Fossil hunting on East Devon's Jurassic Coast has been named one of the UK's top 500 experiences by leading travel experts, Lonely Planet.

In the new ranked list of the most memorable, beautiful, surprising and compelling sights and experiences across Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, the Jurassic Coast was ranked 54.

The entry, entitled Take A Walk With Fossilised Dinosaurs On The Jurassic Coast, reads: "Steven Spielberg got it wrong; never mind some faraway South American island, Jurassic Park should have been shot on the south coast of Devon and Dorset. Once, the whole of this area sat at the bottom of a deep temperate ocean, and the region's rust red sandstone cliffs are brimming with the remains of ancient dinosaurs who died long ago, sank to the ocean floor and became fossilised.

"Giant ammonites, trilobites, plesiosaur bones and even the occasional ichthyosaur have been revealed by the fast-eroding cliffs, and after every high tide or heavy storm, you'll see scores of fossil hunters combing the beaches in search of prehistoric treasure.

"While we can't promise you a T-Rex tooth, we can at least guarantee an entertaining and educational day out. Winter is the best time to come as storms often expose fossils.

The Jurassic Coast is one of a number of Devonshire sights and experiences to be included in the list along with the Ottery St Mary's Flaming Tar Barrels, wild camping on Dartmoor, deer spotting on Exmoor and learning to cook at River Cottage in Axminster.

This is the first time Lonely Planet's community of travel experts have chosen the best sights and experiences and ranked them in order in Lonely Planet's Ultimate United Kingdom Travelist.

To create the list, the Lonely Planet team compiled every highlight from the Lonely Planet guidebooks to Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Every sight, attraction and experience that had caught their writers' attention over the years were included.

Everyone in Lonely Planet's London office, plus 20 leading figures in the country's travel sector, were asked to reveal their favourite spots and experiences before the voting began.

Everybody in Lonely Planet's UK community was then asked to vote for their top 20 experiences.

With hundreds of votes cast, Lonely Planet ended up with a score for each of the 500 experiences in the book.