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When you arrive on The Island
purchase a map of just The Isle of Wight -
do not rely on the small map at the bottom of
the large road map used to get there. A scale of 1.5"
to 1 mile is recommended, A to Z maps offer this and also have tourist information, places of
interest and some detailed street maps of popular towns on the map as well.
A cheaper option is the ITP Visitors Map which you can get for a £1 or
less. Although it is black and white it is still quite detailed and
places of interest and attractions are listed. The front cover when
folded is red and white.
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If you are a sun lover
or just want to
take full advantage of a gorgeous day then try to stay in the approximate area
you are currently in. In other words if you imagine the diamond
shaped Island divided into 4 quarters from the middle {See picture below} then try and stay in
'your quarter' if you are completely content at that time. We have seen
this many, many times where the weather can become cloudier and cooler
just a few miles across or up The Island. See
travelling times around The Island.
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The South of The Island
especially
Ventnor, Shanklin, Shanklin Old Village, Niton, and possibly Lake do get the
warmest and sunniest of weather.
Ventnor even has it's own mini
climate with record holding hours of sunshine throughout the year, which is
one reason why The Botanical Gardens and some residents grow sub-tropical plants and trees
successfully. Weather can sometimes be subtly different in these areas
compared to the North or West of The Island for example. Although
the whole Island generally is still warmer than that of the mainland.
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Take plenty of good sun cream with
you, you may need it! We found that
during 2006 the sun was still hot till 6pm and if there is a cool breeze you may not
know you're becoming burnt until it's too late. Also take some cream
that is several factors more than you would normally use {we started off using
factor 15 but added some factor 30 at around mid-day 2006}.
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Try the local
seafood, in particular
crab, lobster, haddock dishes. The vast majority of pubs are
highly geared up for food and usually the portions are on the large side.
Seafood is not cheap and if you are on a budget then fresh crab in
particular can be tasty from beachside cafe's and is obviously not as
expensive as it is from pubs and restaurants. It can also be purchased
from the fisherman at seafood huts selling direct to do with as you wish, two
places spring to mind: Ventnor Fresh Crab Beach Hut and a fisherman's
house at Steephill Cove next to the café'. Ventnor crab has a strong
flavour.
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The roads around
the South West and West of The Island are not as congested
as the
North East and East areas even in peak August time, in fact they are quiet.
The main route through Shanklin - Sandown - Lake - Bembridge suffers from
heavy congestion sometimes and this can in some cases be avoided by going the
'scenic' route over the downs.
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Pubs, thatched ones {Fisherman's
Cottage above and The Crab Inn for example}, family ones, food
orientated ones, Olde' Worlde' ones, beachside ones, isolated ones, for a
guide invest in the very good Camra
I.O.W. pub guide. Last year
there was a new one and should be for sale in bookshops and all the Tourist
Information shops.
Or use this link to their web site.
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There used to be a cheaper booklet type guide that
was less extensive and featured only around just 20 or so of the most popular
pubs for a £1, but we have not seen this guide for a while now. There is
a small pub guide for those situated in the
lower half of The Island contained within this site, they are categorised by
Pubs personally recommended for food or to just have a beer in.
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Pay only slight attention to the weather
forecast for The Island especially from the television.
Usually
the forecast is correct for the South of the mainland anyway, but the weather
usually becomes far better than forecast especially if you happen to be
staying in the lower half of The Island. And when you have had an excellent
day and evening and browse that evening or next day for the temperatures of the previous day
{to see how hot it really was} the weather reported will not be as good as you
had! Weird, but this has happened many times.
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Then when you return home there have been
friends, relatives, workmates all looking at the televised forecast and assume
that you only had a small amount of good weather! Or when the forecast
is heavy showers and we didn't even have a light shower as in August 2004 for
example.
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When you arrive by
Car Ferry, you possibly may have managed to arrive early and
catch the earlier Ferry - which is great but do not try and catch a Ferry
a lot earlier than you had previously booked on the
return trip, unless it is
a Sunday ferry.
When
departing from The Island arrive around 15 - 30 mins early only is
recommended. Arriving hours early hoping to get home a lot sooner {which
we all want to do} only congests the Ferry Terminals and they may well turn
you away till later, and it puts pressure on the people that are queuing
trying to get on their correctly booked Ferry.
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The Ferry terminals are
sometimes busier on the return journey to the mainland {except on a Sunday}, and I think the reason for this
is because the majority of visitors cannot easily get to the Ferry before 10
am {due to Hotel and self catering check out times and the feasibility of
packing and travelling across The Island in time} and also visitors do not want to wait
around past 3pm either when the majority have another journey to do on the
mainland.
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