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Witterings and Chichester, what's open?!

7 replies

Choccyjules · 12/05/2013 18:40

We are in West Wittering for a week, three generations of family, including DD aged 4. Amberley Museum only open Weds to Sun and Harbour Park rides not open til half-term :-(
Obviously we have the beach and are making good use of it; I just wondered about other recommendations given the weather? Is a trip to the IOW worth it and would you stay in Cowes if so? Should we have a day at Butlins in Bognor? Is Arundel Castle worth it?
Thank you for any tips. I did read a couple of previous threads on this area but there isn't anything up-to-date.

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LauraShigihara · 12/05/2013 19:19

We live in the area (probably passed you in the beach Grin )

I would definitely recommend the IOW for a day out. We sometimes leave the car in the car park at Southsea, get an all-inclusive ticket for the hovercraft/train/steamtrain and have a lovely old fashioned day out. out.

The hovercraft is a fun way to cross the Solent and you land by the train station. You catch the train to a station in the middle of nowhere (the station staff will know) and that is where you can catch the steam train. It's all rather good old fashioned fun.

The Spinnaker tower is a good day out and so is the Portsmouth dockyard, which are just round the corner from each other. You can see the Warrior and the Victory, (although the Mary Rose is not on view at the moment, sadly). As I recall, the entry price to the dockyard includes a harbour trip, which my DS enjoyed more than anything.

The Southsea part of Portsmouth also has a sea life centre and a lovely flat harbour walk, perfect for pushchairs and bikes.

Chichester is nice, too. Have you tried the Walls Walk? It's fairly easy going and takes about an hour or so to navigate the city.

Petworth isn't too far either - it's NT and very pretty. We often go there at the weekends.

The Weald and Downland Open Air museum is quite near and that's a lovely day out, too. Ducks, a mill, houses to explore and fab walks -what more do you need? Grin

Or you could park down at Itchenor and walk along the harbour path. That's a welly walk though at the moment but you could lure the family on with promises of seals basking when it's quiet...

Or park at the marina and walk around there - it's flat and mostly paved, plus you get to see the boats using the loch to get in and out. My DS is fascinated by it. And part of the walk takes you past the end of the canal, where you can see swans and ducks. We were getting up close and personal with the fluffy little cygnets and ducklings yesterday.

HTH (we love it here as you can probably tell!)

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Choccyjules · 12/05/2013 22:33

Thanks Laura for all this info :-) great to get the local take on stuff. Steam train after boat to IOW looks a good one to attempt.
Wave next time you pass me!

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LauraShigihara · 12/05/2013 22:46

Certainly will wave Grin

Enjoy your holiday!

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Choccyjules · 14/05/2013 16:36

Can you do something about this weather? Wink

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Choccyjules · 14/05/2013 16:39

Hi, which company do you do the hovercraft with? Such a lot out there and not sure of price we should be expecting. Cheers!

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Titsalinabumsquash · 14/05/2013 16:45


I'm in Chichester, there are lots of gardens and the Cathedral in town (and the best cake shop ever! Whipped and Baked)

Portsmouth harbour and Gunwharf Quays are good for a look around too :)
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Choccyjules · 14/05/2013 17:38

some of us spent the day wandering around Chichester today. Lovely shops and did some of the wall walk. Got drenched.
The others went to Portsmouth and 'did' the docks etc.
Apparently it may be sunny on Thursday....

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