Isle of Wight September Holiday

The last time we came to the Isle of Wight was over 20 years ago when the children were young. So this time being just us, we were able to explore and enjoy more of the hidden treasures that the Island has to offer. We travelled on the ferry from Lymington to Yarmouth.

We had two weeks here in our Motorhome and it was wonderful, We visited many places and I took dozens of photographs of all sorts of things, so I have also made a new Board on Pinterest to let you see some more of them, (WILL ADD MORE OVER THE NEXT WEEK) and written about them too….
The weather was pretty good, our first week was warm & sunny every day, second week we had Sunday all day rain, but then after it was just a matter of dodging the showers.
We became members of English Heritage while we were here as Osborne House etc is theirs and I had looked at prices beforehand and it worked out more beneficial for us to join, then we could visit all the places on the Island & also start exploring places here once we got back home, and a big bonus was that joining at Carisbrooke as we did, we got 15 months membership for our price of 12 months!
A few facts about the Isle of Wight : The population is about 141,000. It covers about 148 square miles, has about 490 miles of roads to all the main towns and also all the lovely villages, it also has over 200 miles of cycle ways and many miles of fabulous walks if you are a walker, the Isle of Wight Coastal path alone is about 68 miles……….
Whatever your interests I feel sure you will find something here to enjoy during your holiday, there are many main tourist attractions, the most well known being the Needles

and Osborne House,

and the Bembridge Windmill

but there are also many not so well known like Quarr Abbey

and St Catherines Oratory, up St Catherines Hill known as “The Pepperpot”

The views from the top are magnificent !
….for Adults and children alike there is something for everyone here, including the gorgous Sandy beaches on the south coast at Sandown.

Also the great thing is wherever you choose to stay on the Island nowhere is too far to go to spend the day. We loved our time here and have still much to see and do, so have promised ourselves to return again next year, to tick a few more places off our list to visit.
Main Towns are Newport, Cowes, East Cowes, Ryde, Shanklin, Sandown and Ventnor, lots of villages well worth seeing like Bembridge, Brighstone, Godshill, Brading lots with hidden treasures, so when you are walking round the towns & villages, don’t forget to pay a visit to the local Churches, this is All Saints’ at Godshill

and also look up when you are walking the High Streets, some of the architecture is great

(I took this photo in Ryde)
& you will find a few surprising things too.This lady is in Brading.

There are Museums and lots of places of interest for the History lover..

The superb interior of the St Nicholas-in-Castro at Carisbrooke Castle

Bedroom in Carisbrooke Castle (the Constables Chamber)
For lovers of Wildlife there are Nature reserves and lots of countryside to enjoy, no Grey Squirrels here only Red and we saw 3 while we were here! and they are flourishing.
Most places we went you can get a cuppa or more if you want, take aways and Fish & Chip shops or if you are self catering like we were, they do have some of the major companies with big supermarkets now & retail parks with the shops like PC World, M & S and McDonalds etc… There are still lots of wonderful local shops too, do try them, we found some great little bakery shops.
The Island is big on sports of all kind, Football, Rugby, Speedway, Hockey, Marathon running and of course Rowing , Sailing, Windsurfing, Kite-Surfing & Cycling and of course the Island Games, a friendly biennial international event.
The Island enjoys Car Booting too, just like us, but they are much smaller affairs. We went to a few and got some nice bargains. There are also lots of Charity shops about too for those that like a browse.
Accomodation…Well I can’t speak from experience about the Hotels and Guest houses, but there are plenty about, also self catering Bungalows, Caravans, Chalets and lots of good sites, large and small, to stay with your Caravan, Motorhome or Tent too. We spent the first part of our stay at the Camping & Caravan Club site at Adgestone and the last part at the Caravan Club site at Southland and in between we tried 2 of the Park Resorts sites, Lower Hyde and Thorness Bay.

Gorgeous Rainbow at Thorness Bay site I would advise doing a bit of homework first before you travel to sites as some are a bit pricey even out of High Season, one site wanted to charge us £21 per night..no thanks! the most we paid was £13.60 a night and you cannot beat the Caravan club for top notch facilties & cleanliness for that price. And also you get a discount on Ferry tickets when you are a member and book a site with either C&C Club or C Club.
We bought the A to Z Isle of Wight, Visitors Atlas & Guide before we came and it was invaluable (Car Boot sale for 50p!) £5.95 for a new one…..packed with info about most things and brilliant maps.
We were having a cuppa in the tea garden of Osborne House, Swiss Cottage and noticed this little Mouse resident pop out from his hole in the undergrowth