Getting Around Portsmouth: An Overview
Portsmouth is a compact, flat city, and most of the places a visitor wants to see are within easy reach of one another. The city sits largely on Portsea Island, which shapes how you move around it: routes in and out are limited, and the main visitor areas — the Historic Dockyard, Gunwharf Quays, Old Portsmouth, the city centre and Southsea — are strung along a fairly short stretch of the island. That makes walking, local buses and trains between the central stations all practical options.
It helps to learn a few local place names before you arrive, since they come up constantly in directions and on signs:
- The Hard — the area around Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, Gunwharf Quays, and Portsmouth Harbour's train and bus stations.
- Old Portsmouth / Sallyport / Spice Island — around the Anglican Cathedral Square, the Round Tower, Camber Dock and the sea walls.
- Southsea — the seafront area at the southern end of the island, stretching north to include Southsea Town Centre (Palmerston, Elm, Marmion and Albert Roads).
- Commercial Road — the city centre's main shopping and market street, home of the Cascades shopping mall.
- Fratton — north of Southsea and east of Commercial Road, useful mainly for Fratton Park football stadium or changing trains at Fratton station.
Rail
Portsmouth has several mainline railway stations connecting to London and other lines across southern England. For a visitor, the two stations that matter most are Portsmouth & Southsea and Portsmouth Harbour.
- Portsmouth & Southsea — alight here for the city centre shopping area, Portsmouth Guildhall, and a short walk to the seafront.
- Portsmouth Harbour — alight here for the Historic Dockyard, Gunwharf Quays, the Spinnaker Tower, and ferries to the Isle of Wight.
- Fratton — the stop for Fratton Park football stadium.
- Hilsea — in the northeast of the city, serving local industrial estates; most visitors would have no reason to alight unless visiting Portsmouth Rugby Club, and some trains do not stop here.
Services run frequently from London Waterloo, with other major connections including Brighton, Cardiff (via Bath and Bristol), Southampton, and direct trains from Gatwick Airport. When departing, note that the stations can be easy to miss even when you are only a few feet away: Portsmouth Harbour is behind the bus station at The Hard, while Portsmouth & Southsea is at the bottom of Commercial Road, just south of the railway bridge. Fratton is east of the road bridge at the bottom of Fratton Road, north of the roundabout between Victoria Road North and Goldsmith Avenue.
It is also possible to travel between the harbour and the city centre by train — a handy shortcut given how compact the network is.
Buses and Other Public Transport
Several bus companies operate within Portsmouth and the surrounding areas, including First Bus Solent and Stagecoach South. Local routes stretch as far afield as Havant and Southampton.
For visitors, day passes are the simplest way to pay:
- A day travel ticket for First Bus only.
- A Portsmouth City area day pass allowing unlimited travel within the city.
- A wider Hampshire day pass covering the whole county.
National Express coaches travel into The Hard, a few hundred yards from the harbour and Historic Dockyard, with links to many of the country's major cities.
Portsmouth also has a Park & Ride scheme: you park for a reasonable cost and travel by free bus to the city centre and The Hard. The buses run until the early or late evening depending on the day. Cars are not permitted to leave the Park & Ride car parks towards the city — only buses may do so — which keeps residential roads from being used as rat runs.
There is no metro or tram network in Portsmouth; the city's public transport is built around buses, the mainline railway, and ferries.
Taxis and Ride-Hailing
Taxis are easy to come by in Portsmouth. There are two local minicab companies — City Wide Taxis and Aquacars — that can be prebooked, and many actual taxis can be flagged down in the street or found at taxi ranks scattered around the city. Uber also operates in the city.
Walking
Portsmouth is a compact, flat city, and nowhere is a very long walk. Many of the headline sights — the Historic Dockyard, Gunwharf Quays, the Spinnaker Tower, Old Portsmouth and the Southsea seafront — sit within a walkable band, so on a fine day you can cover a lot of ground on foot.
One local tip: at night, if you can find an elevated position, you can navigate by the chain of blue lights along the seafront to the south.
Arriving by Air
Portsmouth formerly had its own airport, Portsmouth Airport, but it closed in 1973, so the nearest airport today is Southampton Airport (SOU), around 20 miles (32 km) away in Eastleigh. It serves a wide range of European and domestic destinations.
From Southampton Airport, the simplest way into Portsmouth is by train: travel from Southampton Airport Parkway and change at either Southampton Central or Eastleigh.
Arriving by Boat
Portsmouth is a waterfront city, and ferries are a genuine part of how people arrive and move around. Cross-Channel services operate from Portsmouth International Port at the end of the M275 motorway, with routes from ports in Normandy and Brittany in France, from northern Spain, and from the Channel Islands.
Closer to home, local ferry services are useful for day trips:
- Isle of Wight — ferries and a hovercraft cross from Portsmouth; the crossing is under an hour by ferry or around ten minutes by hovercraft. The world's only regular hovercraft service runs from Southsea Hoverport to Ryde.
- Gosport — the Gosport Ferry runs frequently through the day until midnight and docks at the transport hub by Portsmouth Harbour station.
- Hayling Island — the Hayling Ferry is a foot and cyclist ferry from Ferry Point on Hayling Island to Eastney, typically running hourly.
Arriving by Car
Portsmouth is accessible by car via the M275, M27 and A27; from London, take the A3 or M3 south. Because the city is largely on an island, routes in and out are limited and congestion can be a problem, especially at rush hour. Most residential roads have a 20 mph speed limit.
Parking is plentiful on the street and in pay-and-display car parks. The city centre and Gunwharf Quays both have multi-storey car parks, and Southsea has on-street parking. Some roads have time limits on parking for non-residents, enforceable around the clock, so check signs carefully. If you stroll a little away from the city centre and tourist hot spots — sometimes just around the corner in Southsea — you can often find free or time-limited parking. Motorcycles can park without a resident's permit and within marked bays, and Gunwharf Quays has a dedicated motorcycle bay in its underground car park.