Wet-Weather Days, Still a Great Holiday: Rainy-Day Activities in the New Forest for Wheelchair Users
Sunshine every day would be our ideal promise during your stay in the New Forest. While Lymington benefits from a sheltered coastal micro-climate, influenced by the Isle of Wight and the surrounding New Forest landscape, it does sometimes rain. Our winters tend to be milder, with fewer severe frosts, and summers are often slightly cooler and more comfortable thanks to coastal wind patterns.
So, on those occasional wet days, we’ve put together some of our favourite wheelchair-accessible rainy-day ideas, all chosen to help you continue enjoying your holiday, whatever the weather.
- Beaulieu National Motor Museum is ideal for a wet-weather day. They offer a generous return-for-free ticket, allowing you to visit again within six days of your first visit, which is perfect if you’d like to come back when the sun is shining. On rainy days you can explore the large indoor museum, enjoy the café, visit the ground floor of Palace House, browse the “We Had One of Those” exhibition, see the screen cars and explore the art gallery.
- St Barbe Museum, Art Gallery and Old School Café in Lymington is a relaxed and welcoming option. Here you can discover more about the history of Lymington and the New Forest, enjoy a changing art programme and browse a well-stocked gift shop. There is parking just around the corner. The café is a favourite with locals, offering table service and everything from toasted teacakes to soup and a roll, jacket potatoes or a gluten-free toastie to help chase away the wet-weather blues.
- New Forest Heritage Centre in Lyndhurst offers the opportunity to learn more about the New Forest, including why the ponies are marked, what pannage is and the rights of commoners, all for free. There are changing exhibitions, an art gallery and a café on site too.
- Watch the waves. Whether you stay inside your car or brave the short dash to the Needles Eye Café , nothing beats enjoying a hot chocolate or cappuccino by the sea while staying dry. From the car park at Milford on Sea you can simply sit in the car and watch the waves roll in, while a friend dashes out for a takeaway or you settle inside the café.
- Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum , just outside New Milton, has over 300 vehicles to enjoy on the lower level, which is level access throughout. The upper level is stair access only, but there is still plenty to see on a wet day, along with a small craft shop and a popular independent café on site.
- A little further afield, you can head to the cultural centre of Southampton for a full day out. Start at the SeaCity Museum , where you can learn all about Southampton’s Titanic story, as the Titanic’s final voyage departed from here. Then continue on to the Southampton City Art Gallery . If you still have time, Westquay Shopping Centre is a convenient stop for shopping essentials, or you can head to the café at IKEA and watch the cruise ships arrive.
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Enjoy a chill day in. Choose a favourite film on Amazon or Netflix, play a board game (we include a couple in the cottage), curl up with a good book or tackle a jigsaw puzzle. There’s even a puzzle swap in the car park of the social club, just out of the drive and turn left, and guests are very welcome to borrow one.
Sometimes the most important holiday moments are the quiet ones, when you take time to reset, to simply be and to watch the raindrops trickle down the glass. - A board game session in a local pub. The Solento Lounge on Lymington High Street has a wheelchair-accessible entrance to the side and runs a regular quiz night on Thursday evenings. They also have a selection of board games and encourage guests to relax and enjoy their space.
- A forest drive and a pub lunch. When the weather is wet, the animals continue grazing in the forest, and if there’s a break between showers the light can be beautiful, often with rainbows on the horizon. You may be very glad you ventured out.
- Garden centres around the New Forest are another good rainy-day option. Many have independent cafés and unexpected finds, from Setley Ridge with its own vineyard and unusual gift shop, to Redcliffe Garden Centre, which has a large emporium hidden out the back. You’ll find everything from local artists’ work to antiques and plenty in between.
