I always wanted to visit Isle of Wight since many years. May be this is because of all the praises I received from others. So I was waiting for a chance to pack my bags to the island for a short trip. At last we got a chance to visit the island recently during September of 2012 (8th and 9th). It was me and my husband and 2 of our friends joined us for the trip. When we decided to go on a short trip for the weekend, we all came up with few options and finally zeroed on Isle of Wight. By the time the decision was made, we just had 3 days to plan everything.
The first thing I understood when I looked at the city map was it’s a very small place and there should not be much travel. I first started with booking the accommodation. I had made up my mind that we should only be staying in a hotel close to the beach. When I checked the map I could understand that Sandown and Shanklin are the places which had many hotels close to the beach. As the booking was about to be done before 3 days of the trip, I was not left with many options and could find only some options in Sandown. So I went ahead and booked the Carlton Hotel in Sandown. Looking at the pictures from the website, it looked like it was very close to the Sandown beach and Pier. So now the accommodation is sorted out.
We planned to leave Saturday morning by car to Portsmouth and then take a ferry from there. We hadn’t booked our ferry as we were not sure when we would reach the port. Saturday morning we met our friends at Hayes and started traveling towards Portsmouth at around 11:00. The journey was estimated to be around 2 hours. But the climate was very warm
that particular weekend and there were lot of people on the motorway traveling to beaches (Portsmouth and Southampton) which increased the travel time due to traffic. At last we reached Portsmouth at around 14:30.
We came to a park close to beach and saw few people doing barbeque and hence parked the car and had our food. The first thought was to make it a short meal but with all the items added up we had a big feast :-). The actual lunch process took around 2 hours and then we decided to take 16:30 ferry. Then we left the park and took the 16:30 ferry. We took return ferry ticket as well for 19:00 on Sunday.
The ferry trip was short and sweet. It was nice sitting at the outdoor and looking at other ships and speed boats. It was a very short trip for about 25 mins. It was already 17:00 and we decided to go to the hotel straight away which was at quiet a distance and thought of stopping by on the way if we found something interesting. When we started driving towards Sandown we saw a sign board showing the direction for sea view and hence decided to go there. We reached one of the beaches and spent some time at the place. It was a very small beach. Then after spending around 30 mins at the beach we started towards Sandown to checkin the hotel. When I was initially booking the hotel ,I had to book for the other side of the beach view room as all the beach view rooms were all gone but when we arrived at the hotel reception, to our surprise we got the beach view room and it was amazing.
After few mins of fresh up we started exploring the beach and the surrounding area. We first hit the sandy beach and after few minutes of play decided to go for dinner. The location of the hotel was very good that both beach and city center was very near. The city center had many restaurants. We chose an Indian restaurant Swad. We enjoyed our dinner. Then we saw a casino at the end of the road and thought we could spend a couple of hours in the casino. After losing few pounds we left to the room for a good night sleep.
The weather was very warm the particular weekend and we could feel the heat inside the room in the morning even with the curtains closed. We had a good view of morning sun and then got ready for the second day excitement. First we decided to leave to Shanklin Chine. I read very good review about this place and hence had big expectation about it before even going there. And ofcourse my expectation was met. This is a place full of different and rare varieties of plant species. The whole place was very green and cool. The highlight was the view of Shanklin beach from the Chine. It was an amazing view and we could not come away from the place for sometime. This place is a must to see in Isle of Wight for those who enjoy nature. Sit at the bench facing the beach holding your soul mate’s hand by smelling the nature (and here I give you a romantic idea).
After Shanklin Chine we left to Godshill Model village. This place has got miniatures of buildings from old age to the current period. It was a small place and could go around all the miniatures in 20 minutes. Nothing much to be said about this place, except for admiring the skill in bringing the exact miniature of the buildings. Next stop is The Needles, which was the most awaited place to be visited. The journey was estimated to be around 1 hour. By the time we reached Needles, there was a change in climate and it started to be very cold. But as this place could never be missed, we took our ticket for one way chair car lift and decided to climb up in return by walk.
The chair car lift was quiet amusing but I wouldn’t say it was a great thrill. The Album bay is the place where you could see red color sand. Though the beach was having pebbles near the water there were huge rocks or mountain like thing away from the water which was in different colors like orange and red. The Needles (two white sharp rocks) was a good view from the beach and we enjoyed our time there. By the time we decided to start climbing up, heavy rain started and we had to rush to the car. The climbing back walk took around 10 to 15 mins. As we were already tired and it was raining, climbing the steps was a bit difficult.
It was only around 17:00 and we were left out with time for the ferry. So we decided to go to the Osborne House in Ryde, which was on the way to Fishbourne. The drive was about 30 mins. But unfortunately the castle closing time was 17:00 and hence it was closed by the time we went there. The climate was becoming bad and we were tired too and hence decided to go to Fishbourne and request for an early ferry. We relied on the navigator and followed the route for East Cowes. To our surprise we landed in Cowes actually and we found water in the middle. There were a couple of other vehicles ahead in the queue. Then we came to know that there is a ferry which would cross the water gap. The ride was really funny as the travel would be only less than 5 mins. Once you cross the water you are in East Cowes. We reached there around 18:00 and were luckily taken for the 18:30 ferry saving 1 hour of our time. We felt the return ferry was much quicker and we started our travel from Portsmouth to London with all the memories of the island.
Though it was a small island it is definitely a place not to be missed. This is very good options to relax and spend our sunny weekend. Though it was very near to England it is very different in all ways from rest of England.
No you can't miss this:
1) Shanklin Chine
2) The Needles
3) Album Bay
4) Sandown
Though we haven’t got chance to go to Luccombe bay and Osborne House, I have heard from one of our friend that it’s a good place to spend sometime.
Don’t worry to give it a miss:
1) Godshill Model village
