A Very Short Walk To Steephill Cove

Steephill Cove at high tide doesn't offer a lot of beach

We've found that the best way to get the children on a walk is to repackage it as 'a trip to get ice cream' or a 'quick outing for hot chocolate'. Describing it as a walk elicits the same groans that I gave when being asked to move one foot in front of the other at the age of 14.

The walk from Ventnor to Steephill Cove is one of the nicest sections of coastal path on the Isle of Wight. It features in our guide to short walks with children and our guide to treasure hunts.

This week we did an even shorter version of the walk. It comes with the added advantage of free parking, which is harder to come by if you start from Ventnor.

We parked on Steephill Road by the entrance to Flowers Brook. There are some yellow lines on the road, but there are also plenty of free spaces.

After a short argument about whether we needed the scooters, we headed down the hill (without the scooters) and turned right towards Steephill Cove.

We then wandered along the nice section of coastal path that has great big rocks on one side and baskets of stones on the other. You need to allow time to climb on these, which drops your average walking pace to about half a mile an hour.

Allow plenty of time for saying "oooh, be careful" whilst walking along the rocks

We had intentions to get a drink or an ice cream in the Beach Shack at Steephill Cove. In 2011, I had eaten a tea cake there whilst sitting outside in the sunshine and I wanted to recreate the moment.

The plans went a bit skew-whiff when we discovered that it closes on Wednesdays.

Luckily, the Cove café at Steephill Cove was open and they provided us with hot chocolates and coffees.

The sun shone and I had a moment that was perhaps superior to the teacake moment 14 years earlier.

The Cove Café doesn't have indoor seating, but there's plenty of outdoor space

We walked a little towards Ventnor, ate our picnic from the area's best bench (see this bench guide for my choice) and then walked back to the car.

The walk is a whopping 0.4 miles, giving a grand round trip of 0.8 miles. Yes, I know that's barely enough to get out of some people's drives but it did the job for us.

This bench makes our top 10