Portsmouth Hotels

Portsmouth is 120km (75mi) southwest of London. There are National Express buses from London (2.5hr), some via Heathrow airport (2.75hr) and continuing to Southampton (50min). Bus 700 runs to Chichester (1hr) and to Brighton (3.5hr; every 30min Mon-Sat; hourly Sun). There are trains every 10 minutes or so from London Victoria (2.5hr) and Waterloo (1.75hr). Trains also go to Southampton (40-55min), Brighton (1.6hr), Winchester (1hr) and Chichester (30-45min). For the Historic Dockyard get off at the final stop, Portsmouth Harbour. If you're inspired by the docks, boat travel is an option from Portsmouth. There are several ways to reach the Isle of Wight from Portsmouth. P&O Ferries sails twice a week to Bilbao (10hr) in Spain. Brittany Ferries has overnight services to St Malo (11hr), Caen (5.5hr) and Cherbourg (3hr) in France. Acciona Transmeditteranea sails to Bilbao several times weekly, and LD Lines has daily overnight ferries to Le Havre (8.5hr) in France. Condor Ferries runs a weekly car-and-passenger service to Cherbourg (5.5hr). The continental Ferryport is north of the Historic Dockyard.

Local Haunts Bus Tours runs sightseeing tours (1.5hr) on old Routemaster buses from the bus station. A number of themed tours are offered by the tourist office, which also rents out self-guided audio tours. Waterbus runs circular harbour tours on the water, dropping off passengers between attractions in the process - the whole circuit takes an hour. Bus 6 operates between the Portsmouth Harbour bus station and South Parade Pier in Southsea via Old Portsmouth. The Gosport Ferry shuttles back and forth between The Hard and Gosport every 10-15min. Aquacars (ph 023 9281 8123) in Southsea run taxis. There's also a taxi stand near the bus station.