First time tourists to Britain - once they've seen a bit of London usually head for cities like Bath, Oxford, Cambridge and York. Nothing wrong with them at all; but Portsmouth on the south coast of England has the history of the British navy which put the "great" into Great Britain. It's where the Allied invasion into Hitler's Europe in 1944 was planned and executed. And it's got fine literary connections too - the great nineteenth century novelist Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth. And there's lots more besides. Portsmouth is one of the UK's great tourism gems once you realise what's there ! This tour just covers the Naval Dockyard attractions...

Photo Victory 2 (5694520616) by Tony Hisgett is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Portsmouth is one of the UK's great historic cities. Overseas tourists usually just think of London and Bath, Oxford and Cambridge. But in my view Portsmouth has some of the best historic sites in the country. We cover the Historic Naval Dockyard with the Mary Rose, HMS Victory, HMS Warrior and the Naval Museum in another tour. This time we are looking at the ancient heart of the city - Old Portsmouth and then the D-Day Museum and on to Victorian novelist Charles Dickens's birthplace...

Photo Old Portsmouth by eNil is licensed under CC BY 2.0