The Tank Museum is situated in the garrison village of Bovington, at the heart of the rural English county of Dorset.
LINSAY RD, BOVINGTON, WAREHAM BH20 6JG
The Tank Museum is in south Dorset near Wareham and is signposted by the Brown tourist signs when approaching from Dorchester, Blandford, Weymouth and Poole.
The Tank Museum is about a 30-minute drive from these locations, about 45 minutes from Bournemouth and Salisbury, and about an hour from Southampton and Yeovil.
There is plenty of free parking on site.
The Tank Museum’s nearest station is Wool (1.5 miles), which is on the South Western Railway mainline from London Waterloo to Weymouth, you can find the timetable here. Trains are frequent in both directions, and whilst it is walkable in about 30 minutes, you may prefer using local taxi company (Garrison Cars, T: 01929 463395) to take you to and from the station. There are also Beryl Bikes you can hire from Wool station.
Please find the bus map here and you can read and download the bus timetable from Friends of Wool Station here. There is a shuttlebus from the station on Special Event days, please see the Tiger Day Autumn bus timetable here.
The Tank Museum are part of the Beryl Bike scheme and bikes can be found in the main car park for visitors to pick up or drop off. Please contact Beryl directly for any questions regarding the service.
A bike rack is also located in the main car park for visitors to lock their own bikes whilst visiting the Museum. Visitors need to bring their own bike locks and leave their bikes at their own risk.
The Tank Museum’s is seasonally served by local bus services – although these are subject to change. Please find the bus map here and you can read and download the bus timetable from Friends of Wool Station here the last day the bus will be running this summer is 31 August. There is a shuttlebus from the station on Special Event days, please see the timetable for Tiger Day Autumn here.
The Tank Museum’s nearest international airports are Southampton and Bristol both approximately an hour and a half from the Museum.
Southampton
From Southampton airport, there are regular trains from Southampton Airport Parkway, less than 100 steps from the airport exit, where you can travel to Wool station. They also have a variety of car hire options – find out more here.
Bristol
From Bristol, you can take the Airport Flyer Express to Bristol Temple Meads station, continuing onto Wool either via Southampton or Dorchester. Find details and book trains here. Alternatively, you can hire a car from the airport – details here.
London Airports
The Museum is also conveniently close to London, meaning journeys from London Gatwick or Heathrow are no problem at all. The Heathrow Express takes you to Paddington, where you can take the tube to Waterloo where there are direct trains to Wool – details here. Similarly, the Gatwick Express takes you straight to Waterloo. Both airports operate car hire services as well. Find details here for Heathrow and here for Gatwick.
Located very close to the South Coast, The Tank Museum has several nearby ferry ports which have transport to France and Spain , including Poole, Portsmouth and Plymouth, and is four hours from Dover. You can also travel by ferry from the Channel Islands to Poole and Portsmouth. All these towns have train stations approximately half an hour away from the port, with Poole running a shuttle bus service. There are also local taxi services who can take you to the town centre.
There is plenty of accommodation in the area, but it does book up fast close to Special Events. If you are using public transport, we recommend looking in Wareham, Dorchester, Weymouth, Poole or Bournemouth, as they are all within 30 minutes on the main train line to Wool.
There are also lots of campsites and caravan sites nearby, you can find a list here. While we have plenty of parking for motorhomes, regrettably we don’t allow overnight parking.
For holiday cottages, Coastal Stays has tonnes of options at discounted prices. We also recommend looking on TripAdvisor, Visit Dorset or Travelodge websites.