Sandown Bay Holiday Centre, Self Catering accommodation Isle of Wight

Why

It's gentle. Its climate is mild. It's just off the south coast of England and we at Take the Family we think it's well worth a visit. It was good enough for Queen Victoria and her family so it should keep yours amused.

Visiting the island can still seem something of a time warp, but people are waking up to its vast potential and recently the family accommodation and facilities have been improving fast. However, near the ferry arrivals you can be overwhelmed by coach parties of day trippers and the island does have its fair share of tatty shops in and around its quaint Victorian resorts. That said, visiting any island is a fun adventure for kids with the promise of boat journeys and possibly even pirates and the Isle of Wight is one of the most accessible in the UK.

PS. If you've got very small ones beware mentioning Cowes too often. They're just going to get confused when they don't see many moo moos in town.

When

While the island's quiet, gentle atmosphere is one of its main draws, it can also mean that many attractions for children are closed from mid-autumn to Easter.

How

Take the train and the boat

Waterloo-Portsmouth or Waterloo-Southampton hourly fast services (bus-link between station and rail service at Southampton). Rail to Southsea and connecting bus. You can buy train tickets from TheTrainline.com, the UK's biggest seller of online train tickets across the UK and Europe. You will then need to take a passenger ferry, for which it is not generally necessary to book. Options are:

Portsmouth-Ryde 10 minutes
Southsea-Ryde (hovercraft) 10 minutes
Portsmouth-Ryde (catamaran) 15 minutes
Southampton-West Cowes 22 minutes

Taxis will then take you to your destination.

Take the car and the boat

Lymington, Southampton and Portsmouth are all on or near the M27 motorway which links to the M3/M25 from London. Take a look at our car hire page. You will then need to take a car ferry:

Portsmouth-Fishbourne 35 minutes
Lymington-Yarmouth 30 minutes
Southampton-East Cowes 55 minutes

We can help you with great ferry rates for all Isle of Wight crossings. Remember to book in advance if you plan to travel during the summer. Other options include:

Wightlink: (08705) 827 744. Operates Portsmouth to Fishbourne or Ryde, and Lymington to Yarmouth. (Also produces a booklet to pub walks on the island, including three pubs where children are actively welcomed and there is a good kids menu.) Hovertravel: (01983) 811 000/01705 811 000. Operates Southsea to Ryde plus a catamaran Southampton to Cowes.

Take your time to get around

Most roads are minor so you can't go anywhere too fast. There are bus services around the island, particularly good in summer.

Do

Take in some history and there’s plenty of it!

Osborne House Queen Victoria’s favourite holiday home, East Cowes. There are horse drawn carriage rides to the Swiss Cottage where the royal children learnt cooking and gardening. A new adventure playground.

Carisbrooke Castle Newport. There are walls to walk round, an entertainingly eclectic Isle of Wight Museum, donkeys (who demonstrate how they draw well water), an area on the history of the castle, tea room, lots of running around space and children’s quizzes plus relevant children’s books.

Yarmouth Castle was built for Henry VIII for coastal defence with Master Gunner’s quarters, Great Hall and the open gun platform with good views over the harbour and Solent.

Brading Roman Villa from 3rd century AD with mosaic floors and excavated objects.

The Roman Villa at Newport from 2nd century AD with one of the best preserved bath ranges in Britain.

Bembridge Windmill (NT) used up to 1913.

Take in a museum

From smuggling to dinosaurs – kids can’t ask for much more than that – well apart from smuggling dinosaurs, we suppose.

The Smuggling Museum Ventnor. Smuggling methods over the centuries (and the island’s smuggling history). Intriguing.

The Lilliput Antique Doll & Toy Museum Brading. with a reported 2,000-plus dolls from 2000BC to the present day.

Shipwreck Centre and Maritime Museum Bembridge.

Frontline & Aviation Museum Sandown Airport. WWI and WWII memorabilia including the Red Baron’s tri-plane.

Dinosaur Farm Brightstone. The location of one of the UK’s most important dinosaur skeletons (bones are revealed regularly in the cliff landslips). Experts can be seen preparing bones for research and are happy to talk to visitors including children. Jigsaws include three-dimensional, opportunities to draw and generally get involved. Well worth a visit.

The Dinosaur Isle Museum near Sandown, with 25,000 specimens many of which dinosaurs but including more than 1,000 fossils from the island.

Dinosaur Isle – In the shape of a pterosaur, transporting visitors to the time of the dinosaurs smelling their breath for example and showing experts at work. dinsosaur-isle

Fort Victoria Country Park – with a Planetarium run by an enthusiast, Model Railway with tokens to set away all kinds of models, Marine Aquarium of local and tropical sealife, and Seabed Heritage Exhibition of what has been found so far under the Solent.

Take in some animals

Isle of Wight Rare Breeds & Waterfowl Park, St Lawrence, with 40-plus breeds of cattle, deer, sheep, goats, pigs, otters, etc.

Flamingo Park, Seaview. In gardens overlooking the Solent, 100+ species of birds ranging free, many feeding from visitor’s hands, including penguins. Well run.

Isle of Wight Zoo and Tiger Sanctuary, Sandown. Largely tigers with at least 10 in residence plus jaguar and leopard. Planning to focus particularly on cats and lemurs in future. Children’s play area.

Butterfly World and Fountain World Wooton, the second with different fish.

Brickfields Pony Rides, shire horses, wagon rides, working displays, blacksmiths, children’s play fort and tractors, plus two daily parades of horses with a medieval knight, cowboy and Indian who chase each other.

Amazon World Newchurch. Amazon rain forest wildlife with jungle and village settings. Also petting area and adventure playground. Section on how to re-establish forests.

Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary, Wroxall, with 2 special Christmas opening days with Mr & Mrs Santa, along with a Nativity Stable

Owl and Falconry Centre at Appuldurcombe House, Wroxall. Daily flying displays. Planning to double birds to 80 for 2000 including vultures. (The partly restored 18th century house, damaged by sea mines, is also open.)

Take them to (yet) another theme park – we know they work!

Blackgang Chine near Ventnor, a park with attractions from dinosaurs to cowboys and Nurseryland characters, an interesting museum section including information on shipwrecks, and local trades. New high-speed water slide but the vast majority of children’s attractions require them to burn off their own energy.

Robin Hill Countryside Adventure Park, Downend near Arreton, 88 acre park with adventure rides including The Time Machine.

The Needles Park, Alum Bay – with activities and chair lift down to the sands. Attractions include a Sweet Manufactory and Junior Driver, a miniature roadway where you can safely let your four to eleven year olds loose in electric cars.

Take in a beach

The tourist office’s Official Beach Guide details water quality, car parking, information on dogs, refreshments, and access.

Recommended by the Good Beach Guide for good water quality were Totland, Colwell Bay and Compton Bay, largely shingle with some sand at lower tide. Compton is a surfing beach so sometimes less suitable with children. The second two are limited width, backed on to by suburbia.

Elsewhere, the guide reports, you might do better to avoid swimming. The tourist office volunteered that a new sewage system will take it further out into the channel.

Sandown and Shanklin operate the Kidzone Beach Safety Initiative scheme in the summer.

Take a look around

Walks – including to Newtown, once the island’s capital but now just grassy tracks where there used to be rich merchant’s houses. At Shanklin Chine (a pretty gorge with waterfall) there is a heritage centre with information on nature trails. The Tennyson Trail is over downland with sea views. The tourist office offers booklets with suggestions.

Cycling is popular on the island, making use of minor roads and lanes, plus bridleways. You will generally need to bring children’s bikes.

Riding can be arranged with:

• Allendale Stables, Godshill (01983) 840 258
• Bellwood Liveries, Ningwood, (01983) 531 261 (majority children)
• Brickfields, Binstead (01983) 525 467
• Sally’s Riding School, St Helens/Bembridge (01983) 872 260.