another Portsmouth one!

[Onlyforwards]

Catching a ferry tomorrow evening from Portsmouth Harbour (3 teens with me), and I want to leave a good amount of time to arrive - scarred by an experience where a motorway closed because of an accident and we missed the flight!

If we arrive a few hours early, what can we do? We've already done the Mary Rose etc and trying not to spend pointless amounts of money before we've even reached our holiday! Any ideas? Is there anywhere easy to park, have a wander etc and then get over to the terminal?

maybe park up and go to gunwharf quays for any last minute shopping?
This is what we are planning on doing tomorrow, also catching a ferry from Portsmouth in the evening and have left holiday shopping rather close to the line 😂

Go for a walk along the seafront if you don’t want to spend money. Old Portsmouth is lovely to wander around. About 15 minutes from the ferry port.

Yep, Gunwharf Quays for a potter round the shops but it could be expensive depending on budgets..... Plan for dinner somewhere in there? The usual Nandos etc is available there and it's 5mins back to the Continental Ferry Port.

Can you still park at the Ferry Port these days? Then walk over to Commercial Road / down to Gunwharf. It's not the prettiest of areas to walk through, but it's safe enough.

Avoid North End / Buckland.

Thanks so much! So is Gunwharf Quays the old town? Can we easily park and have a bit of a wander around?

Gunwharf is close to the old town, you can easily wander between the two. There is a Millenium trail between them, you follow bricks in the path with a chain link motif on them. Plenty of parking in Gunwharf, it's not the cheapest but I think a lot of the streets around are permit only now. Nice sheltered beach at Old Portsmouth as well as several pubs. Traffic gets busy around Gunwharf though, you may want to keep a close eye on your map app when deciding when to leave. Assuming you mean the continental ferry port not the IOW one which is much closer.

Gunwharf Quays is a big shopping and eating centre, only about 20-25 ish years old, but it's adjacent to Old Portsmouth and the Historic Dockyard areas. Huge underground car park as park of it.