Well I sit here typing this feeling very pleased with my self. Yesterday evening we arrived home after a brilliant week in the Isle of Wight ;D . The reason for feeing so pleased is that the 4 of us went in Hoot our 1974 Westy that I spent the winter rebuilding, and she did not let us down! woo hooo!! All the way from Halstead, M11, M25 past Watford and Heathrow, onto the A3, through the Hindhead tunnel and onto Portsmouth. We cruised at 60, 65 the whole way, only stopping for a coffee at Liphook services as we were ahead of time. Coffee stop at Liphook Looking nice and shiny on the ferry ;D Once at the campsite we set up including awning. The weather was better than we expected and we managed 3 whole days on the beach! Ate far too many ice creams ( if possible) Would recommend Shanklin beach, plenty of parking next to the beach. Beach nice and sandy and safe for kids to paddle and swim. What was really nice was the price of everything. Was expecting to feel ripped off with the usual UK prices, but was pleasantly surprised (4 big ice creams £5 parking for whole day by the beach £3.40) Went to Ventnor, but be warned the road to the sea front is very steep. Went down a 20% gradient so worried about poor hoot getting back up, spied another road out. Thinking that this was probably an easier option decided to take the unknown, only to be faced with a 25% incline!!!!!! Well she made it up, so at least I know the clutch is ok! Can you spot Hoot? On the last day we had a trip to the other end of the island to the needles. The kids loved the chair lift to the beach. All in all a great week. Nice camp site ( which I'll post a review of), ok weather, nice island made all the better for going in a camper van! Oh one last thing, the roads are TERRIBLE! Do not go to the island if you have a lowered bus, other wise you will loose all fillings and probably wreck your back!
Great pics. Had our first camper van holiday on the iow, been hooked ever since. And yes the drive down and back up from the beach at Ventnor is not for the faint hearted !!
It looks and sounds like you had a great holiday, martinsbus. Thanks for sharing. The IoW is another place we intent to get to in the van. We went every year for about 12 years for the scooter rally over August B/H but haven't been since 2004.
Thanks for posting this, great read and pics We went to the IOW this year with the in laws for the weekend and thought how lovely it would be to come back in our van. Especially to Carisbrooke Castle which is officially my most favourite castle now ;D
