Portsmouth sits in the lower half of UK outdoor activity rankings in new study

Outdoor adventure continues to grow in popularity across the UK, with more people seeking easy access to nature, fresh air and active lifestyles. From hiking and cycling to running trails and green open spaces, where you live can make a big difference to how often you get outdoors.

A new study by RVezy ranks the best UK cities for outdoor adventure, based on key factors including hiking trails, parks and play areas, mapped running routes, walking trails, road and mountain biking options, waterfalls, air quality and average annual sunshine hours. Each location was given a total score to reveal the top destinations for outdoor enthusiasts.

Portsmouth ranks 30th overall with a total score of 27.37, placing it in the lower half of the table. While the coastal city offers a compact and accessible urban layout, its overall density of outdoor activity infrastructure is more limited compared with higher-ranked locations. It sits behind many similarly sized cities that provide a broader mix of trails, green spaces and recreational routes.

Day to day, Portsmouth provides a practical but modest network for outdoor activity. It ranks 30th for hiking trails (3.34 per 10,000 people) and 28th for parks and play areas (60.39 per 100,000 people), alongside 30th for mapped running trails (3.82 per 10,000 people) and 30th for walking trails (4.59 per 10,000 people). Cycling infrastructure is more limited, with road biking ranked 41st (0.24 per 10,000 people) and mountain biking at 20th (1.02 per 100,000 people). There are no recorded waterfalls, reflecting its urban and coastal geography rather than inland natural terrain.

Environmental conditions provide some balance to the city’s lower infrastructure ranking. Portsmouth records relatively strong air quality at 8.30 (8th highest in the study) and benefits from 1,772 annual sunshine hours (7th), both of which support consistent year-round outdoor activity despite fewer dedicated trails.

Portsmouth sits well behind leading cities such as Blackburn, Southampton and Slough, where higher densities of trails, parks and recreational routes create far stronger outdoor access. However, it performs ahead of the very lowest-ranked urban areas, where both green space provision and route availability are significantly more restricted. This places Portsmouth in a mid-to-lower tier position, supported by strong environmental conditions, but held back by relatively limited outdoor infrastructure.

List of the best UK cities for outdoor adventure:
Rank Area

1 Blackburn

2 Southampton

3 Slough

4 Wokingham

5 Bury

6 Rochdale

7 Reading

8 Oldham

9 Stockport

10 York

11 Bath

12 Salford

13 Sheffield

14 Brighton and Hove

15 Oxford

16 Gateshead

17 Canterbury

18 Bolton

19 Basingstoke

20 Warrington

21 Barnsley

22 Maidstone

23 Rotherham

24 St Helens

25 Bournemouth

26 Milton Keynes

27 Solihull

28 Colchester

29 Doncaster

30 Portsmouth