Click here for the Portland photo gallery

The Dive centre Fins use at Portland is Fathom and Blues. They have their own RIBs and dives start from their own pier right outside their offices. The offices have changing rooms with showers for men and women and a small cafeteria and shop to buy emergency supplies and cups of hot tea. They serve hot food to order but last year we spent most lunchtimes in one of the pubs that serve food along the road outside the dive centre.

The RIBs go four times a day in the summer and we book a dive in the morning and one in the afternoon. The lengths of the trips out in the RIB can vary  from 10 minutes to dive the wrecks inside the walls of Portland harbour up to 45 minutes for the more distant dives.

Here's Fathom and Blue list of Dive sites and here's a map of some of the more popular ones.

The Portland Lodge Hotel is about 5 minutes drive away from the dive centre and is a comfortable modern motel style hotel with plenty of parking. There is a larger hotel within walking distance with a restaurant, bar with meals and several other restaurants on Portland itself.

Basic directions to the Portland Lodge B&B. Down the M6 and then M5. Leave the M5 at junction 25 and then follow the A358 through Chard about 13 miles. At Chard turn left onto the A30 toward Crewkerne. You can cut the corner from the A358 to the A30 through small roads. In Crewkerne go around the one way system and leave on the A356 south toward Dorchester. After 16.5 miles the A356 joins the A37. Before Dorchester follow the A37 onto a ring road which continues around Dorchester on the A35 at the next roundabout. Signs should indicate Weymouth by then. After the ring road becomes the A35 at the next roundabout turn right onto the A354 to Weymouth. The A354 goes into Weymouth and past the marina on the river in the town. Follow the A354 which then goes up through the suburbs of Weymouth and turns left at a roundabout. The A354 then passes along the Portland Beach along the top of the causeway across to Portland itself.

At the end of the causeway at the start of Portland there is a long thin roundabout. At the far end of the roundabout the road turns up and left then after a few hundred yards turns sharply right back on itself. Follow the one way system up the steep hill. At the end of the village and one way system the hill curves round to the right and further up through another sharp bend to the left to a roundabout outside the Portland Heights Hotel (not ours!). Take the seond exit and the Portland Lodge is around 400 yards along on the left. There is more car parking in the car park opposite the hotel.