A weekend in the Isle of Wight
I'm as guilty as most of hankering after foreign trips but sometimes a break much closer to home can be just as rewarding. With a short ferry crossing from Portsmouth or Southampton, the Isle of Wight ticks both boxes, the sense of travelling and yet still with that feeling of home from home.
Our base for the weekend was The Hambrough, a boutique hotel perched on the cliff overlooking the esplanade in Ventnor.
The seafront has all the hallmarks of a traditional seaside holiday - deckchairs, beach huts and... a stiff breeze. At the end of the esplanade is my top Ventnor find - the very classy Cabin Spa, tucked away into the cliffside and offering 3 private treatment rooms with sea views...
There's nothing like a massage to make you feel relaxed and this couldn't be a more beautiful spot, overlooking the ocean, just above the esplanade here in Ventnor. That was absolutely gorgeous
Heading out of Ventnor up the west coast, we took the drive along scenic Military Road with its wonderful coastal views. The coastal path offers 67 miles of trails around the island making it hugely popular with walkers...and there's plenty of distraction along the way, particularly down on the beach
This is Compton Bay, which is famous for the dinosaur footprints. If you get here at low tide, which of course we've managed to miss, you can see them out in the bay. But somebody has pointed out to me there are one or two up on the edge of the beach here. I found one here with its toe missing... its quite incredible
Further along the coast is Freshwater, another lovely little seaside town famous as a Bohemian Retreat, back in the mid 19th century for the likes of Tennyson, Charles Darwin and Edward Lear. Another member of the Freshwater Circle was early portrait photography pioneer, Julia Margaret Cameron. Her house, Dimbola, is now home to an extraordinary exhibition of her work. It's well worth a visit.
From Freshwater its a short drive up to the Needles
The Needles of course is the iconic sight here on the Isle of Wight and one that everybody wants to see. There is a big family attraction just at the entrance to the Needles but you don't have to get involved in that, thats where you park your car and you can get the chairlift down to the beach and a boat out to the actual far point of the Needles. Or you can walk along the flat path, its about 3/4 mile but the only way to actually get to see the Needes is to go in to the Battery which you have to pay to get in to.
We rounded off our day with a relaxed dinner at the hugely popular Cow Co at Tapnell Farm - featuring local products and of course their very own organic meat - this is without doubt the place to come for the best burgers...
Walking is the best way to discover the island. Next morning, starting at the lovely Botanical Gardens in Ventnor, we rejoined the coastal path for a short stroll to Steephill Cove - a fisherman's bay complete with crab shed and beach shack - I'd love to come back here on a warm summer's evening.
The Isle of Wight is small - nowhere is more than half an hour's drive away so you really can see a lot in a few days. Taking the cross island route we were soon in Cowes, the world famous yachting mecca. After Sunday lunch at The Little Gloster our final outing was to Osbourne House between Cowes and Fishbourne
So Queen Victoria loved the Isle of Wight so much she made it her holiday home and built this rather magnificent holiday house, Osbourne House, her palace by the sea. It really is a quite magnificent estate and you can have a tour of house, see all the various royal room and apartments.
Its even more interesting at the moment as they are filming for a new movie, starring Judy Dench that's going to come out next year (2017) and its about the relationship between the Queen and one of her Indian servants Abdul. How magnificent to be filming in the actual venue where the events played out...
