We plan to do the London 7-day tour in May, then spend another week in England to go see relatives in Wales, and finish in Paris for a few days. I'd like to see Portsmouth (particularly the Mary Rose) and/or the Bovington tank museum. Are either of these day-trip options from London (I mean, easy enough to access by train)?
Posted by
Napa, CA
3580 posts
Portsmouth and its various charms is an easy day trip from London. You can even include the Isle of Wight if you fancy a ferry ride to Ryde.
Posted by
Oxford, United Kingdom
5466 posts
Bovington is walkable from Wool station but isn't exactly on the doorstep either. There are 3 buses a day that do the route each way (8 minutes journey).
Posted by
Camano Island, WA, usa
1526 posts
Mary Rose and HMS Victory and the Maritime Museum are well worth the trip to Portsmouth. The image of the Mary Rose is still very vivid in my mind. This is pretty close to Time Travel.
Posted by
Tunbridge Wells
6113 posts
An alternative would be IWM Duxford, which is a great day out and accessible by train (Cambridge or Royston) and taxi from London and includes access to the American Air Museum. Planes from WW1 onward. There are occasional flying weekends, which are very popular.
Posted by
888 posts
We have been to both destinations and spent most of a day at each. We had a car so did not rely on public transportation. Portsmouth is easy to reach from London, as others have said. If you are interested in tanks, the Bovington Tank Museum is the place to be! The Bovington website has instructions on how to get there.
Posted by
OP
Honolulu
14 posts
Thanks for all the replies! I'll add Duxford to my list.
Alex
Posted by
Truro, NS, Canada
3941 posts
I will second Kathleen's recommendation of the Victory, etc...BUT...the Mary Rose is not on view until Summer. It's a shame because I found it way more interesting than I thought I would! (From the website...)
*If you are planning a visit to the Mary Rose Museum between 30th November 2015 and Summer 2016, please be aware that it will be entering a period of partial closure in order for the next chapter in her long and remarkable history to commence. Phase 2 of the Mary Rose Museum build will improve the visitor experience by providing uninterrupted views of the ship from the walkways as well as from the end galleries at all three levels.
During this period the main body of the museum will be closed off, with the hull and the majority of artefacts will not be on public display. However, the Entrance pavilion, Learning Centre, Café and Shop will remain open and there will be a small display for visitors, including a new 10 minute film on the project.*
We go to Portsmouth every trip since my sister lives there. After 5 visits, we finally did the historic dockyards last year. If you decide to do it, make sure to check the website for the historic dockyards. Part of the reason we didn't go before was because of the cost (with our exchange in Canada, it's almost double, so that 32GBP per adult was about $65 each!). I lucked into a weekend special - buy one adult entry, get one free (it was on a weekend in Oct). If you buy the tix in advance, you can save 20%. I thought I might find it boring, but I actually quite enjoyed our day - we didn't even have time for the Submarine museum! And the entry includes a 1 hr boat tour of the harbor.
Posted by
Truro, NS, Canada
3941 posts
Just to add - I purchased the tix the night before we went. For some reason, I couldn't print them at my sister's (either she doesn't have a printer or it wasn't working) and don't have a smart phone. I took a photo of the confirmation email with my ipad and just showed them the photo- easy peasy! (Now I know how to do a screenshot with the ipad, I would just do that now).