Isle of Wight - would anyone be kind enough to talk to me about going to IoW on holiday this May?

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I no nothing!

I would like to know which places/towns/villages are good to stay with a family. We like beach if weather good with a bit of site seeing.

Any recommendations for cottages or alternative self catering places. Our budget is about £500 ish for May half term week, sleep 5.

I would also like someone to talk me through booking a ferry; routes, prices etc...

Thank you very much!

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i've been there a few times as a child and twice camping over recent years. a lot of people love it as they say its like going back 20 years. personnally we vowed not to go again after the last time as the crossing cost a fair amount and i guess we were unlucky with food and the weather. we stayed at seaview which we quite liked - facilities but not too noisy. you can go from portsmouth or lymington red funnel and wightlink ferries. yourmouth always looks nice when we drive through it. shanklin and sandown are the 2 touristy areas.

Yeah! A reply. Thank you.

We went last year and stayed in a caravan on the west side of the island, it's quieter that side but the beaches are lovely - miles of unspoilt sandy beaches, you do need a car to access them though and they can be a bit of a walk from the carpark (NT carparks which you have to pay for). For small towns we liked Ventnor, like an old fashioned Victorian seaside town, small shingle beach in town but quite child-friendly. For cheesy family fun the Needles park was good but £££££ also Black Gang Chine. Avoid the zoo at all costs. We only went to Shanklin once and hated it. Much preferred the "other side" of the island. We stayed at The Orchards caravan park, it was a good location and facilities were good (two swimming pools etc) but we chose the cheapest caravan and it was a mistake - should have upgraded to a posher one for comfort! We actually loved the IOW, really like going back in time, very pretty countryside, much of it is owned by the NT and good for walking if your DC's are old enough for that kind of thing.

For Ferries just go to Red Funnel website, some holiday companies include ferry crossings in the price though, ours did..

Sorry, just remembered it was Compton bay that was lovely. Apparently you can see dinosaur footprints when the tide is out!

We went last May on a Sun holiday. Stayed at Gurnard Pines resort which was lovely. Red Funnel is the cheapest ferry, and a lot of holiday places give you a discount with them (the most expensive ferry crossing per mile in the world )

Depends how old your children are. We went to Robin Hill Country Park- enjoyed by both 17 yo and 2 yo, and you get free re-entry within a week once you've paid. Also a bird park much recommended on here (Flamingoland?) which they both loved.

OK thanks, will look at the west side of the island...

I was thinking more a holiday cottage rather than a resort but I will google those and check them out.

I noticed today that you can swap tesco voucgers for ferries on wightlink.

shameless bump.

I am now looking at cottages in Bembridge/St Helens or Ventnor. Anyone been to either?

my friends went to whitecliff bay near bembridge - they must have liked it as they went several times. Ventnor, from what i remember is one of the slightly busier areas but a bit posher than sandown/shanklin. other friends stayed in the centre of the island near newport - initially i thought this odd, but they said it was easy to get everywhere that way

bembridge is nice as it's quite central to all the major attractions. shaklin and sandown although touristy have fab beaches and shanklin chine is one of the weirdest places i've ever been.

you can more or less stay anywhere as it only takes about an hour to get from one side to the other.