Chichester or ?

Chichester is a very nice small city with a good range of shops snd restaurants and a lovely cathedral. For some reason it’s not on the overseas tourist radar as much as some other cathedral cities, but it’s a very nice place to spend a few days. The Festival Theatre is excellent and always has good productions.

Getting to Portsmouth by train is very easy, although you may need to make a simple change at Cosham to get a train going into Portsmouth Harbour station - the historic dockyard is just a stone’s throw from there, and Victory and the Mary Rose Museum are well worth seeing.

I visited Fishbourne Roman Palace many times as a child, and it really is excellent. You can get a train or bus from Chichester itself.

I hear nice things about Arundel although I’ve never been.

Other recommended places:

The pretty little coastal village of Bosham is just a short bus ride away. There’s not much there but it’s extremely picturesque (watch for tides!).

The Weald and Downland Museum - an open air museum of old houses and farm buildings, where they film The Repair Shop. The website has instructions on how to get there by public transport.
https://www.wealddown.co.uk/
Half-price entry if you travel by bus!

You can use Traveline http://www.traveline.info/ to plane your public transport journeys. It’s not at all bad around Chichester.

I hope this helps. It’s a lovely part of the world.

Chichester is a good option for public transport, it is a main hub for buses and a choice of rail. I tend to eat out and shop at Chichester rather than Portsmouth because it's easier and faster for me to drive to Chichester than it is into central Portsmouth. There's plenty of choice for hotels although I have no specific recommendations for any as I've never needed to stay there.

Along with the options you've already listed (which are good choices) you might also like to consider visiting Winchester which is easily reached by train and if you have an interest in Iron/Bronze Age history you might be interested in Butser Ancient Farm www.butserancientfarm.co.uk which can be reached by bus from Chichester.

We visited a few years ago with a similar itinerary using only public transportation. It's a nice town and would indeed be a good base for the places you mentioned. We did a day trip with the bus to visit Fishbourne (bus stop at the cathedral was more convenient for us than walking to the train station). If they still offer the "behind the scenes" tour there, I would highly recommend that as it was the highlight of our visit. Very helpful and informative staff/volunteers who are working hard despite the financial difficulties the site has faced. As mentioned, if the weather is nice, definitely try to visit the coastal areas nearby (Chichester Harbour) - you can even walk to Bosham from Fishbourne or Chichester center.

We also stayed overnight in Arundel on that trip - a smaller, charming riverside town with beautiful South Downs scenery and also on the line to/from Gatwick. I personally preferred staying here, but for the activities you mentioned, Chichester is a more practical and central option. I'd often seen the castle from the train and wanted to go - a bit expensive but it was impressive and I enjoyed our visit. Hopefully the gardens will still be worth visiting in October, as those were a highlight for us. The train station is about a 15 min walk from town and there's also a bus from Chichester on weekdays that goes directly into Arundel center (doesn't run late though, if memory serves). Even if you just visit for the day, I can highly recommend the Swan Hotel, which in addition to nice rooms also has an excellent pub offering good breakfast, lunch and dinner. Close to the bus stops and 10-12 min walk from the train station.

Edit: to fix above, should be bus from Chichester to Arundel (not from Portsmouth!) - sorry, had too many place names in my head :)

I am loving this post and answers since I plan to stay several nights in Winchester the first part of November (coming from Brighton). I had planned just a stop in Chichester on the way to an overnight in Portsmouth. Maybe I will reconsider!

Golden Girl, JC, Hopper, Thank you so much for the great tips. This sounds like it could be a good option for me and it looks like there is plenty to do.

TexasTravelMom, I visited Winchester back in 2018 and enjoyed it. I stayed at the Wykeham Arms which was in a great loxation just behind the Cathedral.

Emsworth is also a very cute town with a nice walk along the breakfront overlooking the solent.

Emsworth is also a very cute town with a nice walk along the breakfront overlooking the solent.

And it has a superb restaurant, Fat Olives www.fatolives.co.uk

Thanks Moakes and JC.

JC, any restaurant recommendations in Chichester itself?

The Ivy has just opened in Chichester https://theivychichester.com, it's a gorgeous restaurant, worth visiting for the decor alone. Can be quite busy so book ahead if you want to go, I had the veal sirloin the last time with a fantastic pommes aligot.

The Crate and Apple https://crateandapple.co.uk is a great pub in the centre of Chichester. It serves very good food, most of it more suited to a restaurant than a pub although they also serve pub classics such as ham, egg and chips and bangers and mash.

If you fancy Turkish then Reina Kitchen https://reinakitchen.co.uk is widely recommended as one of the best places to eat in Chichester. Excellent, authentic Turkish food.

Thanks JC.

Chichester and the area is wonderful.
Don’t miss Bosham, as Golden Girl mentioned, i loved it, super charming.
Arundel is fabulous. Yes to Emsworth.

Don’t know about public transportation to these places but Goodwood House,
Petworth and Petworth House, and Stanted Park House and gardens are wonderful.

You might need more days in Chichester, lol.

I’ll be there in a few weeks. Visiting dear friends that have a house on the beach in Pagham.

JC, thank you for the restaurant recommendations. The Ivy looks very good, will make a reservation.