"5 Reasons I'm Never Visiting the Isle of Wight Again"

I spend a lot of time talking to people about visiting the Isle of Wight (Ed: really? I'm stunned).

A lot of them offer me anecdotes of school trips to Blackgang Chine, The Needles and Osborne House.

Others tell me that they are regular visitors and we begin a lifelong friendship.

And yet, there is a sizeable portion who tell me why they have never visited the Isle of Wight - or why they will never visit again.

I've collected together some of these conversations and attempted to offer rebuttals.

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1. "It rains too much on the Isle of Wight"

This claim was put to me by a lady in a floral dress. I don't know her name but I'm guessing that it was probably June or Valerie.

Her story was that she had visited the Isle of Wight once and she had seen "an almighty storm". She concluded that the Isle of Wight is "known for being wet".

Is that true? Well, no not really. Shanklin gets an average of 941mm of rain each year (see data) compared to 1019mm in Cornwall (see data) and 1575mm in the Lake District (see data). London has slightly lower rainfall on 722mm (see data) but the beaches in central London aren't as good as the Isle of Wight's.

No June, that's not rain - it's low tide in Shanklin

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2.​ "The Isle of Wight is too hot"

This one was presented to me by a lady called Gail. She had been to the Isle of Wight once and it had been a heatwave. 

It baffled me somewhat, as I was expecting her to say that it wasn't hot enough so she was flying off to the Costa Del Something.

Yes, it is true that the sun does shine a lot on the Isle of Wight. Does it shine all the time, as I often claim? Well, no. But it is sunnier than most of the UK.

In fact, Shanklin gets 400+ hours more sunshine than the Lake District and London each year (see the data) and about 200 hours more sunshine than Cornwall (see the data).

But is it unbearably hot? Of course not. Most people would probably prefer it was a little bit warmer.

The 'average maximum temperature' in July and August is 20-21 Celsius, which I'd say is very pleasant (see the data). There are occasional peaks, of course, but the general pattern in summer is pleasant warmth rather than intense heat. You are unlikely to be spending your holiday sat indoors in your pants with a wet flannel slapped on your face.

I tell people that the Isle of Wight's climate is similar to most of England, with a bit more sunshine and an extra degree or two of heat.

Gail won't be coming back to the Isle of Wight because of the baking hot weather

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3. "The Isle of Wight has nothing to do"

I've never really understood this one. On this occasion it was a claim from a lady in her mid 70s. I didn't catch her name, but I am going to guess that it was Sheila. She looked like a Sheila, at least.

As much discussed on this website, the Isle of Wight has bucketloads of things to do, whether you are a family with toddlers, primary school aged children or teenagers or whether you are a woman in her 70s called Sheila.

I didn't get a chance to quiz Sheila further on quite what she would like to do on holiday that wasn't offered by the Isle of Wight. However, I can tell Sheila that the Isle of Wight has outstanding coastal walks, miles of cycle tracks, historic houses and castles, festivals, about 20 gorgeous beaches and dozens of seaside restaurants.

In case you are interested, we've also got a guide to things you can't do on the Isle of Wight, which include buying a sausage roll at Greggs.

There's nothing to do on the Isle of Wight, apart from all the stuff there is to do

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4. "The Isle of Wight ferry is too expensive"

This is a common reason that people give for not visiting the Isle of Wight.

To a certain extent, I agree and I'm not surprised that it puts people off. If you were to head direct to the Red Funnel or Wightlink website and stick in dates for a week in August then you may well be greeted prices of £300 or more. You might conclude you'd rather go to Cornwall and spend that money on surf lessons or crab sandwiches.

However, what a lot of people don't realise is that it's relatively easy to get substantial discounts on the Isle of Wight's ferry fares.

The biggest savings are to be found by asking a big accommodation provider to book the ferry for you. They get a whopping great saving and can pass it on to you. I've seen many occasions where the direct price is £300 but the bundled ferry price is less than £100.

Even if you don't fancy staying with big names like Parkdean Resorts, Away Resorts or Warner Leisure Hotels then there are still decent savings that can be achieved with a bit of effort.

Discounts of around 20% can often be found on our guide to discount ferry travel, which also has other tips and tricks.

Wightlink and Red Funnel ferry fares are cheaper if you book accommodation at the same time

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5. "It's cheaper to fly abroad"

I regularly hear people tell me that they can fly to Ibiza for £29, so why should they pay more than that to visit the Isle of Wight? I can understand the argument, and certainly accept that UK holidays can be very expensive. 

Firstly, it's not really a fair comparison as you aren't taking your car on the plane. For a fairer price comparison, you should either compare the cost of travelling to the Isle of Wight as a foot passenger or the cost of taking four people on the plane and then hiring a car.

Secondly, I think people often overlook the extra costs and hassle that come from travelling abroad. There's the cost of parking at the airport (or the cost of getting dropped off, which is a pet hate of mine), plus the cost of transfers or car hire on the other side. There's also the cost of spending money abroad, the cost of a passport (although you've probably got one already), travel insurance for leaving the UK, European breakdown cover if you're taking the car and so on. 

Other things, such as spending hours on a plane for hours and hanging around at the airport, are either arguments for or against a trip to Ibiza depending on whether you enjoy such things. Of course, there's also the environmental guilt you might (or might not) feel from getting on a plane.

And what about accommodation? It's certainly true that accommodation in the UK can be more expensive than other parts of the world but there are some cheap places to stay on the Isle of Wight. There are also an abundance of free things to do and cheap places to eat out.

Yes, you could go abroad...but why would you?