Greetings! Thank you in advance for your help. My wife and I will be taking the morning Brittany ferry from Portsmouth to Caen. We will take the train down from London the day before. I would like to walk to a hotel from the station as we plan to look around the harbor area in the afternoon. I suppose we need a taxi the next morning to the ferry terminal.The hotels I have found get terrible reviews. If anyone has a good hotel to suggest in this area, I would appreciate the information.
By the way, we have taken the Eurostar to Paris several times, so we are taking the ferry for the adventure and we are touring Normandy and Brittany by car from Caen.
Posted by
Loudoun County, Va., USA
220 posts
My wife and I stayed at the Royal Maritime Club in Portsmouth last April. It is rather basic, but the room was clean and the bed was comfortable. Cost was L75, inclcuding a fantastic breakfast buffet.
The club is a place where merchant sailors stay, so it isn't all that high-class. But for the price, it was great!
Posted by
Used to be Steilacoom, now it’s Las Vegas
2296 posts
There isn't much to choose from in that area, but we've stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, Gunwharf Quay on both our trips. You can walk to it easily from the train and it's convenient for exploring the harbor. You probably won't have time, but Portsmouth has a wonderful WWII museum. It's not huge but it has well informed guards and an amazing tapestry ala the famous Bayeux tapestry, but with a WWII theme
Posted by
Kansas
1175 posts
You might contact Fortitude Cottage. We stayed right next door in a simple B&B that is no longer operating. There are several great pubs nearbythe Still and West and Spice Island Inn. We walked to the famous British sights including the HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar. Lots of British naval history within walking distance. We then took a cab to the ferry terminal the next morning and crossed over to Quistreham. There is a bus from there into the Caen RR station, about 10 miles, and the rental car shops are right across the street. We had also done the Eurostar many times to Paris and did the same trip by ferry to Normandy and picked up our rental car at Caen. We stayed a a great B&B just outside Villers-Bocage, about 10 miles from Bayeux and drove all over, including Mont St. Michel. It was great driving when and where we wanted. One of our best trips. You might check out www.aquacars.co.uk based in Portsmouth. They fetched us from Heathrow and took us directly to our B&B in Portsmouth for less money than 2 train tickets, not to mention the door to door convenience. Get to Portsmouth early and spend a great day at all the waterfront sights. More up to date info is on tripadvisor.com, Portsmouth forum.