Just after Christmas, I began to make plans to go to the Isle of Wight during the Easter holidays. I’d not been since my early teens and really wanted to take the children. I knew they’d love it! I especially wanted to take them to visit Blackgang Chine, as they’re great ages for it at 5 and 9. We went for 4 days and managed to cram many wonderful memories into that time!
Monday
The Journey There
We set off early to enjoy the wonderful experience of the M25 (ha) and the M3 down to Southampton. We’d booked the 11am Red Funnel ferry to East Cowes, so we didn’t have to get up TOO early. Thankfully the traffic behaved itself, (far better than the kids who kept arguing over colouring pens). The weather was beautiful for crossing and the Solent was calm. Thankfully, we left some ominous looking clouds behind in Southampton that didn’t follow us across to the island. The children were so excited to be on the ferry (and so were my husband and I, actually!)
The Garlic Farm
After disembarking the ferry, we headed straight to The Garlic Farm. I’d wanted to visit since we saw some of their condiments at Cheese Fest at Detling Showground in Maidstone several years ago. Also, it was en route to the caravan park we were staying at so it would be rude not to.
After checking out their fantastic shop with all kinds of garlicky products, we went for a walk around the farm. It was great to see garlic growing in the fields and evidence of their commitment to being net positive. We didn’t manage to spot any red squirrels unfortunately, but the countryside was beautiful. It was a lovely walk and the children really enjoyed the small playground when we finished the loop.
Having built up an appetite, we headed to the restaurant for lunch. I’m vegetarian and pretty fussy, so often there will only be one meal I like on a menu when we go out. However, the options at The Garlic Farm Restaurant left me with a difficult decision. I managed to narrow it down to the crispy halloumi open sandwich. Meanwhile, my husband had the grass fed 6oz beef burger, Autumn had pork and garlic sausage, wedges and peas and Reuben had the tomato and mozzarella pizza. He said it was the best pizza he’d ever had! It was all delicious and garlicky. It was pretty expensive, but when it comes to quality and taste you really do get what you pay for.
The Evening
After eating, we headed to the caravan site to check in and unload the car. The kids loved exploring the rooms and decided to share a bedroom. After popping back out for some shopping, we had a quick pasta dish for dinner and headed to bed after what had been a long day.
Tuesday
Godshill
After a somewhat chilled breakfast time, we got ready and headed to Godshill. Even as an angsty teenager, I enjoyed the model village when I went. I wanted to visit it again and see what my own children made of it.
The models are amazingly realistic and we all enjoyed walking around a tiny version of the village of Godshill itself. After paying for our entry, Autumn was given a quiz about the model village to fill out as we walked around. It was quite challenging for a 9 year old, so not so suitable for younger children unless you give them a lot of help. However, she really enjoyed it. I also couldn’t help but admire the beautiful plants and topiary. Such attention to detail is paid to everything.
On our way back through the village to the car park, we visited a couple of shops. These included The Cider Cave. There were so many tasty looking local treats and we were amused to find that the friendly man running it was also originally from Medway! We got quite the mini-haul to take home (although not everything made it back to the mainland with us!!) Being pregnant, I couldn’t have any of the proper cider. However, I did pick up an alcohol free one which I’m looking forward to drinking on a warm evening in the garden.
The Donkey Sanctuary
We headed to The Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary for the afternoon – another place I loved as a teenager! The children loved walking alongside the fields and fussing any donkeys that came over. Autumn was overjoyed that there was a donkey with the same name and personality as her! The gift shop was decent and they both chose donkey ears and tails so they could pretend to be donkeys too (so cute and funny!)
Arreton Barns
My in-laws had recommended Arreton Barns to us, so we decided to head there and have a peruse as it was nearby. There were some lovely craft shops with unusual things in them. The thing that most captured the children’s attention was the glass-blowing! They were so captivated, it was hard to drag them away from watching the men create penguins.
Dinner time
With the shops closing, it was time to head off and think about dinner. We decided to head to Shanklin, where we picked up some VERY good chips from AJ’s takeaway. The weather had really turned by this point and it was incredibly windy. However, it was still enjoyable to sit by the sea and eat them (shielded from the elements by the car!)
We then returned to the caravan to play some board games, before heading out at dusk for a beautiful walk around the lakes at the caravan park.
Wednesday
On Wednesday morning, we set out fairly early to Yarmouth. One of the main reasons was because I wanted to visit Isle of Wight Fudge Company (who are incredibly popular on TikTok). Having now tried their fudge in person, I can say it is definitely worth the hype! There was only a limited amount of two flavours (double cream and chocolate) on the day we went. Chocolate wouldn’t usually be my choice of fudge flavour, but unlike most fudge, it contains Belgian chocolate rather than cocoa powder. It makes all the difference! All their fudge is created in-house and they proudly source ingredients from the island (except sugar, of course).
I’m very fussy about fudge, but this fudge melts in your mouth and tastes glorious. I think I’ll have to fight through the TikTok viewers soon to try and order some of the other flavours (4 have won Great Taste awards).
I’m a big supporter of the RNLI and I don’t feel like I’ve been on holiday if I haven’t seen a lifeboat and been to one of their shops. So that was our next stop, followed by a visit to Grace’s Bakery for a Mr. Blobby biscuit!
Unlike Mr. Blobby himself, I’m so glad these delicious biscuits decorated with lemon curd and chocolate fudge sauce haven’t been left in the 90s. Once we’d had an ice cream, it was time to leave Yarmouth in search of something much older than Mr. Blobby.
Fossil Hunting
We were so excited to go on an expedition as part of a group with Oliver from The Dinosaur Farm Museum. The weather was beautiful as we learned about types of fossil we might be able to find on the beach and how to identify them. Down on the beach, Reuben was the first of our family to find one! We slowly wandered along looking for and finding many fossils, before observing the eroding cliffs and the many layers of strata. Oliver also showed us some amazing casts of dinosaur footprints that have fallen from the cliffs as they’ve eroded. It’s just unbelievable to stand next to – and the Iguanodons feet certainly dwarfed my size 5s! While we all learned and made discoveries, inclement weather had been rolling in the whole time, but thankfully it only started raining when we were almost back to the car park!
The Needles
We drove through the heavy rain to The Needles, which luckily stopped just as we arrived. As first-timers to the island, I felt The Needles was somewhere my husband and children really needed to visit. As it wasn’t a peak day or time, a couple of the shops were closed, as were the rides. Fortunately, the chair lift was running though! While the rain had stopped, it was rather windy still. There was no way I was going up there! I just took lots of photos and ran alongside it shouting words of encouragement (especially as Autumn bravely went in a chair of her own!) They all enjoyed it, although Autumn did a lot of screaming!
We went into the sand shop afterwards, to make ornaments using all the colours of sand from the cliffs at Alum Bay that can be seen from the chairlift. Reuben chose a cute teddy bear and Autumn chose a lightbulb. The colours of the sand differ year by year. Therefore, some of the sand in my 2005 ornament differs to the colours of the sand in my children’s ornaments.
Snacks and Ladders
We surprised the children by driving to Newport after The Needles. While I tried to free myself of a migraine I’d developed (only slightly successfully), they tried to guess what we were there to do. Neither sussed it out!
Our dinner plans were to eat and play board games at Snacks and Ladders. As soon as we walked in, they were both so excited as they LOVE board games! Of course, they were so many to choose from. It was tough to get them to limit their choices as there was such a great selection and there’s only so much time in one evening!
The staff were brilliant. as were the menu and quality of the food. When I inquired about their homemade soup of the week, there were actually two flavours to choose from! I chose the pea and mint, which was so delicious and creamy I’m still thinking about it over a fortnight later. Dave and the children enjoyed their food too (burger, pizza and pasta). Afterwards, we couldn’t resist choosing a homemade lemon cheesecake which was the THICKEST cheesecake I’ve seen in my life. Until that moment, my lemon cheesecake was the best I’ve ever eaten. I begrudgingly hand over the title to Snacks and Ladders, because the taste and texture were absolutely heavenly.
Thursday
I don’t think any of us were quite ready to leave the island when we woke up on Thursday morning. After packing the car, we had a lovely start to the day. We had another walk around the lakes at the caravan park and went on the playground and in the swimming pool. The fun wasn’t over yet either, as it was finally time to visit Blackgang Chine again!
Blackgang Chine
As I knew we would, we had a fantastic time at Blackgang Chine! We began in the nostalgic Nurseryland. Of course, I had to take a photo of the children with the toadstool there. It’s basically tradition at this point as my parents took a photo of my brother and I there in 2005 and I recall seeing one of my Dad there in the 70s!
My husband and children had an amazing time on the Water Force flumes and went on them several times. Unfortunately, I missed out due to being pregnant! Once the children had played on the Pirate Cove playground (a pair of pirate ships with water cannons), we moved onto the Underwater Kingdom. I loved walking through the coral lined path and listening to the watery sounds, but the children just ran through (boo!) I was delighted to see the Mouth of Hell was still there, before we headed onto what I consider the best part of Blackgang Chine: Cowboy Town!
Unfortunately, the shop was closed so we had to head back to the main gift shop to buy our cowboy supplies. This wasn’t ideal as my pelvic girdle pain was quite painful at this point after a lot of walking! Cowboy hats and cap guns bought, we visited Snakes and Ladders on the way back to Cowboy Town. There are dials to spin and lots of fun slides! Then…it was time to properly introduce what I’d especially loved about Blackgang Chine when I was younger. Cowboy Town was created by Pinewood Studios and has features including wagons, a saloon, jail and bank. It’s so immersive and the children had so much fun running around hiding and firing at each other! It was lovely to see them playing so imaginatively, when usually they just want screens (however much we encourage other activities).
Home Time
Blackgang Chine was the perfect end to our stay and we were all very tired by the time we got on the ferry back to the mainland!