The county town of West Sussex and its only city, Chichester is an attractive market town, which began life as a Roman settlement, and the Roman street plan is still evident in its symmetrical layout. The city has built itself up as one of southern England’s cultural centres, hosting the Chichester Festival in early July with a fairly interesting programme of plays, though the studio theatre is a bit more adventurous. The track for racing horses at Goodwood Park, north of the city, hosts one of England’s most fashionable racing events at the same time. The Gothic cathedral is the main tourist attraction in the city, but two miles west of the town are the restored Roman ruins of Fishbourne, one of the most visited, largest and best-preserved Roman palaces in the country. An audio-visual programme gives a fuller picture of the palace as it was in Roman times.
Covering about 144 square miles the New Forest is one of southern England’s main rural playgrounds. About eight million visitors come here every year to enjoy a breath of fresh air, often after spending hours in traffic jams. The name of the New Forest is misleading, for much of this region’s woodland was cleared long before the Normans came. Some wooded areas still remain and they are around Lyndhurst, “the capital” of the New Forest. To get the best of the region, you need to walk or ride through it, avoiding the places cars can reach. There are 150 miles of car-free gravel roads, making cycling a good idea. The region has ten campsites run by the Forestry Commission, all of them closed between October and Easter. In Lyndhurst you can pick up numerous walking books and natural history guides.