. James and satirical novelist Thomas Love Peacock are also locals. The author John Fowles lives in Lyme Regis.