Mary rose and hms

The Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth is genuinely one of those places that stops you in your tracks. Walking into the main hall and seeing Henry VIII's warship - raised from the Solent in 1982 after 437 years underwater - is properly spectacular. The ship itself is the star: a Tudor vessel frozen in time, with cannons still loaded, timbers dark and dripping, personal belongings scattered across the gun decks exactly as sailors left them when she capsized in 1545.

It's housed in Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard, about 20 miles west of Pevensey, so worth combining with a broader coastal visit. You'll need a good two to three hours to do it justice - longer if you're into the detail. The museum layers stories brilliantly: you see the archaeology, the forensic reconstruction work, and artefacts that make the crew feel real - a wooden comb, a shoe, dice. Kids aged eight upwards tend to engage well; younger ones find it a bit heavy going.

If you're based at Pevensey Bay Holiday Park or Warren Wood Country Park - both decent spots for a Sussex break - Portsmouth's only a short drive. The Mary Rose justifies the trip on its own, though you'd likely spend a full day in the dockyard exploring HMS Victory and the naval museum alongside it. Entry isn't free, but it's reasonable. Go mid-week if you can; weekends draw crowds and the narrow gun decks get claustrophobic. Weather doesn't matter since you're indoors the whole time, so winter's actually ideal.