Two weeks of Easter holidays after a short but intense term at school.  The plan was a nice, cruisy quiet time at home in the garden, nothing major.

Blue Light card has deals on ferries to the Isle of Wight though, and you can add in accommodation and get extra discount, and the accommodation can be camping!

Clearly with no intention at all, I browsed the options and found that for under 400 quid we can get a return ferry and accommodation over the Bank Holiday weekend in less than a week’s time.  Just can’t help myself, bought and paid for!

Van packed the night before, we took a 5am start to avoid potential Good Friday congestion and made like shepherds heading for Southampton.

2 stops en route, breakfast at the second time of asking due to us being on the road at ridiculous o’clock, and a disappointment at that with Burger King’s alleged hash browns being all hash and no brown. KB benefitted from a free coffee with my costa rewards, so it was not all walking.

We had to squeeze into an irregular parking bay just outside the port entrance, due to being over keen on the arrival front, but on being waved through we weren’t parked up long before the little mester offered us the chance of going on the 10.25 whilst they were counting up the vehicles lined up.

And ruddy eck it wasn’t what we were expecting. Being veterans of cross channel circumstances we drove on to the weeniest vessel, with a passenger lounge with room for 12!

We were moving before we even ascended to the spacious lounging quarters and enjoyed the panoramic views before being invited up to the bridge to see how it all works.

Double consoles, many radary things, a brave yacht facing us down (memories of the interislander) and a side order of large dog to boot.

We got off in East Cowes, made butties by the sea front and headed for our accommodation at Whitefield Forest.

To say that I booked it without really paying attention to what I was getting us into, it turned out rather well. It would have cost us 105 earth pounds for 3 neets on hard standing fully serviced pitch, but that was before the beautiful Blue Light discount. Even at 35 quid a night, that’s more than reasonable for the quality.

There’s about 80 or so pitches, a mixture of grass and hardstanding, a central facilities block, reception/shop, play area (substandard according to H) and wildlife trail with Red Squirrel hide. Lovely and tranquil, a bit of road noise in the background, but what a find!

On the subject of the sanitaryware, mother would mightily approve of the provisions, cleanliness and general ambiance, thus:

The pitch was very spacious, with room to sit out and pitch the small tent. New chairs and tables got their first airing (no pictures as yet). The boy and I took a ramble along the woodland trail and very much enjoyed merlining the birds and sitting amongst the pines looking for Red Squirrel, although none were sighted at that point. However by the time we had left we had 3 separate squirrel sightings and were mightily pleased with oursens.

So what did we see on our first full day?

We headed for the Garlic Farm, for the promise of some pungent purchases in their shop, and a luncheon in their popular restaurant. We got there early and snagged a table just before lunch service. We weren’t disappointed by the food or beverages, including Black Garlic Ale and Mermaid Gin and Tonic (both brewed on the island) and recommended.

Rather than sampling the garlic-themed desserts we decided to move on and head for ice creams at the coast.

Shanklin was the first stop, as I’d pre-googled parking opposite the old pier site on the Esplanade, (first of several Esplanades this weekend) and we had a meander and a game of mini-golf, using the parking time right up to the wire to get through the 18th hole.

It was a close match, and despite Madame’s hole in one, the boy’s irreverent club usage and some very interesting terrain, KB took the trophy with a 2 point lead. The dinosaurs only added to the experience.

Having seen good interweb based reports of the beach and environs at Sandown, this is where we headed to next, as we foolishly didn’t leave time for ice creams once distracted by crazy golf.

It wasn’t far up the coast, and despite the google nav trying to send us down minnow roads at every given opportunity – many with arbitrary width restrictions – we got there and headed into the first car park I could google hastily on the 13 minute drive there as well as manually navigating.

We parked in the long-stay car park next to the Leisure Centre as it was sizeable and we had a good chance of parking the big Red Beast without too much manoeuvering. There was a Scout bus that had aimed for a double space towards the back, so we decided to park alongside. There was a very jolly traffic wench on duty who advised us to make sure the wheels were within the box to avoid a possible penalty and also told us about a tourist parking permit, which, sadly we were a bit too late for to benefit from, but shelled out 3 pound sixty for a couple of hours to allow us leisurely ice cream and beach time.

I’m going to say right here that Sandown was a disappointment. It was dilapidated, dreary and the promise of ice cream was diluted by the availability of only Cornish goods. We had a walk, saw the pier, meh, I mean, I don’t think we are really into piers, we bought tubs of ice cream and sat outside a shack, amongst sundry booze hounds and then retreated.

By this point the children had exhausted any form of goodwill to all men and so we hastily made our way to big Tesco to ensure we had goodly supplies of bacon and etc for the morning’s rituals.

Day 2: Easter Sunday no less:

Eggs were on the menu as is the custom and we braced ourselves for an outing like no other.

We drove all of 9 minutes into Ryde (yes we did have a ticket) and parked in the long stay by the superbowl, where our jolly traffic friend was on duty and did a double take when I asked if the wheels were in the box. (They were).

We had an amble around the town, scoped out a fish and chippery for laterz and then…

…boarded a hovercraft, as you do!

I booked a family ticket online for 70 quid. Would have got a fiver off if I had booked 48 hrs in advance, but the weather had been a bit dodgy and I didn’t want to get stuck with a crossing we couldn’t use, so left it until the day, which turned out nice.

We watched one going out and got blasted with sand for our troubles and enjoyed a smooth and exciting crossing to Portsmouth.

I had paid to come back on the first one available, but we were almost barred from it by the officials.

Apparently it’s not the done thing to go out and come back in again, never mind!

Chips and fish were dispensed at the Codfather on the seafront for in excess of 50 nicker – expensive and average – and we decided to head west as Sunday was our second and final full day on the Island.

We drove the width of the island to Yarmouth, which I’d heard was a charming old fashioned town on the West Coast and parked up at the River Road long stay car park. Car park was spacious with longer spaces for coaches and that.

It was a 2 minute walk to the town where we perused shops and helped ourselves to locally made ice creams before hatching a plan to go see the Needles and ride the chairlift down the cliffs.

Unfortunately the weather took a turn and we didn’t fancy sitting on an exposed chairlift in whipping wind and rain, so retreated to the forest.

Monday was check-out day, and because the ferry was scheduled for early evening we headed down to Godshill and the delights of the model village.

We parked in the huge free car park at the Old Smithy, had lunch in the cafe there and enjoyed some tomfoolery in the gardens before heading to the model village.

The model village was clearly very popular judging by the queues of chimney touchers snarling up every inch of the pathways. The detail and quality of the models was impressive and a lot of the miniature figures were extremely entertaining.

More ice creams were consumed in the sunshine and we meandered back to East Cowes for a bit more Esplanadery and crab spectating before boarding a more substantial ferry back to the mainland.

All in all a pleasant trip, still more to see should we wish to return. Unlikely to do it in the height of summer in the van as it could be very crowded. All in all not too expensive. Although the price of fuel is absolutely obscene – 195.9 at it’s most ridiculous.

£381.57 on ferry and accommodation.

£336 on food, fuel and entertainment for 4 days.

So by my reckoning £179 per day, or just under £45 per person per day.

Next outing to Mull…