The original plan was to go up to Stonehenge, but because I really want to go there the next time my dad visits, we decided to stay in Salisbury and look at the map once again for some inspiration.
We ended up driving down to the Sandbanks and Poole and stopping by Bournemouth on the way home, so it was quite an exciting day.
Although without a car you might not be able to do all of this in a day, all of the mentioned places are well worth a visit, so I thought I’d share what I enjoyed the most with the different places we went to.
Salisbury, Poole and Bournemouth are all reachable with regular trains from Southampton Central Station.
Salisbury
Salisbury is about an hour away and reminds me a lot of Winchester - so in other words a very nice town. For those who read this blog regularly, you might recall that I was quite astonished by the Winchester Cathedral. Well, let me tell you, Salisbury has a cathedral, and even though I didn’t think it was possible, it is even more astonishing than the one in Winchester!
First of all, one of the four original Magna Cartas from 1215 is preserved in the cathedral and you can have a look at it there. It is all very well-organised with guides to explain every part of the cathedral and answer any questions. Entry is, in principle, free, but most people donate something at the entrance.
Inside Salisbury Cathedral.
At the moment, they have an art exhibition around town,
including inside the cathedral with human rabbits.
Apart from the cathedral, Salisbury has quite a few shops and loads of nice places to have lunch. If you are driving to Salisbury, it takes about 10 minutes more to drive through the New Forest. I’ve written about the New Forest before, so if you fancy meeting a donkey or two, you know which way to drive!
A cute New Forest donkey!
Sandbanks & Poole
To my understanding, Sandbanks is a part of Poole, so this will just go as one. If there is one word to describe it there, it is: WOW! This is about 10-20 minute drive from Bournemouth, so the beach is basically the same, but the difference is that Sandbanks has massive houses on the beach which are a bit of an attraction in themselves.
By the time we had reached the Sandbanks it had gotten cloudy, so we went for a long walk on the beach and around town. However, you can rent a kayak or paddle board so this is the perfect spot to go over the summer. It’s also a nice alternative to Bournemouth and definitely worth the extra 10 minutes train journey.
Sandbanks beach
Bournemouth
Although I’ve been to Bournemouth a couple of times before, I realised I had missed out on something very important: the arcade! I thoroughly enjoyed trying to win myself a selfie stick on the machines, racing cars and playing on the 2p machines.
If you need some inspiration for your next road trip, I hope you found some here!
In other news, Life at Southampton are recruiting new bloggers for next year and the applications close on Monday 16th May. I would strongly encourage any University of Southampton students who might be interested to apply. For myself and the blogging team this year, blogging has been productive procrastination and a good break from all the academic writing we usually do. I know this blog has encouraged and motivated me to go and explore more of Southampton, the south coast and in general all the things the University has to offer – so I hope anyone who likes to write will consider applying!
If you’re a current student, you can find details here!
Alexandra
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