A bit of all-Wight!

Sooooooo last weekend the four of us had our first family holiday.  We travelled to the Isle of Wight for 4 days.  Bobs had been on at us about going on a boat since nanny told her about her cruise.  Well we didn't have the pennies to book the kind of holiday nanny has become accustomed to, but a good friend of ours happened to have a spare holiday going so they sold it to us AND it involved a boat ride RESULT!!   So with everything packed and a tinge of excitement growing inside everyone we headed off on our big island adventure ...

... half an hour into our journey came the familiar cry of 'I'm hungry' so we stopped off for what will now be our traditional 'holiday' porridge, bacon sarnie and coffee journey break.  For the first time I noticed Bobs bubbling over with anticipation.  She understood what a holiday meant and she was enjoying every second of it.  DJ just wanted food.  When we arrived at Southampton docks we were an hour early so they bumped us onto the earlier ferry.   We loaded on our car and made our way to the passenger deck.  The kids took pole position at the front, with DJ banging the glass window furiously, and we set off. It was such a smooth ride that I had a job convincing Bobs that we were in fact moving.  Another first was witnessing DJ have his first bromance with a one year old boy called Harrison ..... dude!!

Sailing into East Cowes was a spectacular site.  The sun was breaking through, the sea had a sprinkling of small boats and windsurfers and the coast was lined with quaint and colourful buildings.

Sailing into East Cowes

We were booked into the Whitecliffe Holiday Park in Bembridge (http://www.wight-holidays.com/).  We did not know what to expect as the holiday had originally been one of those Sun newspaper offers.  A few days before we had the opportunity to upgrade to one of the new caravans ... so we thought 'why not? and so we did!  Travelling from East Cowes to Bembridge was slightly stressful as JB had started the route planner from Cowes (not East Cowes) but it seems all roads lead to Bembridge and we were at our destination before we knew it.  In the next few days it became apparent to us that everywhere was easy to get to because the road system is so simple and straight forward.  I don't think we hit any traffic at all and we never got lost! 

'Bear in the Woods'

After we arrived at the holiday park and had checked in we decided to pop over to the bar (like you do).   Bobs went hyper - she wanted to play on the climbing frame, she wanted to go swimming and damn it even though she had no idea what crazy golf was she wanted to play it - and she wanted to do it all at that very moment!  I had to laugh because it stirred a memory long forgotten of me and my brother behaving the same way when we were little.  DJ just wanted food.  After getting Bobs down from the ceiling we had some lunch and then settled into our luxury caravan.  A quick swim, some dinner and it was time for the evening entertainment.  The club area was huge and housed a bar, arcade and diner.  'Cash Bingo' as an after dinner event, 'Bear In The Woods' act for the little children, 'Play on Stage' for the whole family, dancing the Macarena and other bum shaking tunes for the now-juiced-mums and a fairly decent cabaret act and disco until the last man standing.  The sort of holiday that memories are made of.

We were quite surprised by the quality of the caravan.  It was an 8 berth (6 comfortably) and had showers and heating throughout.  It was like a little home away from home.




So what has Isle of Wight have to offer.  If you pick up the tourist magazine on the ferry you will see there is lots for every type of person.  Beautiful villages, sandy beaches, animals, history and craft workshops.  On one warm sunny day we took the children to the Sandown Pier where we made sandcastles, ran away from the waves as they rolled onto the sand, ate cheesy chips and ice cream (not together! ... well DJ did - all he wanted was food!), had a wander around the arcades and souvenir shops and played in the park nearby.  It was a lovely day for many reasons.  One thing I noticed (because I come from a seaside town myself) was that for one of the Islands main beaches it was extremely clean.  The pavements and beach were spotless.  Not a single cigarette butt, can, bottle, sweetie wrapper, ground in chewing gum in sight.  

                

The next day we travelled for about 30-40 minutes to the south of the Island to the historically famous Blackgang Chine.  For those who are unfamiliar with the story Blackgang Chine is/was a coastal ravine  stretching just short of a mile down to the shoreline and was rumoured to be rife with smugglers back in the day.  In 1843 the Dabell family took advantage of the new tourist trade and opened the Blackgang Chine amusement park, one of the UK's first amusement parks.  Since this time the cliffs have eroded and large landslides have destroyed pretty much all of the ravine including pathways, houses and a lot of the original amusement park.  The most recent landslide was in 1994.  However the Dabell family rebuilt most of the park a bit further inland after being assured the cliff was now more stable.  This park is more suitable for young children because even though there are a couple of adult attractions I doubt it would cater for the entertainment needs of older children (teens).  It has a small variety of food outlets, which was good because DJ frequently wanted was food!

A-maze-ing place for small children

Disappearing village

The next day we went to the Amazon zoo, which was small but amused the children for a few hours.  They have a little cafe, nothing fancy, which was good because DJ .... well you know the rest!.  If they spent some money bringing the play park area up to scratch I would give this a good score - good entertainment for half a day at best (watch out for the psychotic chicken that roam free!)

So overall for a first family holiday I would give it 8/10: 9/10 for the experience and 7/10 for having the children there (nightmare journey home, we were 'that family').  If I had gone without the children I would have taken a tour around Osborne House, Carisbrook Castle and the Needles for a more mature experience.  But seeing the look on my little ones faces when they discovered something new and exciting was priceless, a treasured memory.  I therefore give Isle of Wight a big thumbs up and suggest if you are looking for a family first I would definitely recommend this little English treasure. 

Bon Voyage, Joolz x