5 days of summer (in April)

The seawall from Ventnor to Bonchurch

​Easter holidays on the Isle of Wight are a bit risky. Everything is open and people working working in the tourism industry are pleased to see you after a long winter but the weather can be iffy.

I took some of The Lads to the Island at Easter a couple of years ago for a weekend. One was a first timer and I planned to impress with my carefully selected tour  - a bit like the tour they give to the IOC when they are visiting potential Olympic sites.

Unfortunately it rained all weekend. We still got out and about but it wasn't quite the evangelical tour I had in mind.

So I was slightly pessimistic when I took a couple of weeks off this Easter. I would have settled for a couple of days of sunshine and a temperature which only required a thin coat. 

For some reason, the Isle of Wight became tropical for five glorious days. I wore nothing but shorts, wandered around in sandals like a muppet and found myself slapping on sun cream in April.  The whole thing was absurd. My wife commented that she felt as if she was in a foreign country whilst admiring the palm trees in the heat along The Undercliff.

On this occasion it was child number two's first visit so once again I wanted to make a good impression. Needless to say she loved it and has been going on about the Isle of Wight ever since. Admittedly she has no teeth yet and is unable to talk yet but there was definitely a positive vibe. 

We weren't especially adventurous and went for some of our favourite beach trips, always fearing that today would be the final sunny day.

As we had a pushchair, most days involved a walk along a seafront (Freshwater Bay, Cowes/Gurnard and then Ventnor/Bonchurch) followed by a playground (Dandelion Cafe in Freshwater Bay, Gurnard and Seabreeze in Ventnor).

We also managed trips to St Helens and Steephill Cove which were idyllic, even though I negligently ignored the tide times and ended up with about 3 inches of beach to play on. 

If you come to the Isle of Wight at Easter time I can't promise you endless sunshine but you could get away with being a little more optimistic than me.