A very low-key, hidden museum well worth the visit…read more Docents/tour guides on the HMS ALLIANCE are men who actually served on the boat, so each tour is a bit different as it reflects their own stories and interests. The museum Cafe is very good too - friendly ladies who turn out good fresh sandwiches (may have to ask for the daily specials as they sometimes forget to post the signs!) Easy access when taking the train from London - Ferry across the harbor is right there as you exit the station. Then we recommend walking the promenade from the ferry terminal along the harbor as a pleasant way to arrive at the museum ... and on the walk back, the Coffee One in Gosport makes a great pit stop/refresher before re-boarding the ferry across to Portsmouth for the train back to London.

The featured attraction of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum is the last surviving British…read moresubmarine/u-boat from World War II, the splendid HMS Alliance. While the museum itself is rather small, if nice, the HMS Alliance is a spectacular attraction that alone is worth the trip to Portsmouth. It is part of the tremendous "Portsmouth Historic Dockyard" experience (It also includes the HMS Victory, the HMS M.33 and the HMS Warrior 1860, plus several museums) which offers at least a couple of days worth of exciting sight-seeing for adults as much as more the smaller fry. First things first: If you want to do all of the Portsmouth Harbour attractions in one day (better make it the full day, i.e. 10 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. in the summer and to 5 p.m. in the winter), make sure to book the "all attractions" ticket *ONLINE*, which will save you money: E.g. the single adult ticket costs UKP 32.00 on the door, but just 25.60 online. The Royal Submarine Museum as an individual attraction alone costs UKP 14.00. The museum is accessible either by car (dedicated parking lot) or via the free-of-charge waterbus from Portsmouth Harbour, which is included in the All Attractions ticket. It's a short boat ride (approx. 5 minutes) which I do recommend as it offers a nice view on the various parts of the dockyard and yachting harbor, and of course the spire. The waterbus goes every half hour until noon and then once an hour until 5 p.m. As the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard gets very busy around noon I would recommend that if you spend the day there you should go to the HMS Alliance/Submarine Museum first: The waterbus is small and holds just about 20-25 people. As said before, the Royal Navy Submarine Museum itself is very small (looks large from outside), but it's a nice collection of various items on the subject of submarines, including actual objects retrieved from old ones, but also paintings and documents. All very nicely presented. Visiting the museum shouldn't take more than 30 minutes. The greater attraction is the HMS Alliance. It's a spectacular, physically imposing submarine preserved in its original condition and fully fitted, including torpedo shells. Beautiful! Here's the thing: You can only enter the Alliance by guided tour, and each guided tour includes no more than 8 or so people. As huge as the Alliance may look from outside, on the inside it is a mousetrap. So they make sure that no more than 2 groups are inside the vessel at the same time. When you arrive at the museum you will be given a fixed time for your tour. If you are more than two people it can happen that you will be given a later tour time because the other spots have been filled already. The HMS Alliance is a technical marvel even today - and when you think that the total crew included 70 people you can paint your own mental picture what life on this vessel must have been like. The guides are very well informed - for a reason: They are mostly retired sailors who spent a part of their professional life as a member of a submarine crew. They're also very friendly: Ask them anything! Photography on board is allowed. See my photos to get an impression of the vessel and museum.

This was so interesting and I think very well done!! The staff were all very welcoming and the…read moremuseum was not crowded (we went during the week).

SeaCity Museum is an interesting stopover if you have some extra time in Southampton, but it is far…read morefrom a "must-see" attraction. As far as museums go, it is your typical mid-sized town museum, and certainly not to the scope of the Met or Museum of Natural History or anything of the sort. You're looking at perhaps an hour and a half to two hours tops, so do keep this in mind before forking over your hard earned £12.69 for entrance. The headliner is undoubtedly the Titanic exhibit, which if you are a fan of the history and/or the movie, might lure you in. Southampton is the port where the ship took its inaugural voyage from, so there is an obvious vested interest. However, if you are in town as the starting point for your own cruise, viewing this beforehand might be a bit unsettling. I suppose you could always come after you have returned though. The Titanic display is shown in a storybook format, introducing a smattering of crew members (some important, some random), and there is no mention or connection to the movie. Over the course of the exhibit, we are drawn to the characters, learning their lifestories and trials and tribulations, as if reading a book or watching a film. This is purposely done to invoke a rooting interest in how things ultimately pan out for them. One thing I do find odd is that only this handful of characters is emphasized, with nary a mention of the countless other crew members, nor the passengers. In any event, the storytelling is compelling, and the photographs, artifacts, detailed mock-ups, interactive booths, etc. are just enough to keep visitors entertained and educated, even those who were not huge fans to begin with, such as yours truly. The rest of the museum is much smaller, and mostly about Southampton itself. It is still definitely worth your time though, especially if this is your first time in town. One of the displays showcases the history of the city and its inhabitants over time, and the other focuses more on the transportation aspect in and out of the city, since Southampton has always been a traditional transit hub, be it for commerce or leisure. The detailed model ships are definitely a highlight. The only downer is the head curator being quite rude to guests. Before our time was up, she was barking at visitors to GTFO, and even gave us a countdown to how much time we had remaining. When I made it to the gift shop, she told everyone we had less than a minute, and to hurry up and buy, as if we were in Menace II Society. We understand that she wants to go home, and get back to doing whatever she's got going on, but there is absolutely no need for such a condescending tone to customers who paid good money to be there. It's not as if everyone was just milling about and loitering or anything. Any chance of a sale in their gift shop was completely nullified. The rest of the employees are great, however. They actually gave me that apologetic look, as if they already knew their boss was like this, so I am thankful to them. Fortunately, this didn't completely ruin the wonderful SeaCity Museum experience for me, but it certainly did leave a slight black mark. Cliff's Notes: Check it out of you are a fan of the Titanic (maybe not before your own cruise though) and/or Southampton history. Everyone else should just spend the time exploring Southampton itself instead.

Mary Rose is the most fascinating story presented at the Portsmouth Dockyard. It is done through a…read morevery modern engaging museum, with multimedia introduction and well interpreted artifacts, as well as the huge portion of hull.

This was a highlight of my most recent trip to the U K. My wife and I spent Christmas in London…read morewith our daughter, her husband and our two grandchildren eight and five. My son-in-law and I are history buffs and decided that we had always wanted to see the Victory and Mary Rose so we were going to travel down to Portsmouth, spend the night and see the various ships on display. We all had some misgivings about leaving our comfortable VRBO in London and taking the train to Portsmouth but we did it anyway and we were glad we did. We stayed in the Holiday Inn Express located a short walk from the museum area. You can enter the dock area which houses the Victory, Mary Rose, Warrior, and other museums free but you have to buy a yearly pass to actually visit anything on exhibit. The pass lets you see everything and is well worth the price. The Mary Rose fascinated everyone including the children. The various artifacts give you a real sense of everyday life in the middle of sixteenth century England. The layout was absolutely fantastic. Even the kids enjoyed it. I was less impressed with the Victory. It was not well maintained and the layout wasn't informative. Too bad because the potential is so great. Don't miss the Warrior and the various museums. Our two days there was really not enough time. BTW the new British Aircraft Carrier Queen Elizabeth was there but of course we could not tour her.

An offshoot of the Royal National Armoury collection housing a wide range of cannon and field…read moreartillery from the age of Henry VII through to Saddam Hussains mega cannon . Set in the vast Victorian fortress Fort Nelson which is more than worth a visit itself as a classic example of fortress design . Very good displays . Best of all it's totally free .

This is a great Museum to take the family. The Museum is free and there's plenty of free parking…read more You can explore the ramparts and tunnels, it covers the history of artillery and they have a reasonably priced cafe.

This is a real gem of a museum and much much larger than you think it would be! We made a stop in…read moreWinchester and wandered around and discovered a this hidden military museum. My teens have been studying world history and their interactive displays especially the large Waterloo exhibit (which you can see is painstakingly taken care of) is worth more than the small entrance fee. As American's, the children thought their presentation of the US revolutionary war to be quite eye opening as it's from a perspective they didn't study in school. Additionally, it covers every event in British history including medals, rifles, uniforms, and wonderful photo collections. Stop by, but leave enough time because you will enjoy wandering much longer than you expect to!

The Tudor House and Garden is a museum in the old part of Southampton…read more Built around 1492, the building was a grand house for most of its life until it became a museum in 1912. It has elements from every century since the 15th, as it has been much remodelled over the years. There's a good audio guided tour, which brings it to life. The exhibits are rather eclectic but the house itself includes lovely touches such as Tudor graffiti and floorboards made from 18th Century ship timbers. At the rear is a charming garden, which has been restored to its original Tudor form. Behind that, built into the town's mediaeval walls, is the so-called King John's Palace. Actually a town house belonging to a wealthy merchant built around 1180, it is a very rare example of Norman domestic architecture. The museum has a small shop and a nice modern cafe in the garden - this can be visited without paying for the museum tour. Staff were notably very friendly throughout our visit.

A fun time at the Tudor House and Garden. It has a lot of history here and you get to learn about…read moreit through the videos and the writings all around. They give you a map showing all the rooms and places to visit during your adventure. Overall I thought this was pretty cool and I do believe kids and adults will enjoy it! Don't forget the garden it is beautiful.

The Mid Hants Railway - affectionately known as the "Watercress Line" - is a preserved steam…read morerailway running from Alton to Alresford, near Winchester. It runs through lovely rolling countryside and makes for a great day out for families, with special dining trains, real ale trains, enthusiast days and special family days at Christmas and in the summer. The line was originally opened in 1865, and ran through to Winchester, providing an alternative route to the main line via Basingstoke. The route however was very hilly, as it crosses the North Downs. To railway buffs it was known as the 'Alps' as the line was steeply graded. Even today, Medstead and Four Marks is the highest railway station in the South East, 200m (over 650ft) above sea level. The 'Watercress' tag came from the fact the line runs through an area rich in chalk-land streams, which were perfect for growing Watercress, and this was a major source of business for much of the line's early life. The line was closed beyond Alton in 1973, but was saved by enthusiasts and gradually brought back into service between Alton (the terminus of the mainline service from Waterloo) and the pretty village of Alresford. It has a good selection of steam locomotives, beautifully restored stations, and is staffed largely by friendly volunteers. The HQ of the line is at Ropley, where there is a large depot for preserved steam and diesel locomotives. The line specialises in Southern locomotives but there are British railways standard types there as well. The steep gradients means that trains have to be hauled by relatively large locomotives. Every station has refreshment facilities and a small shop (Alresford has a larger bookshop, also selling model trains and other souvenirs). There are care parks at Alresford and Alton (in the BR station car park - charges apply). The line's website sets out accessibility to wheelchair users.

An amazing place to come with the kids. We came for Thomas the tank day and Their team of…read morevolunteers should be very proud of themselves as everything ran like clock work from beginning to end. It is quite pricey at £36 for two adults if my son was older than 2 it would have been £48! However for what you get like rides on vintage steam trains and lots of fun activities for the children you certainly get good value for the high price. They also have other themed nights such as peppa pig and world war 2. So well worth keeping an eye out for the different events.

We visited Beaulieu as part of my parents' 60th wedding anniversary. What a pleasant surprise. The…read moreNational Motor Museum is great, but there is so much more, be it the vintage bus ride, the monorail, the gardens, the abbey, the secret army exhibition or the house. The restaurant is pretty decent as well. A very enjoyable day for the whole family.

What? Are you serious that no one has reviewed this museum yet?…read more Britain is peppered with small community museums dedicated to one small tiny aspect of some technical or technological achievement that still completely misses the big picture and fails to truly entertain the young. On one such visit, I was directed to the Beaulieu and the National Motor Museum as an example of the best of museumship (tip to francophones out there it is pronounced, "byoo-lee" in case you need to ask directions froma local). I was not disappointed. It is on a very large estate and shares space with one of the many abbeys-come-ruins that have peppered England since the reformation, and a typically beautiful English garden, which we did not partake of on this chilly November day, since the finest of the blushes of summer had long since past. For my part, I've been really enjoying my son's recent rejuvenation since he's been diagnosed with coeliac disease and on a gluten free diet. Our day at the NMM was great fun for him, and evidence of just how well gluten free works for him, as he was running around everywhere, and commenting on virtually every one of the several hundred cars that we saw. "There's a classic Mini." "There's a classic convertable." "That one is a classic Mercedes." Commenting on one of the speed record specimens, "that car goes really really fast." "That's a formula 1 car." And on it went. The ride on the vintage double-decker was a lot of fun, and so was the monorail. If you're at all a fan of Top Gear, you will also like the "World of Top Gear" exhibit which shows some of the more fun inventions of the show like the three limousines, and the pick-up truck that crossed the English channel. It did miss out on the one thing that a museum like this can never have enough of...exhibits you can interact with. There were certainly some, but really, if you have hundreds of classic cars, why not have at least a few that people can climb into and experience for themselves. I would have loved to have sat in one of the several Formula 1 cars, or rally cars, or anything like that for that matter. The one vehicle you got to climb into was an old 1960's doubledecker bus, and even then, you don't even get to go up to the top level. So when all is said and done, the NMM was good, but not great. It's worth the drive if you're not far, but I wouldn't go all the way to Southampton just to visit this museum. And be sure to fill out your gift aid form so that you can go back as much as you want for a year.