The first time I visited the Isle of Wight was back in 1973, when I was taken there on a day trip with my Mums, Marks and Spencer’s works outing – remember those? I don’t remember much about that trip other than buying a souvenir keyring – remember doing that?

My next visit there was 50 years later, in 2023. A family relative had bought a caravan on the eastern side of the island, near Bembridge, so we took the opportunity to use the caravan for weeks holiday in October of that year. We’ve been back since our initial visit, spending a further week there in May 2024.

The Isle of Wight is an island located just off the south coast of England. Our visit started with us driving down to Portsmouth to board a ferry over to the island. We were given a heavily discounted rate for the ferry tickets by the caravan site. Without the discount the prices can be quite high for the short 45 minute, five mile, boat crossing. Over £200 return to Fishbourne for one vehicle!

The service is excellent though and the ferries run roughly every hour. We turned up early going and coming back. They found space for us on the earlier boats on both occasions.

The caravan site was situated midway between Bembridge and Sandown/Shanklin with both being within walking distance for us. The walk to Sandown was via the coast path, crossing the Culver Cliff headland before dropping down in to Sandown and then continuing along the seafront into Shanklin.

Sandown was the larger of these small towns and a little bit more tired than Shanklin. Shanklin was quaint and the busier of the two, especially at the weekend. The walk in and back from the caravan was a good, hilly 10 miles but a lovely pleasant, scenic walk. We walked in and out several times during both visits.

Going in the opposite direction we could walk in to Bembridge, again by following the coast path. Bembridge is a small pretty village and worth a visit. During our stay in May we walked on from there in to Ryde. That was a long walk and we covered just over 20 miles on that day.

Ryde is a great place and our favourite from everywhere we visited on the island. There’s a lot going on with a busy town centre full of cafes, pubs and small shops. The beaches here were large and golden and Ryde would be my choice as a base for a holiday on the island.

Whilst we were on the island we did visit The Needles and adjoining Chairlift. That was good to do and we spent a full morning there. The drive back from The Needles along the coast road, skirting the south of the island, was really good. It’s a lovely road to drive and was very quiet. The scenery was stunning. You can take an open bus ride out along the same road and I should imagine, on a fine day, that’s a great thing to do.

The island isn’t that big, 22 miles wide East to West, and it took us just over 30 minutes to drive from the full route across it. We called in at Godshill on the return journey for a cream tea. It’s a quaint little village and a nice place to spend an hour or two.

Most of the roads on the islands were nice to drive and pretty quiet. There’s a bit of traffic in the towns but it reminded me of driving in the mainland about 20 years ago, when there was far less traffic on the roads than nowadays.

We went to Cowes in May but that didn’t impress me too much. It’s not somewhere I’d go again. There are few places we would still like to visit on the island although the caravan we used has now been sold on. We may go back one day and it’s somewhere I would definitely recommend visiting if you haven’t been there before.

All images: ©Stephen Hyde 2007-2025 – All rights reserved.