Airstreams near Hayling Island with horseback riding
Try a seaside escape near Portsmouth with a big sandy resort beach and first-rate watersports.
- Hayling Island
Popular camping styles for Hayling Island
Top airstreams sites near hayling island with horseback riding
Airstreams near Hayling Island with horseback riding guide
Overview
Jutting out into the Solent, the body of water separating the big Southern England port of Portsmouth from the Isle of Wight, Hayling Island represents something of an outdoor escape from the city. Sandwiched between Langstone and Chichester harbours, there is a seaside resort feel to the beach on Hayling’s south coast, with holiday villages, a seaside railway, and top-notch watersports (British windsurfing purportedly began in this very spot). A ferry pulls in holidaymakers from Portsmouth, many of whom use a scattering of campsites in the centre of the island one to three miles back from the south coast.
Where to go
Hayling Bay
Hayling Island is roughly hammerhead-shaped, and the hammerhead itself forms Hayling Island Beach, a broad, grass-backed edge of sand along the bay. A promenade, amusements, beach huts, a seaside railway, a pitch and putt, and a golf course feature among the attractions—not to mention some of the best watersports on the south coast of England. A nature reserve sits at the east, while the west end sports gorgeous dunes. The closest you’ll get to camping is in a static caravan park; the island campsites are a few miles north.
Fleet & Around
The village of Fleet on Hayling Island is the place for camping, with a trio of campsites. There is also delightful, easy coastal walking along the Shipwrights Way via the sand flats of the island’s west coast and out to the dunes clustered close to where the ferry from Portsmouth arrives. The campsites are all situated within just a few miles of sandy Hayling Island Beach and its watersports.
West & East Wittering
West Wittering and East Wittering await east across Chichester Harbour from Hayling Island, on a bulbous peninsula southwest of Chichester in West Sussex. These large and popular coastal villages sport the region’s best selection of campsites. A big band of sandy beach begins at West Wittering and runs southeast past East Wittering along Bracklesham Bay, one of the UK’s best locales for learning to surf in relative shelter.
South Downs National Park
Hayling Island camping is also convenient for discovering South Downs National Park, the boundary of which is only five miles north of the island at Rowland’s Castle. The popular South Downs are an 87-mile-long chain of grassy, chalky downland, where the South Downs Way traverses the range east to west. The Harting Downs area is a beautiful spot to begin explorations, and camping can be found just north near Elsted.
