Being relatively large among UK islands, the Isle of Wight offers all types of accommodation, from luxury spa to B&Bs and camping.Īs well as being a great base for a family holiday, the Isle of Wight is well known for its music festivals which include Bestival, Jack up the 80s and the Isle of Wight Festival itself, which famously put on such rock greats as Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and The Who during the 1970s. Popular attractions on the Isle of Wight include The Needles Landmark Attraction – a fun-packed amusement park on the site of an extraordinary row of chalk cliffs that rise from the sea, award-winning beaches at Shanklin, Sandown and Ventnor, and of course the Steam Railway. In the space of an hour, you can travel from blustery downs to empty salt marshes from bucket-and-spade resorts on the east to the wilder beaches of the south-west, where fossil remains and dinosaur footprints emerge at low tide. The Isle of Wight is like a pocket version of the south-west of England, without the moors and tors. The journey across the solent is the last commercial hovercraft route operating anywhere in the world, which makes for a quirky and nostalgic welcome to this charming and unique island. Situated less than five miles off the coast of Hampshire, the South Coast island is most easily reached by hovercraft, departing from Southsea in Portsmouth and arriving at Ryde just 10 minutes later. Its sandy beaches, model village and working steam railway, make the Isle of Wight the perfect family getaway. A ferry runs from East Mersea to Point Clear and Brightlingsea on the other side of the Colne estuary, including a scheduled service in the summer and a dial-on-demand service in the spring and autumn. A regular bus service links West and East Mersea to Colchester via the Strood and Abberton. The main settlements are the town of West Mersea and the village of East Mersea. It is approximately 5 miles long by 2 miles wide. It is linked to the mainland by a causeway, known as The Strood, which is covered at very high tides for an hour or 2. Mersea Island is located in North East Essex between the Blackwater and the Colne Estuaries. Each August, more than 200 boats take part in a regatta, which includes watersports in the afternoon, fireworks at night and the Cobmarsh marathon rowing races. More beaches can be found in the Cudmore Grove country park. There’s a dark blonde beach backed by a strip of pastel huts, good spots to swim and a windsurfing club. Mudflats, bleakly beautiful in a certain light, cling to the island, which sits in the estuary of the Colne and Blackwater rivers. Cultivated in these Essex creeks since Roman times, Colchester oysters make their way into the kitchens of everyone from Gordon Ramsay to The Ritz, though they are best eaten fresh here. It is odd that Mersea, Britain’s most easterly inhabited island, is not more of a household name, given the reputation of its oysters. Here are some of the top offshore spots we’ve found. From the golden sands of Jersey to the remote allure of the Shetland Islands, there is always something just a bit magical about stepping off the mainland to explore the outer reaches of the British isles. You may be surprised at how many fascinating and unspoiled islands there are around Britain.
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