Parkdean Resorts are one of the biggest holiday providers on the Isle of Wight.

They've got four holiday resorts including:

• Nodes Point Holiday Park, right by the beach in St Helens in the East Wight
• Thorness Bay Holiday Park, also right by a beach. This one's in the north wight and the beach is a bit more shingly and scrubby. It's popular with anglers and it has super sunsets.
• Lower Hyde Holiday Park and Landguard Holiday Park, which are both in Shanklin. The seafront is very family friendly with minigolf and amusements. The resorts are about a mile from the beach, so you will probably want to drive.

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​Back in April 2022, the Isle of Wight County Press reported on plans for new and upgraded properties at the Parkdean Resorts on the Isle of Wight. They said: "Seven additional new caravans will be added at Nodes Point; 32 caravans across the four resorts will be upgraded; and, at Landguard Holiday Park, 11 lodges have been refurbished." 

​We've done a bit of digging around and figured out which are the newest caravans at Nodes Point, Landguard, Lower Hyde and Thorness Bay holiday parks. I personally try to get as new a caravan as possible. The upgrade cost is not always that much (compared to - for example - upgrading to a hot tub) but it can make quite a difference if the caravan is only a few months old. (We've also recently written a guide to the grading system for caravans and lodges at Parkdean Resorts on the Isle of Wight, as it can be a little confusing).​

The Yarmouth Caravans are one of the more expensive caravans at Nodes Point Holiday Park, but they are considerably cheaper than the lodges. They have three bedrooms, so you could squeeze eight people in if you really wanted to. That would include two people sleeping in the lounge. 

They are labelled as 'extra wide' which means that they are at least 12 foot wide according to the Parkdean Resorts grading system. You get a shower room with a toilet, plus an extra toilet. That might cause a bit of a queue in the morning if eight people are waiting for a single shower, but it's quite typical of a holiday park caravan. Bear in mind that you might be using the swimming pool, which has its own showers.

If you do fill it up then it is really good value per person, per night.

Meanwhile, the new lodges at Nodes Point are the Yaverland Lodges. I am not completely sure whether they are new buildings or refurbished, but they will look shiny and new either way.

You'll pay a lot more for a lodge than you do for a caravan at Parkdean Resorts. When we checked prices for a week in September 2022, we found that the Yarmouth caravan was £809 whilst the Yaverland Lodge was more than twice the price at £1949.

However, lodges at Parkdean Resorts are considerably bigger. This one is 20ft wide, which is twice the width of the very cheapest accommodation at a Parkdean Resorts site.

For the upgrade, you get a shower/bath (which is unusual at a holiday park) in one room plus a shower room ensuite off the main bedroom. That means you'll have much shorter queues in the morning!

You also get a washing machine and dishwasher. Again, that's unusual with Parkdean Resorts accommodation on the Isle of Wight.

There are two types of caravan new at Landguard for 2022 - Yew Caravan and Fir Caravan. The accommodation at Landguard is named after trees and doesn't have any relation to the names of the caravans and lodges at Nodes Point.

The Yew Caravans sleep six people in two bedrooms. I would say they are ideal for four people, but you could squeeze an extra person in if you needed to. 

They are 'extra wide' so it's at least 12 foot wide. They come with a single shower as well as an ensuite. 

It's graded as 'premium' which means it is the highest quality offered at Parkdean Resorts. This three tier system isn't used at all the resorts, but where it is you'll see labels on the booking page to say that a caravan or lodge is either Standard (£), Superior (££) or Premium (£££).

We found a week in early September 2022 was £559, which was only £100 more expensive than the cheapest caravan available. That's a worthwhile upgrade by my reckoning!

The other new accommodation at Landguard for 2022 are the Fir Caravans.

They have a similar footprint to the Yew Caravans but squeeze in an extra bedroom. That means you lose a bit of space elsewhere, but they are a good option if you have three or four children and don't want someone to end up in the lounge. The single beds you get in caravans are usually a bit smaller than standard sized single beds so not ideal for a six foot teenager.

Again, you get a shower room, as well as an extra toilet.

There's one grade of caravan at Lower Hyde Holiday Park which is new for 2022. It is the sister park to Landguard in the seaside resort of Shanklin.

​17 of the 66 Parkdean Resorts are described as 'Headliner Parks' based on their entertainment programme.

Two of the Isle of Wight resorts are 'headliner parks' for 2022 including Lower Hyde in Shanklin and Thorness Bay in the North Wight.

The Longboard caravans at Lower Hyde have two bedrooms, but they don't have a sofa bed so you are limited to four people. The definite plus side is that means you have two toilets for four people. There's a single shower to share, which will be fine for four people unless anyone is particularly slow...

It is 'extra wide'. Again, that means it is at least 12 feet wide.

Three different types of caravan at Thorness Bay Holiday Park are new for 2022 - Crew, Squadron and Mast.

The main difference between them is that the Squadron caravans sleep eight people in three bedrooms, whereas the Crew and Mast caravans sleep six people in two bedrooms. If you are a family of five or six then my advice would be to go for the three bedroom model. Sleeping in the lounge is OK for a couple of nights, but it can be a bit inconvenient, particularly if the lounge-sleepers don't go to bed last!

All three have a fridge freezer. Some of the older caravans at Parkdean Resorts on the Isle of Wight just have a fridge which is a bit limiting if you want to mostly self cater, or just keep a box of ice creams to avoid paying seafront prices!

Nodes Point Holiday Park is one of the Parkdean Resorts which has 'received new luxury developments for prospective holiday home owners'.

We've written a guide to owning a caravan on our other site, Holiday Park Guru.

Owning a caravan is very different to buying a standard residential home. In many ways, it is more like buying a car. You get enjoyment and use out of it for several years (and potential income), but it depreciates rather than gaining value. 

You also pay pitch fees which is a bit like the service charge you pay if you own a flat. 

With Parkdean Resorts, the pitch fees range from about £2600 to just over £9000 per year.  

You also have other costs to consider, such as 'rates' which is a contribution towards business rates.

There's also something called a 'licence' which is the length of time that you can keep the caravan you've bought at the site. Holiday park companies don't want tatty old caravans at their lovely resorts, so they put a time limit before you need to replace the caravan, extend the licence or relocate the caravan.

There are other costs which will be more familiar - gas, water, insurance, electricity, TV and broadband. 

The good news is that you can rent out the caravan when you aren't using it, which can offset a lot of the costs. In some cases, people make a profit whilst also having a holiday home they can use.

On the way home from the Isle of Wight Festival 2022, my walking companion commented that he had never been to the Glastonbury Festival and would very much like to.

It's been a few years since my last Glastonbury Festival, but pre-children I went three or four times over about six or seven years. The vagueness on my part is not down to a drug-induced haze but just a poor memory.

Anyway, I do recall a couple of key differences between Glastonbury and the Isle of Wight festival which we debated during our walk back to the cinema car park.

Glastonbury certainly has a longer list of big name bands each year and it's easy to be awed by this. It's a truly great festival and I'm not meaning to put a downer on it.

However, my experience is that the bands at Glastonbury are spread out over so many stages and such a large geographical area that you will only see a fraction of them.

The stage scheduling clashes are severe and I recall a couple of times where there wasn't much of interest to me personally for a few hours in the afternoon, and then there was an almighty collision of five or six great bands all appearing at once.

This is presumably done for practical reasons with Glastonbury being attended by about 210,000 people in 2022 once you include artists, workers, blaggers and people who actually bought a ticket. I'm no expert on crowd management but spreading people out is presumably a lot safer than having everything watching one act.

Definitive figures for the Isle of Wight Festival 2022 are hard to come by, with some reports saying 50,000 attended and others saying 'over 90,000'. I'll update this blog if I get a final answer.

My most memorable stage clash at Glastonbury was choosing between Iggy and the Stooges and The Killers. At the time, I liked both and couldn't decide where to land. Watching a bit of each isn't an easy option because the crowd size and venue is so large that walking between stages is slow. Add in a little rain and the mud soon slows you down as you squelch and slide around. The worst was when the mud turned from a chocolate mousse consistency to a sticky brownie consistency. Boots became stuck after each step and you soon decided to stay put.

Incidentally, I chose The Stooges but the rest of my companions chose The Killers. The Stooges was an excellent gig which included a mass stage invasion and someone unfurling a banner which called for the return of the Wispa.

On the Friday night of the same festival, I had to choose between Arctic Monkeys, Bjork, Hot Chip, Spiritualized, Damien Rice, Fatboy Slim and The Waterboys. I chose Bjork, but I would have happily watched any of the others.
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The Isle of Wight Festival does occasionally have Main Stage/Big Top clashes but they are not so severe. Watching half and half is also quite feasible if you don't mind watching from a distance. There are several other stages but they tend to be local artists and up and coming acts which you can stumble upon rather than big names with big queues.

The differing ticket price is also worth a mention. In 2011, Glastonbury was £195 and the Isle of Wight festival was £175.

In 2022, Glastonbury had increased £85 to £280 whilst the Isle of Wight Festival had only increased by £20 up to £195. For islanders, tickets were only £145, putting them at about half the price of Glastonbury.

I'm not trying to start a rivalry between the two festivals. ​They are very different beasts and they both have a great history and heart. I've had a great time at both. I just felt that the Glastonbury weekend was a good moment to share our post-festival debate.

I also appreciate that this is far from a comprehensive comparison. I haven't dipped into the cost of a portion of chips, the convenience for travelling, the cleanliness of the toilets or the queue time to get in. I'll leave that for another day when I've drawn up some graphs and charts.

Parkdean Resorts is one of the most popular options for an Isle of Wight holiday park. They've got four resorts on the Island, including Landguard and Lower Hyde in Shanklin, Nodes Point in St Helens and Thorness Bay in the North Wight.

You can read our comparison of the resorts here.

When you book a Parkdean holiday on the Isle of Wight you'll be faced with a big choice of accommodation and a big range in prices.

For example, we searched for a week in August 2023 and found that a family of four could paying anything from £909 for a Port Caravan at Thorness Bay Holiday Park through to £3589 for a Sandown Lodge at Nodes Point Holiday Park.

Here's the key bit - there isn't currently a grading system used by Parkdean Resorts across all its resorts for its accommodation. You won't find caravans with the same names at different resorts. This can be a little confusing.

Instead, you need to do a bit of digging to figure out what you're getting for your money.

Parkdean Resorts provide a useful bit of information on the booking page when you search for prices. Look for a green rectangle that says either ‘new this year’ or ‘new on park’.

‘New This Year’ is the best thing you can see. As you probably guessed, it means the caravan is very new and shiny. Personally, I prioritise the age of a caravan over the facilities.

‘New On Park’ is a caravan which has been added within the last three years. That’s not quite as good, but it’s still new enough that they’ll be looking very decent.

If there isn’t a green square then the accommodation has been there for more than three years. That’s not necessarily a big problem, but a shiny new caravan is worth paying a bit more for.

When we checked, all four Parkdean Resorts on the Isle of Wight had two or three grades of caravan listed as ‘new this year’. We also know that in 2022, seven new caravans were added at Nodes Point. There have also been 32 caravans which have been upgraded across the four sites in the last year and 11 of the lodges at Landguard have been refurbished.

The number of people that a caravan can accommodate is important, but the width is also worth checking if you don’t want to spend the week falling out with each other.

Look for the phrase ‘extra wide’ in the caravan description which means it is 12 foot wide or more (that's the same as two average male adults lying down).

If you don’t see 'extra wide', then you can assume that it’s probably a standard 10ft wide caravan which will be cheaper. If you're going to be out and about a lot then a couple of feet isn't a big deal. If you're a family of six, including four teenagers, then a bit more space will be welcome.

Lodges at Parkdean Resorts are considerably wider than caravans. Most that I’ve seen are about 20 foot wide, which is double a standard caravan width.

One of the big upgrades you get with more expensive caravans at Parkdean Resorts on the Isle of Wight is an ensuite with one of the bedrooms.

When we checked, en suite facilities were only available in about 1 in 4 of the different types of accommodation at Thorness Bay or 1 in 5 at Lower Hyde and Landguard. Nodes Point has a lot more ensuite facilities – about two thirds of the different types of accommodation have an ensuite.

Also, note that a lot of caravans just have a shower rather than a bath. If you need a bath, you'll likely need to pay for somewhere with a bit more space.

Of course, remember that a quick dip in the sea is as good as a bath whilst on holiday (Ed: are you sure about this?)

A sea view is worth paying for if you can afford it, in my opinion. We’ve found that if you have children, it’s nice to be able to spend the evening outside on the veranda.

Landguard and Lower Hyde are both inland, so you won’t get a sea view there. Thorness Bay is next to the beach, but the layout means that the accommodation is set back from the beach.

The only Parkdean Resorts accommodation which is advertised as having a sea view is at Nodes Point and is called the Sandown Lodge. My guess is that these are the ones which have the best sea view, as there are quite a few caravans at Nodes Point with at least a 'sea glimpse'.

Hot tubs are available at all of the Parkdean Resorts holiday parks on the Isle of Wight. However, if you do have one it bumps the price up considerably as they need a lot of maintenance (and they’re very popular). They are only available with lodges, rather than caravans.

​The cheapest Parkdean Resorts accommodation on the Isle of Wight with a hot tub in August 2023 was around £2000 when we checked, compared to about £900 for the cheapest caravan. Both of those were at Thorness Bay Holiday Park.

You’ll find hot tubs in one or two of the different types of lodge at Thorness Bay, Lower Hyde, Landguard and Nodes Point.

Washing machines and dishwashers don’t come as standard in Parkdean Resorts caravans on the Isle of Wight. It tends to be the more expensive lodges which have them. Of course, a lot of people eat out and there’s a launderette onsite you can use if you need to clean your pants.

Central heating and double glazing are pretty much standard in Parkdean Resorts holiday parks on the Isle of Wight. I only managed to find one grade of caravan which didn’t have double glazing (it was at Lower Hyde).

Of course, that makes a big difference if it’s cold but it also makes some difference in regulating the inside temperature if it’s very hot.

The more expensive accommodation at Parkdean Resorts has a veranda, which is worth paying for in summer but less important if it’s cold.

At Nodes Point, verandas are quite common which makes the most of its location overlooking the sea. Verandas are less common at Thorness Bay, Lower Hyde and Landguard. I would start with Nodes Point if sitting outside is important to you.

Towels aren’t provided as standard at Parkdean Resorts on the Isle of Wight. I wouldn’t upgrade just to get towels provided, but it’s something that you get with most of the lodges rather than with the cheaper caravans.

The number of bedrooms certainly affects the price, but it's not as significant a difference as you might think. We regularly see deals where an eight person caravan is only a few pounds more expensive than a similar six person caravan.

As you may know, a lot of two bedroom caravans are listed as being for six people. That includes two people sleeping in the lounge which is not ideal in my experience. It’s fine for a short break but after a few nights it’s a bit annoying!  

Whatever you choose, you’ll get bedding provided and use of the facilities but it's worth understanding that there are notable differences between the accommodation.

My favourite trick is to choose the factors which are most important to me and then put the accommodation in ascending price order.

If you're really keen, you might like to do what we did and put our 10 factors into a table to make the comparison easier.

We've picked out the cheapest caravan at Parkdean Resorts Isle of Wight for a week in August 2023, as well a mid priced option and the most expensive lodge we could find.

If you can only afford a modest upgrade then my advice would be to seek out the caravans which are listed as 'new on park' or 'new this year'.

The difference in price between older and newer caravans can be quite minimal. 

For example, we searched for a week in August 2023 at Thorness Bay and found that it was only £40 to upgrade from the cheapest caravan (£909) to one which was 'new on park' (i.e. less than three years old). To upgrade from the cheapest caravan to one which was new this year was an extra £250.

An upgrade to a slightly more expensive caravan tends to get you a bit more space and an en-suite which are both big plus points if you are filling up a caravan. They probably aren't worth paying for if you have a small family.

Upgrading to a lodge with a hot tub requires a much bigger increase in your budget. The cheapest we found for our comparison week in August 2023 was £2089 for a Harbour Lodge at Thorness Bay - more than twice the price of the cheapest caravan at the same resort.

It's also worth thinking about the location. I would say that a veranda is more worthwhile at Nodes Point - which overlooks the beach - than it is at Landguard or Lower Hyde which are a mile inland.

Also worth considering is the time of year you are visiting. An off peak upgrade is much cheaper than a school holiday upgrade. You may decide to go for the cheapest accommodation in summer, because you'll be out all day and can spend the money you've saved on eating out. If you visit in mid October then you may spend more time indoors and getting a hot tub or a wider property won't be such a big increase in price.

You may have noticed that Landguard Holiday Park grades its accommodation into Standard, Superior and Premium. In summary, that means:

• Standard (usually cheapest, described as ‘simple, affordable and excellent value’)
• Superior (mid-priced, described as offering ‘every home comfort with a little bit more space and a fresher finish’)
• Premium (usually best and most expensive, described as 'our latest and most spacious holiday homes')

This three tier system is useful, but there isn’t a published tick list of facilities which determines the grading so it's hard to know if an upgrade is worth it for you. I prefer to use the filters on the booking page, as shown above.

For example, one of the most important things for us on holiday is a dishwasher as we usually self cater rather than eating out. It's not immediately clear which of the three grades would include a dishwasher but you can figure that out with the filters.

Thorness Bay, Nodes Point and Lower Hyde don’t yet use this three-tier system so it's hard to compare like for like between resorts.

There was some debate amongst our party as to which year Muse had previously played at the Isle of Wight Festival. Of course we could have settled the debate with three seconds on a smartphone, but where's the fun in that?
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I was convinced that they hadn't played the same year as the Rolling Stones. I put the Rolling Stones as 2008 and Muse as 2007. It turns out I was wrong and they were on the same bill together in 2007.

We caught a few minutes of The Fratellis and The Proclaimers before further pottering around the site. Needless to say, we took several photos in front of the giant Isle of Wight Festival sign, as it traditional.

There are plenty of parents who do a full day at the Isle of Wight Festival with children but we prefer to pace them to avoid the risk of tantrums in front of thousands of people. And the kids might lose it too - arf arf!

The evening session had a somewhat different feel to it, with the children at home (not alone, I should point out) and the evening drawing in.

After Friday's heat, it was strong wings which provided the main challenge on Saturday night. Blossoms had to cut their set short because of a public safety issue, which threw the schedule out.

Kasabian were next up and drew a big crowd including Peter Crouch who joyfully danced on stage during the finale. 

With the rain coming and going, we only caught part of their set and spent a good deal of time in the Platform One tent for a bit of shelter and local music. We watched The Optimists, which make an excellent racket. I'm afraid I have never worked for the NME so I can't tell you of which two bands they are the illegitimate love child. However, they are on Spotify which might give you a better idea.

Anyway, back to 2022 and The Happy Mondays headlined on Thursday night. They had been due to play the Thursday night in 2020 but Covid got in the way. Heather Small also returned, three years after her last Isle of Wight Festival appearance.

There was also a nice bit of scheduling from the Isle of Wight Festival organisers who decided to book the Rick Parfitt Jnr Band for Thursday night. Rick Parfitt Senior headlined the Thursday night at the 2016 Isle of Wight Festival with Status Quo, a few months before he died.

As is traditional, Friday at the Isle of Wight Festival is more like two-thirds of a day rather than a full day of music. I like to think that this was a request from the headteachers of the Isle of Wight who were seeing half empty classrooms on a Friday in June.

Plan A for Friday night was that Lionel Richie would headline. He was originally booked for 2020 and then 2021 and then 2022 before announcing he was going to ‘hold off' his European tour due to the risk of Covid. In the unlikely event that Lionel Richie is browsing niche blogs and has found this one, I would like to wish him well and hope that one day he will be able to make it to the Isle of Wight. I can recommend some lovely hotels, or campsites if he prefers something more rustic.

I would like to have been at the planning meeting when Lionel Richie phoned John Giddings to explain that he couldn’t make it (yes, I know it was more likely to be his manager, but that’s a less interesting image). John Giddings must have considered replacements become concluding that the only thing that that might come close to Dancing On The Ceiling was nine bright red RAF planes flying in formation and spraying smoke out their rear ends.

Prior to the headline slot, Madness and Nile Rodgers and Chic both took to the main stage. Both are excellent choices for a summertime festival with a sufficient number of hits that even my mother would be able to dance awkwardly and say “oooh, I know this one”. It was the second time Nile Rodgers and Chic had played (the other time was 2018, when Kasabian, Depeche Mode, Liam Gallagher and The Killers headlined). For Madness, it was their third appearance at Seaclose Park, after 2012 and 2019.

Without Lionel Richie it fell to Lewis Capaldi to step up to headline as the weather finally began to cool, with a set which included ‘Someone You Loved’ and ‘Before You Go’.

​Good times!

The National Trust has just launched a new pass which is aimed at visitors to the Isle of Wight who aren't already members. You can either buy it from the Isle of Wight's National Trust attractions or you can bundle it in with a ferry booking.

We've done some number crunching to figure out if it's worth buying. 

If you're short on time...my conclusion is that it's worth buying if you plan to visit The Needles Old Battery and Mottistone Manor Gardens.

Anyway, for the full answer, read on.

An individual National Trust Isle of Wight Explorer Pass costs £16 for an adult and lasts for seven days. An adult family ticket is £24 if there's one parent with children or £40 for two parents with children. 

It gives you seven days of free entry to the National Trust's attractions on the Isle of Wight and use of their car parks.

That compares to £76.80 for annual National Trust annual membership for an adult, £83.40 for a family with one adult or £133.80 for a family with two adults (2022 prices).

There are quite a few National Trust attractions and car parks on the Isle of Wight. However, it's worth realising that two of the biggest historic attractions - Osborne House and Carisbrooke Castle - are owned by English Heritage so aren't included in the deal.

Here's the National Trust attractions on the Isle of Wight, including the non-Gift Aid price:

• Mottistone Manor Gardens and Estate (nicely kept gardens which will appeal to gardeners, plus a den building area for children. There's usually a trail for children). £7.50 for adults, £3.75 for children, £18.75 for a family.
• The Needles Old Battery (historic military base with great views of The Needles Lighthouse and Alum Bay. This is a separate attraction to the part of Alum Bay with the chairlift and the funfair rides). £7.50 for adults, £3.75 for children, £18.75 for a family.
• Newtown Old Town Hall (quirky town hall for a town which was never really a town. There's also a nature reserve. Good if you like walking, history, birdwatching and wearing wellies.) £5 for adults, £2.50 for children, £12.50 for a family.
• Bembridge Windmill (only surviving windmill on the Isle of Wight. Quite small grounds but good fun if you are able to climb up the steep ladders to the top). £6 for adults, £3 for children and £15 for families.
• Bembridge Fort (operates a bit differently to the others, as you can't just turn up. Volunteers hold tours for pre-booked groups). £5 for adults, £2.50 for children, £12.50 for families although children under 10 aren't allowed at this one.

There are also several car parks which are owned by the National Trust. 

Some of them are free but I seem to recall there being a charge at Brook Chine, Compton Bay/Hanover Point and the St Helen's Duver. I think it was £3 when I last visited, but please update me in the comments if you know otherwise.

If you are a National Trust enthusiast who is going to spend their entire week's holiday touring National Trust properties then you will save quite a bit.

For example, a family of four who visits the National Trust's four main Isle of Wight attractions and then visits two car parks will save £31. To put it another way, they'll spend £40 instead of £71 (I've not included Bembridge Fort as it's only visited by a small number of people because you have to pre-book and then meet a volunteer for a tour). An individual would pay £16 instead of £32 if they visited four attractions and two car parks.

However, I can't help feel that if you're that keen on National Trust style properties then you are probably members already and won't need the pass.

More realistic is that you might be planning on visiting The Needles whilst on an Isle of Wight holiday because a) you went there as a schoolchild or b) you've seen a grinning TV presenter pointing at it on BBC2.

There are two separate attractions at The Needles/Alum Bay. The National Trust half of the attraction is a military battery which has terrific views, a tea rooms and a cool tunnel which leads to a lookout. Meanwhile, The Needles Pleasure Park has the chairlift, glass blowing, minigolf, boat ride and small funfair rides. Most people love it, my father always went out of his way to avoid it.

If you're planning on visiting The Needles then I would make time to see the National Trust part of the attraction. You need to be able to walk about half a mile or catch a bus as there's no car park. 

I would then take a look at the other three National Trust attractions and see if any of them appeal. If you think they look like your sort of thing then I would get the pass and then make an effort to visit one extra one to get better value out of it.

Personally, I have a lot of affection for Mottistone Manor Gardens and happily return there each time my mother suggests it (which is quite often). The cost of The Needles and Mottistone Manor Gardens combined is £15 for an adult so you might as well pay the extra £1 for a 7 day pass. They're both in the West Wight so you could do two in one day.

I enjoyed Bembridge Windmill but it's the sort of thing you visit for an hour rather than returning again and again. You might like to combine it with other stuff in the Bembridge area. Newtown Old Hall is interesting if you like history, but you don't need to pay to see the actual nature reserve.

So here we are again, with the Isle of Wight Festival about to begin and the sun shining. I predict a lot of people will get sunburnt on Thursday, Friday and Saturday before a bit of light rain cools them off on Sunday.

I am not one of those people who takes this moment for granted. 

As I keep saying, there have been so many festivals which have come and gone since the Isle of Wight Festival revival in 2002 - not least several which were on the Island (Bestival, Fairweather Festival, VDub etc).

The Isle of Wight Festival has survived headliners cancelling (Morrissey, most notably), the torrential rain of 2012, the Covid cancellation of 2020 and the Covid delays of 2021 (see our festival history guide). And over the last 20 years we've watched David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Jay-Z, Sir Paul McCartney, REM, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Bruce Springsteen, The Strokes, Neil Young, Duran Duran, The Police, Muse, Amy Winehouse and The Who. And as previously discussed, the ticket price remains very similar to what it was 10 years ago.

2022 should be another excellent year. I am a little less obsessed about line-ups than I was a few years ago. I no longer have a list of stages with circles round the artists that I want to see ("come on guys, we've only got four minutes to get to the Big Top!"). With children in tow, I am now happy to wander the site, catch a few acts, ride the big wheel, try on a funny hat in the Kids Zone, sit down in the sunshine and so on.

Here are five things that the Guru Family are looking forward to at Isle of Wight Festival 2022:

Let me be honest. There are very few bands which I like which have come from the Isle of Wight.

Seeing Wet Leg shoot to the top of the album chart has been a real treat. 

I managed to miss them last year, when they were much less well known. 

In 2022, they are due at the Big Top on Sunday at 4.25pm. I'm expecting a large crowd and a singalong for Wet Dream and Chaise Longue.

Muse have played the Isle of Wight Festival before. Back in 2007, they headlined Saturday night on the day before that the Rolling Stones and Amy Winehouse played together. That was some year.

However, 15 years is a pretty long gap between performances so it feels like a big deal. Sunday night is traditionally a bit less wild than Saturday night at the Isle of Wight Festival with an earlier finishing time to make Monday morning a little easier. I have a feeling it will be a little more raucous this year.

Set lists on Muse's current tour have included some real some bangers such as Supermassive Black Hole, Plug In Baby, Uprising and Time Is Running Out.

Muse are playing at 9.20pm on the main stage.

Friday night is an eclectic mix of main stage excellence at the Isle of Wight Festival with Lewis Capaldi, Madness, Niles Rodgers and Chic, Sigrid and The Vaccines.

But how do you go about replacing Lionel Richie, who was forced to pull out of the festival a few months ago?

The answer - of course - is a formation team of nine stunt pilots drawing hearts in the sky. 

I've not been down to Seaclose Park yet, so I can't say for sure if the big wheel is there again.

If it is, I'll be joining the queue. Some of our finest festival moments have been watching a main stage act from a great height. Early evening is the ideal team to climb onboard in my opinion, as long as the sun is shining.

Legend has it that Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers decided to form Wet Leg whilst at the summit of the wheel. I shall look out for the capsule with the blue plaque.

Mrs Guru and I don't quite share the same taste in music. She's a big fan of musicals and 90s/00s pop so in previous years has taken great enjoyment from watching Will Young, Mel C and The Corrs at the Isle of Wight Festival.

This year, I can confidently predict that Mark Owen and Craig David will be top of her watch-list. 

Craig David's set doesn't start until 11.45pm on Friday night, so my hunch is that the winner will be Mark Owen at 3.40pm on Saturday in the Big Top. 

If I get a chance, I must ask him about the Take That video which was filmed on Sandown beach in the 1990s.

I think you'll agree, it hasn't dated one bit...

This is not a long blog full of witty anecdotes and glorious panoramic photos of sunset soaked beaches.

However, I expect a lot of people are searching for some useful information on (relatively) cheap petrol and diesel prices to lower the cost of driving around the Isle of Wight on holiday.

On the day I checked, Asda in Newport was the cheapest of the Isle of Wight's petrol stations by a couple of pence (PO30 2QH).

The longer answer is that the cheapest petrol on the Isle of Wight can usually be found in one of the five supermarkets with forecourts. 

• There are three supermarkets with petrol and diesel forecourts in Newport including Morrisons (PO30 1JQ), Sainsburys (PO30 5ZB) and Asda (PO30 2QH). If you are staying in the South Wight (Ventnor, Niton, St Lawrence) or the West Wight (Freshwater, Yarmouth, Brighstone) then you will probably pass through Newport on the way to somewhere else.
• In Ryde, there's a large Tesco with a petrol station (PO33 1QS) near to McDonalds. This will be the most convenient cheap petrol for you if you are staying in Bembridge, St Helen's, Wootton or Ryde. Please feel free to spend the money you've saved on a couple of McFlurries.
• In Lake, there's a Morrisons in Lake with a filling station (PO36 9PA). This is your best bet for cheap petrol if you are in Sandown or Shanklin.

There are - of course - some independent fuel stations and some which are part of other chains. These tend to be more expensive but you may decide it's not worth going out your way to say a couple of pounds.

2023 Update: Mike from Wight Hat in Cowes has been in touch to say that they have a new website that lists live prices at some of the Isle of Wight's petrol stations. You can find it here.