Things to do in Portsmouth

Landmark · Portsmouth Harbour, beside the Hard

Henry VIII's flagship the Mary Rose, raised from the Solent in 1982; Nelson's HMS Victory; and HMS Warrior, the first iron-hulled armoured warship — three ships, four centuries, one working naval base around them.

Local tip: Henry VII built the world's first dry dock here in 1495, which is why a modern fleet base and a Tudor wreck share a wall. Buy the annual ticket rather than the day ticket — it costs barely more, and nobody sees the Mary Rose, Victory, Warrior and the harbour tour properly in one day. The dockyard is still operational, so a carrier moving is a routine reason for a gate to close.

Neighborhood · The harbour mouth, twenty minutes' walk from the centre

The oldest part of the city — cobbles, the Camber dock, two Tudor artillery towers and the Hot Walls, where the harbour narrows to a few hundred metres and every ship in the fleet passes within touching distance.

Local tip: Stand on the Round Tower when something big is sailing; ship movements are published in advance and people plan their evening around them. The Point pubs — the Still and West, the Spice Island — look straight down the harbour mouth. This is also where the fishing boats still land, which is why the Camber smells of a working dock rather than a marina.

Culture · The southern shore of the island

Two miles of shingle beach and open common, with Henry VIII's Southsea Castle in the middle of it and the museum that holds the Overlord Embroidery at the eastern end.

Local tip: Southsea Common is open because the Army cleared it in the 1800s to give the fortifications a field of fire, which is why a dense city has a vast green space on its seafront. The Mary Rose sank in 1545 in view of Southsea Castle, with Henry VIII reportedly watching. The D-Day Story is the serious one of the seafront museums — the invasion sailed from these beaches and from Gosport across the water.

Food · Southsea, a mile east of the city centre

The city's actual high street for eating and drinking — independent kitchens, a good record shop, two theatres, the Wedgewood Rooms, and none of the chains that fill Commercial Road.

Local tip: This is where people who live here go, and it is a completely different city from Gunwharf Quays. The Wedgewood Rooms has been the room touring bands play in Portsmouth for decades. Start at the Kings Theatre end and walk east; the further from Palmerston Road you get, the better the value.

Nature · The chalk ridge above Cosham, four miles north

A long chalk escarpment with a chain of 1860s forts built to defend the dockyard from a French attack that never came, and the only place you can see the whole island, the harbour and the Isle of Wight at once.

Local tip: The forts were nicknamed Palmerston's Follies because they face inland, away from the sea — they were built against an invasion landing further along the coast. Fort Nelson holds the Royal Armouries artillery collection and is free. Go up at dusk when a carrier is alongside; the view of the harbour lit up is the single best free thing in Portsmouth and almost no visitor ever does it.

Nightlife · City centre around the Guildhall, plus Albert Road

The student and going-out core around the Guildhall and the university, with the smaller, better live rooms — the Wedgewood Rooms, the Edge of the Wedge — out in Southsea.

Local tip: Guildhall Walk is the loud, cheap, term-time end of the city's nightlife and it is genuinely busy on a Wednesday. If that is not what you want, everything good happens in Southsea instead. The Guildhall itself was gutted in the 1941 blitz and rebuilt behind its surviving facade, which is why the front and the inside do not match.