Sunday 17 February 2013

Day out ideas: Beaulieu

UPDATE 23rd JULY 2014: More 112 becomes the Beach Bus and will serve Beaulieu National Motor Museum daily from 26th July until 1st September 2014. For details visit my more recent blog entry and the Beach Bus website.

The National Motor Museum in Beaulieu is well worth a visit, but as you may have guessed, isn't too easy to get to by public transport.


The only bus route serving Beaulieu village and the Motor Museum is the three-day-a-week (thanks to Hampshire County Council cuts in October 2011) More 112 between Hythe and Lymington. Timetable here. This route really is a shadow of its former self, but still offers some useful connections.

To go via Hythe, you'll first need to get over there if you're not already on the Waterside. You could use the Hythe Ferry from Town Quay or go by bus using Bluestar 8 or 9 or First 11, H1 or H2. Solent Travelcard is not valid as far as Beaulieu, so the best value way of doing this is to use Bluestar to get to Hythe and buy a Bluestar Explorer (£8 adult, £5 child, £18 group), which is also valid on More.

More 112 leaves Hythe Ferry Yard at 0907 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays only, arriving at Beaulieu Garage at 0928.


From there, continue along past the garage, turn right into Hatchet Lane and the Motor Museum is 5 minutes walk on the right. To get back to Hythe, you'll need to be back opposite the garage at 1422 to get you back to Hythe Ferry at 1443.

The other option is to go via Lymington, where on its three days of operation, More 112 has some journeys that even run to the museum door. You can get to Lymington by train or by using Bluestar 6 from Southampton or More X1 & X2 from Christchurch or Bournemouth or the 119 from New Milton.


More 112 departs from Lymington Bus Station at 1010 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays only, taking about 36 minutes to get to the museum. There's a later bus at 1220, but you won't be able to get back to Lymington again. It returns from the museum bus stop pictured above at the ridiculously early time of 1303, not much good if you intended to spend the whole day there.

From the end of June, Bluestar and More's New Forest Tour usually runs, offering extra connections to the museum, but until that starts again, you'll have to make do with the 112 or go somewhere else for a day out.

See previous posts (updated for 2014!) for how to get to Paulton's Park or Marwell Zoo by bus.

UPDATE 23rd JULY 2014: More 112 becomes the Beach Bus and will serve Beaulieu National Motor Museum daily from 26th July until 1st September 2014. For details visit my more recent blog entry and the Beach Bus website.

5 comments:

  1. Marwell Zoo is similarly poorly served unless you're prepared to walk from Fishers Pond. It's about a 20-25 minute walk from Fishers Pond and there's no pavement! I wouldn't do it myself let alone with small children, pushchairs etc. who are a major demographic for the zoo.

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  2. I totally agree with Anaonymous, don't even try to get the bus to Marwell Zoo. It would be an absolute nightmare with kids.

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  3. Marwell is served by Velvet M at weekends and bank Holidays during the summer months.There are rumours it may even become seven days a week for 2013.

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  4. Just like a lot of attractions in the area .Very poorly served by public transport and yet this government is always preaching to people to use it. We will when local authorities lay on a decent serice

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