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Day Trips from Southampton

We will be in Southampton in May, prior to returning home on the Queen Mary. My husband hates to fly so we've done the crossing before and stayed in Southampton many times. From there, we've visited the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, Winchester, and Salisbury, using public transport. Could you suggest other day trips we might make? We will not have a car, so we will need to rely on public transport. We love the National Trust properties but they Arte often difficult to get to without a car.

Posted by
1084 posts

Chichester is well worth a visit. It’s about an hour by train from Southampton. An impressive cathedral, Fishborne RomanPalace, beautiful gardens associated with the cathedral, boat trips drifting down a canal. There isquite a good video on You Tube about one “of the most under-appreciated cities in England”, I found it by Googling Chichester.

Posted by
5212 posts

It's about an hour drive to Arundel Castle. You could combine it with Fishbourne Palace which I highly recommend.

Posted by
10013 posts

It's about an hour drive to Arundel Castle. You could combine it with Fishbourne Palace which I highly recommend.

Or (as you are on public transport) by train it is just over the hour to Fishbourne (the station is very close to the palace)- every hour at 50 minutes past the hour, change at Havant

Likewise Arundel is about 1 hour 20 minutes by train from Southampton twice an hour- change at Barnham

Posted by
299 posts

Chichester and/or Fishbourne sound lovely. Visited Arundel en route to Southampton and highly recommend it but, this time, want to visit some places we've not been to. Thank you!!

PS. I've also reported Alex (??) as spam - surely AI of some kind since he recommends every place I mentioned I don't want to return to!

Posted by
4615 posts

Check out guides on Toursbylocals.com. They state whether you go by car or public transportation. Another feature I like is that the price is shown so you can budget accordingly. It’s always annoying or disappointing when I’m corresponding with a guide then get a price way out of my budget.

Posted by
8708 posts

If you have an interest in tanks, or WW2 history, the best tank museum in the world is just outside Bovington, a bit more than an hour by train to Wool, then taxi to the museum.

Posted by
299 posts

We're fascinated by WW2 history and visited the museum with our children, who loved it -- haven't been for several (many) years - this may be the time to go back. Thank you!!

Posted by
19 posts

As you are interested in WW2 history there is a great museum in Dorchester (8 miles from the tank museum) called The Military Keep.
Plenty of WW2 history there, including some items you would not expect to see in Dorchester. You can get there easily by train from Southampton central to Dorchester South. It's a 10 minute walk from the station.

Posted by
299 posts

That sounds wonderful! We'll be in Southampton for several days and we have some fabulous day trips to look forward to!