Portsmouth is one of the easier cities in the south for a family day out. Everything sits close together, the seafront is made for running off energy, and when the weather turns there is a solid bench of indoor options within a short drive. Whether you have a toddler, a pack of over-tens or a mix of ages to keep happy, here is how to fill a day in Portsmouth with the children in tow.
Out in the fresh air
The Southsea front is the first port of call on a dry day. The beach is shingle rather than sand, so bring something to sit on, but the shallows are gentle, there is miles of flat promenade for scooters and bikes, and the paddling pool and splash park near Canoe Lake are a hit in summer. The lake itself has swan pedalos to hire, and the model village and funfair rides at Clarence Pier are both a two-minute walk away.
For a proper green run-around away from the traffic, the parks are free and plentiful, and a bag of bread for the ducks at Canoe Lake buys a surprising amount of goodwill. On a bright afternoon you can easily string the beach, the lake and an ice cream into a full day without opening your wallet much at all.
When the weather turns
Rain is where Portsmouth quietly excels for families. The city has a strong run of indoor play, from the big soft play and trampoline parks to a couple of lanes of ten-pin bowling at Gunwharf, both of which burn off a wet afternoon nicely. The leisure centres and pools, the Pyramids on the seafront chief among them with its flumes and wave machine, are the classic rainy-day fallback.
At the Historic Dockyard, Action Stations is an indoor hangar of climbing, interactive naval gadgets and a cinema, aimed squarely at keeping children busy, and it comes bundled with the Historic Dockyard ticket that also gets you aboard the great ships. Indoor crazy golf and the escape rooms round out the wet-weather list for older ones.
Animals, fish and butterflies
Children and animals are a safe bet, and Portsmouth has a few. The Blue Reef Aquarium on the seafront walks you through an underwater tunnel with rays and sharks overhead, small enough to do in an hour but memorable for it. Up the road at Cumberland House, the free Natural History Museum has a walk-through butterfly house from May to September that toddlers adore, and it costs nothing to get in. For a bigger day, the farm parks and country parks just outside the city, Staunton among them, add animals and adventure playgrounds to the mix.
For older kids and teenagers
Teenagers are a tougher crowd, but the city has the goods. The glass floor at the top of the Spinnaker Tower is a dare worth the ticket, and go-karting just across the harbour at Gosport gives them something to be competitive about. Crazy golf and the escape rooms suit a group, and the D-Day Story museum lands well with the history-minded, its landing craft and veterans’ voices more gripping in person than any textbook.
Making a day of it
The trick with Portsmouth is to pair an outdoor hour with an indoor one, so a surprise shower never ends the day. A morning at the aquarium and the butterfly house, lunch on the seafront and an afternoon at the Dockyard or the Pyramids is about as much as small legs will take. Most of the big attractions cluster along the Southsea seafront or at Gunwharf, both easy to reach by bus or on foot, so you rarely have to move the car to go from one to the next. Pack a change of clothes for the beach, and let the city tire them out.
