Please sign in to post.

1.5 days in New Forest - no car; where to stay to visit Motor Museum and walk to shops/restaurants

Posted by (Western NC) on

Hi,

I would appreciate any thoughts/suggestions for a September trip: Will be in New Forest area for 1.5 days w/o a car, specifically to visit Beaulieu Motor Museum. Better to stay in Beaulieu, Lyndhurst (or other?)

We arrive LHR late morning, Tues., Sept. 10 - not renting a car, so thinking car service from New Forest area for pickup at LHR.
Plan to visit Motor Museum in Beaulieu on Wednesday.

If we stay in Beaulieu, can we walk to the Motor Museum? Assuming we have time Tuesday late in the day and Wednesday after the Motor Museum, are there a reasonable number of shops, restaurants to check out in Beaulieu?

It looks like Lyndhurst offers more shops, restaurants, etc. I assume we would need to take a cab to/from the Motor Museum and plan time for that if we stay in Lyndhurst.

Any other New Forest towns to consider?

On Thursday we head to Portsmouth by taxi/car service (for quicker travel time vs. public transportation) to allow some time to look around Portsmouth harbor area before taking the ferry to Caen on Friday.

Appreciate any feedback. Thanks much.

Posted by
398 posts

Your issue is going to be transport. Lyndhurst is certainly bigger, and with more variety, but there are no real public transport options to Beaulieu (There are bus connections, but they are very infrequent and indirect. A taxi will cost you up to £20 from Lyndhurst to the motor museum.

You could look at Lymington - there is bus to Beauleiu , although it doesn't run very often (I think the first is at around 10am, thereafter about every 2 hours).
Alternatively, Beauleiu itself , there are hotels and restaurants there. A good side trip in the area is Buckler's hard - a place where they used to build warships in the 18th century.

Posted by
3 posts

Since we don't want to rent a car, I'm really leaning towards staying in Lyndhurst and taking a taxi to Beaulieu for convenience and to get the most out of our short time in the area. Thanks for your insights.

This topic has been automatically closed due to a period of inactivity.