Kiddies activities in the Solent

Ruffles

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Planning a week sailing in the Solent at the beginning of June with our 2 small kids ages 1.5 and 4.

Has anyone got any suggestions for activities? The ones I know about are:

Bembridge for the beach
Portsmouth for the museum (+ I want to go to the submarine museum)
IoW for the dinosaur museum (from Bembridge?)
Newtown for general exploring

Any wet weather suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks I A

Rob.
 

jhr

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Yarmouth for a bus to Carisbrooke Castle (kids particularly like the donkey-driven well). You can also get upriver to Freshwater at high tide in a dinghy if you're feeling adventurous.

Anchor off Alum Bay (or bus from Yarmouth) for seriously tacky funfair and chairlift ride to/from the beach. There's also an equally tacky funfair at Southsea which you could combine with a trip to the Portsmouth museums.

If things get really grim, there is Blackgang Chine near Ventnor, which is a rather downmarket theme park which kids love (naturally). Buses from Cowes.

Bucklers Hard, for scenic walk up the river to Beaulieu (about 2 miles) and then visit the National Motor museum.
 

bluepippa

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Newport (Cinema)(TIDAL)
Yarmouth (planetarium and sealife aquarium (5min walk from harbour))
Ocean Village (Cinema)
Ryde (fun fair / train rides / waltzing water etc)(TIDAL)
Littlehampton (fish and chips / train / funfair etc)
Royal Victoria Country Park (train / play area)
Hill Head Sailing Club (nature reserve) (TIDAL)
Beulie (motor museum etc)

Done all of the above with a 3 year old and 6 year old over the last couple of years... depends on the boat ie draught etc, but other options around.....

Have fun
Daryl
 

Clive_Rigden

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Bucklers Hard - boat building village, maritime museum & National Motor Museum at Beaulieu nearby, especially if it's wet.

Studland bay - good anchorage with Poole and Brownsea Island nearby

Carisbrooke Castle near Newport

Osborne Castle between Cowes and Newport (accessible from Osborne Bay??)

Calshot Activities Centre.

Paulton's Park near Romsey (bus ride from Southampton) great for young children.

Southsea funfair

Alum Bay always worth a visit.

have a look at: www.islandbreaks.co.uk
 

BrendanS

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Hurst Castle is well worth a look - great fun watching all the boats going past! and kids love the walk along the shingly beach from Keyhaven. Then there is a little ferry that goes back and forth between Keyhaven and the castle.

If you don't fancy taking your boat into Keyhaven, then in season there is a ferry between Keyhaven and Yarmouth
 

sailorgirl

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My nieces always demand East Head in Chichester Harbour for sun and sand. And why not take a fishing net ashore somewhere - even Eastney Lake (accessible from Southsea Marina) in the heart of the city has provided hours of fun over the years to my own, now grown up, kids.

Sailorgirl
 

tcm

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From experience, i can tell you that in the solent, my kids quite enjoyed being totally and utterly useless, not helping very much, staying up late, making friends just as we were about to leave somewhere, playing football in inappropriate places, wearing roller blades on a pontoon and whizzing along very loudly wake up everyone, buying sweets, generally breaking things, whingeing and moaning depite behing on a nice boat like spoilt brats, dropping valuable tools in a marina and saying nothing, and dropping toys in the marina and making a big scene.

One thing kids *don't* like doing very much is going to cowes, the folly, yarmouth, lymington, bembridge or anywhere else in the solent every weekend or every other weekend for several years. They *might* become slightly less disinterested if you buy a new boat approximately every month as long as you don't do any boring inspection visits, ever. None of this applies if you aren't on board, of course, or if the kids are on someone else's boat, so everyone else says how lucky we are to have kids that are marvellous at nav and cleaning and cooking and v polite too! grr...

Oh, alright then, go to port solent for the cinema and fairly expensive swimming pool. Pootling upriver from yarmouth is a nice doddle trip for very young to drive a dinghy and outboard. East head is nice for making sandpies and a barbecue. Sandown is firmer sand, better for beach where everyone who can walk can play beach hocky - get the big rollerblades hockey sticks or the purple woolworths ones and a ball , mark out a pitch (which can be quite small) and whack away, much better than footy.

My wet weather suggestion is to be ashore and do lots of outdoor activities: this should make boating seem better as it will become associated with nice sunshine.
 

fireball

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East Head is an excellent place

Except when
1) everyone goes there on a very hot sunny day and you can walk across from East Head to Pilsey Perch ...
2) You have managed to secure an anchorage despite the crowds and some dinghy sailor trips over your anchor line with his rudder, causing your boat to start drifting backwards and him to loose his rudder and career into another yacht - causing him to break free too ...
3) When your trying to race your dinghy and the helm is too busy looking for an anchorage
4) When you've forotten the sausages for your BBQ and eveyone else on the beach has theirs /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
5) When you don't take any notice of your depth gauge when anchoring at high tide and wonder why your boat has fallen over a couple of hours later (ignore the charted depth ... those sand banks have SHIFTED ... )

All that aside - East Head is an excellent sandy beach - best sampled mid week when there are less ppl around - do be careful of the strong tide if taking a swim though!!
 

VicS

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Ryde would be a good Base for a spell if it's Ok for your boat as there are amusements nearby and it is the hub for bus servives in the eastern half of the IOW. Down load details of the Southern Vectis Bus services before you go. The buses are not cheap though and some of the rides down narrow country roads are quite exciting.

Another a good centre for the buses is Newport.

Some of the suggestions made are not what you will choose for such young children. People should learn to, not only, RTQ (read the question) but RTFQ (read the full question).

Sandown Zoo
Flamingo Park (Seaview)
Model village (Godshill)
Sea life Centre (Southsea) I didn't know there was one in Yarmouth

When they get older:

the Wax works museum (Brading)
RNLI Inshore lifeboat depot (E Cowes) or has it moved to Poole?
Submarine Museum (adjacent to Haslar) alredy mentioned but beware you have to sit through presentation film first
Victory, Warrior and Mary Rose (Portsmouth)
The Spinnaker tower (Portsmouth) presumably it will open one day! The glass lift and the glass floored observation platform may not be good choices for anyone afraid of heights though.

If you go to one of the main tourist centres you should be able to pick up loads of leaflets and a booklet for attractions on the IOW. There is also an IOW web site which should give you loads of ideas.

Apologies if any of my suggestions are no longer there, my kids are now 22 and 27.
 

Andrew_Fanner

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From Port Solent, Fort Nelson and the Royal Armouries museum. My 3 year old loves it and the older ones think the tunnels are great. Check the web for activity days which are good options. Its also nuppence to get in which offsets the fact that it can be a PITA to get to by public transport.

From any Gosport marina the Firepower! museum at Priddy's Hard is pretty good, again there are some bits specifically aimed at smalls and its a nice stroll along the harbour walkway.

If you are up the Hamble there is a farm museum near Bursledon which has numerous animals for smalls to pet.

Dockyard is pricey but Action Stations is worth the entry cost, plus tickets stay valid for a year.
 
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