Bingo And Beautiful Views at Away Resorts' The Lakes Rookley

The Lakes Rookley is the only inland Away Resorts holiday park on the Isle of Wight

We were recently invited to stay at Away Resorts The Lakes Rookley. We've previously stayed at two of their other holiday parks - St Helens Coastal Retreat and Whitecliff Bay Holiday Park - but we were less familiar with The Lakes.

The Lakes Rookley had a previous life as Rookley Country Park before it was sold and rebranded

I must admit, I didn't previously rank Rookley particularly highly in my list of places to stay on the Isle of Wight - but this trip shifted my view somewhat.

I had nothing bad to say about Rookley, but it is right in the middle of the Island and isn't particularly elevated so I always pointed out that it lacks the easy walks down to the beach that you get at Whitecliff Bay Holiday Park and The Bay Colwell.

I also associate Rookley with a childhood memory of sitting in a piano teacher's lounge in every Wednesday night whilst my brother practised his grade four in the room next door.

My mother assures me that the lessons were only half an hour but if you had asked me to guess, I would have said they were three to four hours at a time.

​For some reason, we couldn't watch his TV and the only entertainment was listening to the clock ticking and trying to guess when a minute was up. At one stage, I resorted to seeing if I could hold my breath for a minute in an effort to pass the time.

Apologies for digressing but I like to take every opportunity to point out to my children just how often my generation had to sit around and do literally nothing.

Anyway, back to The Lakes Rookley.

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The unexpected views at The Lakes rookley

I had previously advised people that The Lakes Rookley was a great choice if you wanted to explore the whole Island in a week. You can reach almost every corner of the Island in less than 30 minutes by car.

Pleasant spots like Bembridge or Totland require drives approaching an hour if you really want to see everything the Island has to offer.

​I'm aware that an hour's drive is considered quite reasonable for a day out by a mainlander but to an Islander, driving an hour would only really be considered for a wedding or a funeral.

The downside - I had previously advised - was that The Lakes Rookley wouldn't offer you a decent view, apart from a view overlooking a lake, which is pleasant but isn't quite the same as a sea view in my opinion.

The lakes provide a nice backdrop at The Lakes Rookley and are also used for watersports

This is the view from the restaurant balcony

However, my socks were somewhat blown off when we arrived at our lodge (25 Rookley Heights, if you're interested) to find the most fantastic panoramic view. 

I was staggered by the view from our lodge (photos don't really do it justice)

I'd estimate that we had a 230 degree view of the Island's rolling hills and farmland. In the far distance in one direction, we could see Southampton, whilst in the other we could see the white cliffs of Culver Down. At night, we could see cars zooming along Brading Down. 

We could see Southampton, Culver Down and towards the South Wight from our lodge

Directly in front of the lodge was a sweetcorn crop, which swayed in the warm summer breeze. I'd have written a poem about it if the children weren't tugging on my arm and asking to go in the hot tub.

Our corner plot overlooked a field of sweetcorn (no, I didn't steal any)

Much time was spent sitting in the hot tub and saying "ahhh, this is nice"

Our lodge was on a part of the park called Rookley Heights

The area is slightly elevated so you get good views

The narrower properties are caravans whilst the wider ones are lodges

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Inside our lodge at The Lakes Rookley

Our lodge was well equipped with three bedrooms, two toilets and one dishwasher. The choice of accommodation at The Lakes Rookley ranges from caravan holidays (similar in design but narrower than a lodge), through to lakehouses (posher accommodation with lake views) and some brick-built chalets. They also have some accommodation for dog friendly holidays.

Lodges tend to be a couple of metres wider than caravans at holiday parks

We had a great view from our lodge

The kitchen had a dishwasher and large fridge/freezer

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Around The Lakes Rookley

After unpacking, we began a tour of the site.

The main reception area has been nicely updated and leads onto a restaurant, which also does takeaways. We didn't eat onsite, unless you count the three Magnum ice creams I bought in a moment of weakness.

This reception area leads onto the restaurant and pools

We didn't eat onsite, but we liked the décor in the restaurant

The arcade wasted half an hour and emptied my wallet

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Other things to do onsite at The LAkes Rookley

Just off from the reception are the two swimming pools. I didn't get my tape measure out, but I would estimate that they are both around 15m long.

​The indoor one is slightly wider than the outdoor one, but both were heated to a pleasant level. Neither of them have a slide, but the depth worked out well for us. They both range from 90cm to 122cm, so we didn't need to worry too much about our children having free reign.

The pools needed booking, but that did mean that they didn't get too crowded. I am much more relaxed in a pool with three people than one where there is a high risk of having a child belly flop on top of you.

Over four days we managed four trips to the pools and three dips in the hot tub, so we couldn't be accused of under-using the facilities.

One of two swimming pools at The Lakes Rookley (this photo is one of the official ones)

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Other things to do onsite at The Lakes Rookley

There's a busy programme of things to do during the school holidays at The Lakes Rookley. We did the bingo one night, which was the linked bingo sort where we paid £12 to enter and had the chance to win £1000+. Someone at an Away Resorts in Cleethorpes won the jackpot on our night, but I was able to console myself by remembering that I was on the Isle of Wight and they weren't.

I'd love to say we won the bingo jackpot...but we didn't.

We also did the quiz, which was free. I was joined by child one and together we achieved a grand score of 36/50, six less than the winner. My knowledge of 2018 Rugby League winners let me down.

​On the plus side, we won a t-shirt for coming up with the best team name (Quiz Truss). I did attempt to squeeze into the t-shirt when I ran out of clean clothes a couple of days later, but it was designed for a seven year old and wasn't quite the look I was going for.

On another night we joined in with the kids' house party, which involved dancing and splatting people in the face with shaving foam.

We ran out of time for the other activities, such as crafty things and slime activities. They also have paddleboarding and kayaking on the lake, which we were tempted by. I have both those things sat in my mum's garage so I decided against it in the end.

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Out and about on the Isle of Wight

On one day we went to Shanklin, which is about 20 minutes away from Rookley and is our preferred day out if we want a traditional seaside resort. We parked for free on the road approaching the seafront and then walked along towards Sandown. 

The coastal path between Shanklin and Sandown is a nice simple walk that is suitable for pushchairs and wheelchairs

The Isle of Wight was a gorgeous temperature during our stay, with daytimes generally around 21 Celsius and plenty of sunshine. We got out and explored a fair bit, but we were happy to spend more time onsite than most people normally would.

We climbed the steps before you reach Lake and came up near to the newly rebuilt Blueberrys Café, which has terrific sea views (Note for pedants: yes, I know there should be a possessive apostrophe but Blueberrys Café don't use one, so I'll respect their wishes).

The new café is looking very smart and reappeared remarkably quickly compared to some building projects (for example, Gurnard's pleasant little café was demolished years ago and is still a building site).

On another day we visited the Ventnor Fringe festival, which takes places in late July each year (see our festivals guide). We pottered about in Ventnor Park, where there was a place you could do some art and then watched a performance where three men did backflips whilst a Ford Orion spun round in circles. I struggled to follow the associated plotline but child one explained it to me afterwards, which confirmed that the problem was my comprehension rather than their storytelling.

This car-themed performance was part of Ventnor Fringe

Blueberrys Café on the Shanklin coastal path was recently rebuilt

There was also a strange moment in Ventnor where I went up to hot drinks booth and asked if they did decaf coffee. The blank response suggested that they had never been asked this question before and didn't really understand the premise.

​I wondered if I had accidentally walked into a fringe festival performance piece about a town that had been overrun by the undead, but it really was somewhere that sold coffee. I hastily retreated to avoid an already awkward social situation.

Our plan was to then walk along the coastal path from Flowers Brook to Steephill Cove. This is one of my favourite short walks and is referred to in our family as the Mint Choc Chip Trail, as it inevitably leads to an ice cream at the beach.

​It was decided that we had worn out the children too much already, so we sat on my favourite Ventnor bench (see the top 10 benches guide) and admired the view instead.

The bigger events take place in this big top in Ventnor

The view towards Ventnor from one of my favourite Isle of Wight benches

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Final thoughts on The Lakes Rookley

We now know all of the Away Resorts on the Isle of Wight pretty well. It's fair to say that they are all very different in terms of what they offer and location. That's pretty common with holiday parks, as they often change hands and have bits added on over the years rather than being purpose built and completed in one go.

The Lakes Rookley is the best option on the Isle of Wight if you're the sort of family who wants a busy week of seeing everything the Isle of Wight has to offer without spending too long in the car. 

I often tell people that the Isle of Wight is best thought of as England in Miniature and that its diversity of landscape is its strength. From Rookley, you can pick each day whether you fancy the minigolf and amusements of Shanklin, the sailing boats of Cowes, the isolation and rocky scenery of the South Wight, the golden sands of Appley or the unspoilt coastline of the West Wight. Nowhere is very far away and you can cram in multiple things in one day, if you and your party have the stamina for it.

As mentioned, The Lakes Rookley is trumped by Whitecliff Bay Holiday Park and The Bay Colwell if you want a beach on the doorstep. The views from The Lakes Rookley far exceeded my expectations but if your holiday highlight is walking down to the beach then Colwell or Whitecliff Bay are better choices.

I'd also like to mention that the staff at The Lakes Rookley were exceedingly helpful and professional. The bar staff, reception staff and evening entertainers were all putting in plenty of effort to keep everyone happy.

If you've been to the park yourself, I'd welcome your comments and thoughts.