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Portsmouth Travel Guide

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For other places with the same name, see Portsmouth (disambiguation).

Portsmouth [1] (pronounced "ports-muth") is a city that is well worth a visit for those interested in British Naval history or British history in general. It is on the south coast of England, close to Southampton and The Isle of Wight. Population 190,000.

Contents

Understand

It is has a number of beaches and a Dunkirk memorial, but by far the biggest attraction is the Historic Dockyard.

Portsmouth has a university, so it has a largish population of younger people (and several internet cafes).

Get in

Portsmouth can be reached by train from London, by motorway from anywhere in England and by ferry from France and Spain.

By plane

Nearest airport is Southampton Airport [2], located around 20 miles from Portsmouth in Eastleigh. There is a regular train service from Southampton airport train station (Parkway) to Portsmouth.

By train

Portsmouth is on the National Rail network. Direct trains from London take about 90 minutes from London Waterloo, a cheap day single is about £21. Other major services include Brighton (1 hour 40 minutes), Cardiff (3 hours 10 minutes) via Bath and Bristol; and Southampton (1 hour).

Alight at Portsmouth Harbour for the Historic Dockyard, Gunwarf Quays, Ferries to the Isle of Wight. Alight at Portsmouth & Southsea for Portsmouth City Centre. Alight at Fratton for the football stadium

By car

Portsmouth is easily accessible by car via the M275 motorway with joins the M27 and A27. From London take the A3 or M3 south.

Parking is plentiful both on street (about £1/hr) and in pay and display car parks. The city centre and gunwharf both have pay and display car parks, and Southsea has on-street parking.

If you stroll a little away from the centre and hot spots (sometimes just around the corner in Southsea), parking can be found for free or in time-limited bays. Motorcycles can be parked on pavements and within the marked bays. Whilst parking on pavements is not strictly legal, it is rare to be ticketed for it.

If you're visiting the University then you can obtain day car passes from University House. The car parks are very busy during term-time however.

The city can be busy around rush hour but not too much so.

By bus

Local bus routes stretch as far afield as Havant and Southampton. Day passes can be had for about £3.50 which allow you unlimited travel.

National Express travels into the Hard (few hundred yards from harbour and historic dockyard) with links to many of the country's major cities.

By boat

There are ferry services from four ports in France as well as Bilbao in Spain.

There are also services to the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey.

  • Guernsey
    • Condor Ferries/1 daily/6hrs30min
  • Jersey
    • Condor Ferries/1 daily/10hrs30min

The Isle of Wight is a under an hour's journey by ferry or a few minutes by hovercraft.

The ferry to Gosport (for Submarine and Explosion museums) runs every 7 minutes at peak times and every 15 minutes at other times until midnight. Cost is £1.60 return.

Get around

Several bus companies operate within Portsmouth and the surrounding areas. A day travel ticket can be bought for £3 (£2.40 concessions). It is also possible to travel between the harbour and the city centre using the train. It is a compact city however and nowhere is a very long walk.

See

  • The Historic Dockyard [3] - located in the naval base, the Historic Dockyard has a number of historic ships including the Mary Rose, HMS Victory and HMS Warrior. In the Historic Dockyard there is also Royal Naval Museum and Action Stations, which is aimed at younger visitors. There is a great old pub outside of Dockyards called the Ship Anson, worth a try.
    • Mary Rose [4]
    • HMS Victory [5]
    • HMS Warrior [6]
  • The Spinnaker Tower [7], Gunwharf Quays, open Mo-Sa from 10am, Su from 11am, admission adult £4.95, child £4, concessions £4.50, family £16- this striking and highly-visible £21 million landmark tower rises some 170 m above the redeveloping harbour of Portsmouth, symbolising the wind filling a spinnaker sail... Visitors can use the tower to view from 3 levels: at 100m, 105m and 115m - one slow panoramic lift and a high speed internal lift assist with access.
  • Southsea Castle
  • Southsea Seafront
  • Royal Marines Museum
  • D Day Museum
  • Sea Life Centre
  • Southsea model village
  • Southsea Rose garden
  • Charles Dickens Birthplace
  • Cumberland House Museum
  • City Museum

Do

  • Clarence Pier - A small fairground close to the Hoverport with some rides and amusement arcades, if you like the classic English tat.
  • Relax on Southsea Common

If you like a bit of night life there are three parts of town you should visit;

  • The Gunwharf is a great upscale place to eat and drink but can be a little pricey- but the clubs are becoming more dodgy whilst still being expensive
  • Albert Road is the student part of town where adventures and Indian restruaunts abound.
  • The lesser known but nicer is Palmerston Road by the Commons (grassy areas) in south Portsmouth has some nice bars and resturants. Some nice restaurants, but the bars/pubs and Chicago Rock aren't the best.

Learn

The University of Portsmouth is a modern university with a population of about 20,000 students.

Buy

  • Portsmouth City Centre - Usual high street names (Dixons, Top Shop, WHSmith)
  • Gunwarf Quays - A recent developement that boast many factory outlets for major names at reduced prices. The casino is nice as well.
  • Southsea Shopping Centre - A variety of small specialist shops, boutiques, art shops, delis, home furnishings. Also Debenhams, Knight & Lee
  • Albert Road - A good bet for smaller (non-chainstore) shops, second hand goods, antiques.

Eat

Portsmouth and Southsea have literally hundreds of restaurants catering to all tastes. Further out towards Fareham, the marina Port Solent offers a variety of restaurants in a pleasant environment with a multiplex movie theatre nearby.

Some of the best include:

  • A Fistful of Tacos - Mexican (Albert Road) is rather overpriced and not incredible; is the only Mexican to be found in this town.
  • Yellow River - Oriental (Gunwarf Quays)
  • Rosie's Vineyard - French/Modern European (Elm Grove) Excellent!! Wonderfull wine selection food and atmosphere. http://www.rosies-vineyard.co.uk/
  • Sur La Mer - French (Palmerston Road)
  • The American Bar - Modern European (Old Portsmouth) Also great but you can drop a lot of money in this place. Does have great service!
  • Regal House (Chinese Takeaway)

Best places for curry:

  • Golden Curry (Albert Road)
  • Jaipur (Albert Road)
  • Saffron (Fratton Road)

A really great place for a light lunch is a small cafe by the mini golf course behind the sea wall at the eastern end of beach past the eastern pier. It is called the 10th hole and serves lovely salads and main courses. Its main highlight are the cakes which are home made and simply fantastic.

Drink

Hole in the Wall

The Wine Vaults (Albert Road) good cask ales

One Eyed Dog (Albert Road) has free pool

The Registy , a student pub with cheap beer and cheap food. Not a place for a quite drink.

Sleep

There is one hostel in Southsea called the southsea backpackers http://www.portsmouthbackpackers.co.uk/ not easy to get to but is cheap and friendly

Also good is the Ibis near the Southsea trainstation

Stay safe

Get out

  • Portchester Castle - about 5 miles from Portsmouth, this is NOT (as earlier published) the site of the first landings by the Romans in the UK, but nearby is the site of an important Roman-Celtic villa. The castle's keep was built in Norman times (largely from recycled Roman brick) and extensive late Roman structures remain although ruinous. The original church is still in use and is popular in summer for weddings.
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