This is just a brief blog to publicise the fact that Whitecliff Bay Holiday Park on the edge of Bembridge has stopped offering camping and touring. We suspected that this might be the case as we haven't been able to book for a while, but Away Resorts has now confirmed it.

Whitecliff Bay Holiday Park is one of the biggest and most popular holiday parks on the Isle of Wight. It's next to one of our favourite beaches, which is a right pain to get to unless you are staying onsite. As a result, it is wonderfully quiet compared to similarly beautiful beaches on the Isle of Wight.

If you stayed on the campsite at Whitecliff Bay Holiday in previous years then there are some alternatives worth mentioning.

• The first option is to go for one of their glamping bell tents instead. That means you'll still get to use the decent facilities at Whitecliff Bay Holiday Park including the two swimming pools and the restaurant. However, it's a big jump up in price. As a rough guide, a week for a family of four in a bell tent is about £1300 in August 2022, whereas camping or touring was more like £350 for a week in August 2021. 
• The second alternative is to stay in one of the other accommodation units at Whitecliff Bay. The cheapest chalets and caravans are currently about £1400 for a week in August 2022.
• Your third option is to find another campsite nearby. There are about 20 campsites on the Isle of Wight, however only a handful are similar to Whitecliff Bay. I would say that the closest alternative is Nodes Point, which is run by Parkdean Resorts. It's got easy beach access as well as a swimming pool, somewhere to eat and kids activities. It's also in the East Wight, so it is near to similar attractions.

For many years, I have recommended Bembridge as the Isle of Wight's best beach for rockpooling. The beach is about as flat as they come, which exposes a great big ledge at low tide. On our last visit, we found four crabs in about 40 minutes with the assistance of five people. We were hindered by a small child whose splashing and sploshing was scaring away the crabs. 

I was given reason to reconsider Bembridge's number one position on a recent trip to Freshwater Bay.

Most visitors to Freshwater Bay stick to the main beach. It's near to the car park, it has become sandier of late and it's not too bad for swimming.

We usually end up round the corner at the quieter beach which is more sheltered and less busy. You can find it at low tide by walking past The Albion on your right as you face the sea.

On our visit, the tide was at its absolute lowest which exposed a good area of moveable rocks.

We didn't bring any nets or buckets, but our party of three managed to find a whopping nine crabs in just half an hour. 

Those of you who are mathematically minded may be interested to know that Bembridge offered us a measly 1.2 crabs per person, per hour. Freshwater delivered a remarkable six crabs per person, per hour.

I should point out that the sploshing child was distracted in Freshwater by a ball she had found on the beach. Perhaps that skewed the figures. Perhaps more research is needed. 

Anyway, if you're in the West Wight and fancy picking up crabs (Ed: grow up...) then I would save some petrol and go for Freshwater Bay over Bembridge.

I have a bad habit of rolling my eyes whenever my mother makes a suggestion on a day out. I believe this may be something I picked up when I was a teenager. One day I will overcome it and respond with "gee mother, that sounds like a terrific idea!".

My most recent eye-rolling occurred whilst halfway up the climbing wall at Brighstone playground on Wilberforce Road. It's only a small playground but we like it as it's rarely busy, it has free parking and it's alongside a pretty little stream. 

My mother's suggestion was that we visit the famous Dragon Tree, since it is only about three minutes walk from the playground.

My eyes rolled before I remembered that the Dragon Tree had been on my to-do list for some time. I had seen photos of it in the last few years but couldn't remember an actual visit. 

The tree in question is a short walk along a footpath off New Road, near to the junction with Wilberforce Road. It's footpath number BS23 for anyone currently unfolding an OS map onto a dining table.

It gets its name from the local story that a dragon was slain in Brighstone and was immediately transformed into a tree. Needless to say, this is flim-flam, but it's certainly a very cool tree which appears to be growing sideways.

The Woodland Trust gave it third place in its tree of the year competition in 2019. I announced this fact as we arrived, but the children had already walked off and were paddling in the stream.

A visit to the Dragon Tree requires wellies, as the main attraction is paddling in the stream, climbing on stepping stones and falling over in the mud. When we visited, the water was ankle deep and there was a tyre swing. I am assuming it is not so easy to paddle in after heavy rain.

I was wearing walking boots, which weren't really good enough so I had to offer arm's length support to the wobblier child. They both had wet socks within a few minutes, but it filled half an hour nicely.

Perhaps I will get my eye-rolling under control for the next suggestion from my mother.

I’ve mentioned before that I am wary of taking children on educational outings during school holidays. The thought of holding a clipboard in August did not appeal to me as a child. There were footballs that urgently needed kicking and trees that needed climbing.

However, child one’s eyes lit up when I mentioned that we might visit a Roman Villa, so I booked ourselves in at Brading Roman Villa. I think Horrible Histories and a recent school project were behind her enthusiasm.

The Isle of Wight has two Roman Villas which are open to the public. Others have been discovered but then re-covered so your options are Newport or Brading.

Brading is by far the bigger of the two and it has a proper visitor centre, gift shop and cafe. Newport’s Roman Villa is tucked in between houses and is only open on certain days. It has a charm about it but as they’d say on a movie poster: “If you see one Roman Villa this year, visit Brading Roman Villa".

The welcome team and staff at Brading Roman Villa were on top form. I’m not sure if they were volunteers or staff but they deserve a round of applause for doing their bit for Isle of Wight tourism.

We were given some paperwork to keep the child entertained and politely asked to keep our masks on. I was delighted to see that everyone listened and kept their masks on, unlike on the ferry recently. Perhaps the polite but firm volunteers at Brading Roman Villa should sit at the ferry port with a megaphone.

The highlight of Brading Roman Villa is probably the mosaics but we also filled some time with a giant jigsaw and a spinney thing where you can jumble up Roman costumes.

After an hour or so, we pottered about in the gift shop and bought two pink pens that we definitely didn’t need. Child one originally wanted a teddy bear, so I got off lightly.

Sandham Gardens has slowly turned into a good time-sucking attraction on the Isle of Wight. The free playground is one of the best on the Island but it’s also got modern minigolf (about £6) bouncy sky nets (about £12) and go karts (£4.50). I’m still wondering what happened to the London 2012 themed outdoor gym. Is it in someone's back garden?

On our most recent visit, we tried out the go-karts which are the sort which are aimed at the under 10s rather than lads on a stag do.

I was relieved to discover that one of my children was too short to race alone which meant that I could join in. Our eight year old had her own kart and had no problems controlling it.

When we visited, we had to buy a race ticket from the ice cream stand. Thankfully, another dad alerted us to this fact so we didn’t waste 15 minutes in the wrong queue.

Once it was finally our turn, we stepped onto the tarmac and waited to put the pedal to the metal.

The young attendant was surprisingly cheery and seemed to be enjoying his job, which isn’t always the case with seaside ride attendants.

Pole position was determined by whoever managed to get to the kart at the front first. I smugly stood next to the kart at the front before being told that the kart was out of action and I would have to swap to one nearer the back.

After a good start I pulled us from fourth to second and felt the rush of wind in my hair as I approached the first corner.

I should explain that the rush of wind was caused by the gale that was howling through Sandown rather than the speed of the cars, which was akin to a brisk walking pace. I have seen milk floats move faster.

My closest competition was a mum and son team up ahead. As we pulled level, I imagined our rivalry as a Prost-Senna scenario and tried to lock eyes to raise the stakes.

She didn’t quite take the bait and seemed to be rather relaxed about the rivalry I had created in my head. I don’t ever remember Alain Prost shouting ‘coooey!’ to his family during a race.

After a couple of laps I saw my opportunity and muscled my way into first. Three or four laps later, the cheery attendant told us we were on our last lap and I could taste victory.

I gripped the steering wheel a little tighter.

In all honesty, we won by an embarrassingly large margin. My older daughter had performed well during her final lap and finished in third place.

A crowd had gathered by the time I crossed the line/finishing area. My wife insisted that the crowd was just people that wanted to go on the ride next, but I’m pretty sure some of them were spectators.

As we exited, we were given a medal to share. Of course, I let my four year old wear the medal which we received. But once she had lost interest, I put it on myself and proudly wore it round the playground.  

I always feel a great pressure to show off the Isle of Wight in its best light when we are with visiting friends and relatives. My aim is to persuade them that the Isle of Wight is a top notch holiday resort, so the itinerary has got to be perfect. 

The ideal tour works like a visit from the International Olympic Committee where all the traffic lights are programmed to turn green. We visit beaches at low tide, chase the sunshine around the Island and casually take short detours along more scenic roads whilst avoiding traffic.

You can imagine my distress when I took some visiting family to Appley beach and found howling winds which blew your hats off. The wind slammed the car doors shut and we told the children to wait in the car whilst we came up with a plan. I feared they would be blown into the sea if they stood outside for too long.

Worse still, the road to the main car park was closed. 

I knew there had been problems along the seafront but it was a lot more problematic than I expected. We could have walked along but that didn't appeal with five children in tow.

​And so, I suggested we headed to Puckpool Park. I had a feeling you could cut through to the beach but we could always play on the playground if not.

To my delight, I discovered that the walk through from Puckpool to Appley is an absolute breeze and it brings you out at the nicer end of the beach (in my opinion). Apologies to the rest of the world who have known this for years.

When we visited, it was much more sheltered than the other end of the beach and there was a choice of shade or sunshine. 

I also prefer the Puckpool Park playground to the seafront playground. They're both good, but there are no swings on the seafront which didn't go down with child one. 

It's best to park at the second car park in the grounds of Puckpool and then you'll emerge by The Dell Cafe. 

If you're more determined and thrifty then you might be able to park for free just outside of Puckpool Park. It's a five minute walk from there to the beach, rather than 50 metres, but it'll save you a few pounds.

The main advisory is that there are no railings and there's a sizeable drop down below. If you're walking with a pushchair, three toddlers and a dog then you might find it a little tense.

The route is pretty obvious - head left as you face the beach in Colwell and keep going until you run out of pavement. ​

Halfway along you'll find the dramatic site of a landslide which happened in 2012. The aerial photos are really quite something.

Rather than removing all the debris and rebuilding the entire sea wall, the decision was made to construct a 'make do and mend' path over the top of the landslide. This was obviously a money-saving plan but it seems to be doing the trick and it makes for an interesting feature.​

As a result, the walk now has a bit of a climb and a gravel section which isn't quite as smooth as the rest. 

The photo below shows the path and will hopefully give you an idea of whether you'll be able to cope with it (the railings on the right give a clue as to how steep it is). Honestly, I think most wheelchairs will be fine with it but I obviously can't offer a guarantee.

Once you get back to Colwell, there are a couple of places where you can gorge yourself on ice creams and coffees.

Tides are not just for sailors. They can make or break a family trip to the beach. 

Colwell and Totland are terrific sandy beaches at low tide. At low tide, you'll be sat up on the sea wall with a tearful toddler holding a bucket and spade.

Priory Bay is a beautiful beach but at high tide you have to climb through woodland to get to it. At low tide, you can walk between the rocks on the beach.

Appley in Ryde is pleasant at low tide or high tide. However, at high tide the sea is only a few paces from the esplanade. At low tide, it has an enormous beach which is great for running around and flying a kite. If you want a swim, you'll need to allow 10 minutes to walk to the water's edge.

At low tide, Freshwater Bay and Bembridge are good for rockpooling. If it's high tide, you can leave your fishing net at home. 

I prefer swimming at Compton Bay at low tide, as the lower water reveals where all the rocks are. It's also much prettier on a low tide in the evening.

At high tide, Shanklin and Sandown's beaches can get unpleasantly crowded on a busy sunny day. At low tide, there's plenty of space.

Tide times vary a bit across different Isle of Wight beaches on the same day so you might want to ​see our tide times guide. Personally, I like to turn up at a beach about an hour or two before low tide so we get the longest possible time with a lot of beach.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for sewage to be pumped out into the sea around the Isle of Wight. 

This isn't just an Isle of Wight issue, it happens all over. 

According to the BBC, "During periods of heavy rain, water companies are permitted to divert untreated waste water away from treatment plants, discharging sewage straight into the environment to prevent sewers backing up."

Apologies if you are eating your lunch at the moment. If this outrages you then you might like to support Surfers Against Sewage.

Thankfully, there is a map created by the charity Surfers Against Sewage which shows you if there have been any recent, er, discharges around the UK. 

On a typical day you might find that Shanklin's water is cleaner than Sandown's or vice versa. Personally, I like to be the only floater in the water so I check this before diving into the water.

Whether you are a surfer with long blond hair or a dad with no hair, it is useful to check the surf forecast. 

This is only available for a Bart-Simpson-handful of places on the Isle of Wight including Sandown, Compton Bay, Ventnor and Freshwater Bay.

I use the surf forecast to decide what to take to a beach. 

​If it's quite choppy, I take bodyboards. You don't need a huge amount of surf for children but if it's completely flat you've got no chance.

If it's flat as a pancake, you might like to try paddleboarding or kayaking. You can hire boards from various locations on the Isle of Wight including (as of 2021) Colwell Bay, St Helens, Sandown and Shanklin. See the watersports section of our guide to days out for children for advice on where to hire boards.

A flat sea is less daunting for small children and is better if you actually want to swim some lengths. However, I love it when there's a bit of surf as you can leap around and behave like a teenager. It also feels warmer as you are constantly moving. A flat sea is more like a cold bath.

This is an obvious one, but we spend a lot of time chasing the sunshine.

The Isle of Wight is big enough that one side can be wet and the other side can be blazing hot. 

You can compare weather in different locations on our weather page.

For short term planning, I tend to use this radar from Accuweather which shows you how rain clouds are moving.

When you check the forecast it is also worth checking the wind direction. If you're sitting on the beach beneath a cliff or a sea wall, it is much better to have the wind behind you rather than walloping you sideways.

One other thing worth saying is that some Isle of Wight beaches are much better for heat waves than others. 

We've found pleasant shady spots at Appley, Priory Bay and Woodside Bay. Appley is the easiest to access of those three, particularly if you park in Puckpool Park and walk through to the Dell Cafe.

Other beaches are much more exposed and offer very little shade, such as Compton Bay.

Sandown Bay and Shanklin Beach are certainly exposed but there are places which will hire you a parasol. 

When I started driving, I filled the car with everything I would need for any eventuality. There’s still an emergency Mars Bar and a 1999 road atlas wedged in with my spare tyre.

If you’re visiting the Isle of Wight in summer, my advice is to leave the snow shovel at home and instead fill the car with every possible item you might need at the seaside.

I started doing this after a trip to Shanklin about seven years ago. I didn't fancy swimming and I had never thought of Shanklin as a place with good surf, so I left my bodyboard and trunks at home. Upon arrival I found the most perfect waves for bodyboarding I had ever seen. I went for a swim in my pants but still regret not having my bodyboard.

My preparation policy paid off with a recent trip to Compton Bay with two friends who had never seen The World’s Greatest Beach before.

In Carisbrooke, the weather looked a bit iffy and I questioned whether we'd feel like swimming when we actually got on the beach. Plus, the surf forecast was not all that good and we were a bit tight on time.

I shoved in the wet suits and bodyboards, regardless.

As we were without children, we parked up at the Compton Farm end of the beach and carried down our wetsuits and bodyboards. The steps are steeper than those at Hanover Point but the views are better. The beach at the bottom of the cliffs is sandier and quieter.

On arrival, it became obvious that we needed to get in the water.

The sun was a perfect temperature and the waves were slightly bigger than had been forecast. They weren't exactly huge but they were big enough for the two visitors who were first time bodyboarders. The beach was completely empty which always adds to the fun.

"What's the best technique for bodyboarding?" one of them asked me.

"Er, wait for a wave and then lie down" I replied, perhaps demonstrating why I didn't become a watersports instructor.

We splashed around, high fived each other whilst on the boards and generally behaved like children for half an hour.

The outing also provided the chance to carry out a very scientific experiment about water temperatures on the Isle of Wight. 

One of us wore trunks, one wore a 3mm summer wetsuit and I wore my brand new 5mm winter wetsuit. 

I am usually a complete watery wimp and feel cold on the hottest day of the year. With my new winter wetsuit it was like walking into a bath. I still can't believe I spent decades freezing my bits off when such technology existed.

For a long time we've promoted the savings that can be made by getting a ferry at an odd time of day. 

​We wrote this back in early 2013:

The Isle of Wight ferries work much like budget airlines which bump up prices during peak times and lower prices at quieter times. 

However, the savings that can be made by travelling at odd times has increased. Well, it had certainly increased in the search that I did with Wightlink today (Red Funnel prices weren't available yet for the dates we were researching).

Take at look at these on peak prices for a family of four taking a car to the Isle of Wight with Wightlink for a week in August 2022. 

That means you can save yourself a whopping £174 by travelling in the middle of the night. Back in 2013, the saving was £71.

It's also worth noting the overall increases in both the on-peak and off-peak fares.

The night time price has increased by 240% in nine years whilst the daytime price has increased by 168%.

Of course, you would expect prices to rise with inflation. According to the Bank of England's Inflation Calculator, £22 in 2013 was worth £25 in 2020. £93 in 2013 was worth £109 in 2020. The calculator doesn't go right up to 2021 just yet, but I would guess it will somewhere around £28 and £115. 

The problem - of course - is that holiday parks, campsites, hotels and self catering cottages don't tend to allow you to check in at 1am. 

We also find that our children don't travel well at night, so a lunchtime ferry is a much better option. 

Here's some practical money saving advice. These are covered in more detail in our guide to discount Isle of Wight ferry travel.

If you're an Isle of Wight resident or you are lucky enough to be a second home owner then buying a Wightlink Multilink pass is worthwhile. 

A return is available for about £60, albeit with some legwork and limitations. Read our Multilink guide for more details.

Red Funnel's equivalent is a card where you pre-pay £1000 and then get 20% off the standard fares.

Most hotels, guest houses, campsites and holiday parks get a special rate on the Isle of Wight ferry. Some just pass on the saving whilst others take a hit themselves and give you an extra discount.

For example, that £249 ferry was reduced to £117 when bundled with a holiday at Whitecliff Bay Holiday Park. 

The discount varies, depending on how long you are staying for.

Wightlink and Red Funnel sometimes offer deals of somewhere around 10-30% off. You can get 10% off Red Funnel all year round on our ferries page. You can find that deal and other current offers on our ferries page. 

If you're travelling alone, then you'll still pay for the full £249 fare for a peak time sailing. However, if you travel as a foot passenger on the car ferry then it will be more like £20. Foot passenger fares don't fluctuate as much as car fares.

Your option would then be to rely on buses and trains or to hire a car. Buses and trains will be the cheaper option. You'll pay about £25 for a bus pass for the week and you can also use them on the open top buses in summer. However, it's a fairly slow way to get around. The trains only cover the east side of the Isle of Wight, but they are quite quick and were recently upgraded from antediluvian rolling stock.

Out of curiosity, I searched for the price of hiring a car for week in August at Enterprise in Newport.

Hiring a small van seemed to be cheapest (£120 for the week) but I didn't fancy looking like Postman Pat all week. The next cheapest was a 'Toyota Aygo or similar' at £137. You've got to get to Newport to pick it up, but that's still a saving of about £85. 

There are other hire car companies in our guide to public transport.

Of course, you might need to leave your car somewhere in Portsmouth. We've found that using a site such as Just Park is cheaper than turning up on the day.

If you're arriving in Portsmouth, Lymington or Southampton by train then you can get an extra saving as a foot passenger if you've got a railcard. There's more on how this works in our ferries guide.

Another favourite money saver with Wightlink is using Tesco Clubcard points. 

Tesco Clubcard vouchers are worth three times as much on Wightlink, so £80 in vouchers would pay £240 towards a ferry fare. 

Read more about this in our guide to the Wightlink/Clubcard deal.

Needless to say, it's worth checking the Red Funnel fare alongside the Wightlink deal. Also check the price for the Wightlink crossing from Lymington to Yarmouth. Prices fluctuate with both companies but the difference between them can be quite significant.

There are several other deals which we won't go into here, such as the discount for English Heritage members and the benefits of travelling on a Friday or a Monday. 

The full discount ferries guide is here.