I'm a big fan of the Hot UK Deals website which has just published a long list of Premier Inn rooms which are available for £35-£43 per night.

Obviously, my mouse went straight to the Isle of Wight deals which include two of the Isle of Wight's three Premier Inn hotels.

The dates which are available at the time of writing include:

Premier Inn Newport:

29/10 02/11 03/11 05/11 09/11 12/11 16/11 17/11 19/11 23/11 07/01 14/01 21/01 28/01 04/02

Premier Inn Merrie Gardens (Sandown):

08/10 22/10 29/10 30/10 31/10 01/11 02/11 03/11 04/11 05/11 06/11 07/11 08/11 09/11 10/11 11/11 12/11 13/11 14/11 15/11 16/11 17/11 18/11 19/11 20/11 21/11 22/11 23/11 07/01 14/01 21/01 28/01 04/02

Sorry for the odd formatting, but I've done a copy and paste job (with thanks to the Hot UK Deals member who wrote it all up).

There are three things I would like to you know before booking:

1. Most of the available dates are in the winter. The Isle of Wight is not at its best in winter. Yes, there are things you can do and you will find brochures talking about 'cosy pubs' and 'crisp walks in the winter sunshine' but you may also face 'closed restaurants' and 'torrential rain'. Read our guide to winter days out for some ideas of what you will be able to do. The Isle of Wight weather is a little better than mainland England but don't expect miracles.
   
   
2. The newest Isle of Wight Premier Inn on Sandown Seafront isn't mentioned in the Hot UK Deals list, but I found some availability when I checked dates in November 2023. That hotel has the major advantage of offering sea views, whereas the Merrie Gardens hotel is inland, near to Morrisons. It's not actually in Sandown either, it's in Lake which is next door. It's much easier to park at the Newport and Merrie Gardens hotels than it is at the Premier Inn on Sandown Seafront. Read our full comparison of the Isle of Wight Premier Inns. 
   
   
3. Thirdly, the cheapest way to visit the Isle of Wight is often to get a ferry and accommodation bundle. Some accommodation providers get a generous discount and pass on the saving. For example, Warner Hotels in Bembridge and Yarmouth do excellent deals on the ferry. This sort of thing isn't available via Premier Inn (as far as I'm aware), so you will need to book the ferry yourself. You might find that there are better deals once you factor this in.

I've long-argued that the Isle of Wight punches above its weight when it comes to events.

I reckon there's something happening most weekends in the summer. 

Some of the new events for Summer 2023 include:

Robin Hill often holds events in the summer, including the Isle of Wight ballooning festival. This summer, they've got live music include 'beloved classics of Chicago, Wicked, Waitress, and Miss Saigon' at West End In The Woods on July 1st. I'm not sure if they'll attempt to land a helicopter in the amphitheatre for Miss Saigon...

It took me a while to get my round head what this rather cool event actually is.

The Architects of Air Luminarium is an art installation which resembles a big inflatable village from the outside. You can wander through corridors and admire the pretty lights at Northwood House.

Red Funnel are doing a cheap bundle deal for ferry tickets and entry to the Luminarium. It's taking place in early August.

Last summer, we turned up at Blackgang Chine in the evening to find the whole place dancing at their summer party for families.

This summer, they're doing a Sunset Session for grown-ups, with Ellie Sax.

The Jack Up events aren't exactly new but they have changed sufficiently to warrant a mention. For a few years, Jack Up The 80s grew to a bigger and bigger retro festival of 1980s and 1990s.

It is now a series of events throughout the year, including the Jack Up Summer Party which is a mix of cover bands and original artists.

Tapnell Farm Park regularly puts on events in the summer, including parties for kids.

This summer they are venturing into comedy for the first time with Milton Jones in the Comedy Barn.

I reckon that the Lymington to Yarmouth crossing is probably the best crossing for an Isle of Wight day trip as a foot passenger. Portsmouth/Southsea to Ryde and Southampton to Cowes/East Cowes have their advantages but Lymington to Yarmouth is my first choice.

Why's that, I hear you politely ask? Well, you arrive in an historic town next door to a castle and can then hop straight onto an open top bus, which tours round some lovely parts of the Isle of Wight coastline.

Wightlink has now come up with a bundle deal called the 'West Wight Wanderer Day Ranger' so I thought we would crunch the numbers and see if it's any good.

For £30, you get:

• a foot passenger day return from Lymington to Yarmouth (currently worth £21)
• a day ticket on the open top bus which tours round the West Wight (currently worth £14)
• an off peak rail return from Brockenhurst to Lymington pier (currently worth £7.80)

So, the best case scenario is a saving of £12.80.

It's a good deal but I would caution that it might not always be the best offer around. 

Let's compare the cost of a day trip to the Isle of Wight for a family of four as an example:

Option 1: West Wight Wanderer Day Ranger. 

Children aged 5-15 years are charged £18, so the total for two adults and two children would be £96.

Option 2: 'Kids Go Free'

Wightlink currently do a 'kids go free' offer during school holidays for 5-15 years. A family of four would pay for two adult fares (2 x £21 = £42) and can then get a group ticket on the open top bus (£35). If they also needed to pay for a Brockenhurst to Lymington Pier train then it would add on £16.60. That gives a total of £93.60 or £77 if you don't use the rail section of the bundle deal.

And so, another Isle of Wight Festival draws to a close with performances from Robbie Williams, Blondie, Mika, Niall Horan, Ella Henderson, Phoenix, Chinchilla and Manic Street Preachers (amongst others).

Here are a few photos - see you next year! Photos are used with permission of Isle of Wight Festival 2023.

Saturday at the Isle of Wight Festival 2023 was another warm one, with the headliners having a similar theme to four years ago. In 2019, it was George Ezra and Fatboy Slim on Saturday night whilst this year it was George Ezra and the Chemical Brothers. 

Elsewhere on the Main Stage was a return for NDubz, 13 years after their other Isle of Wight Festival appearance. Sam Ryder made his Isle of Wight Festival debut whilst Gabrielle and Anne Marie returned after playing at Seaclose Park in 2016 and 2019 respectively.

All photos are used with permission from Isle of Wight Festival 2023

Over in the Big Top, highlights included The Last Dinner Party who many are expecting to hit the big time, along with the Reytons, FLO and Example.

A few years ago, Friday night became the 'dance night' at the Isle of Wight Festival thanks to appearances from Calvin Harris (2014), Prodigy (2015), Faithless (2016) and David Guetta (2017).

That's shifted a bit more recently and we've seen a mix of big names headlining on the first Main Stage night at the Isle of Wight Festival. 

There's also a nice mix this year of pop and rock acts. As previously discussed, I think including a fair few pop acts is a clever move as it encourages whole families to attend the festival. On Friday, that included Sugababes and Sophie Ellis Bextor.

Other highlights on Friday included Human League in the Big Top, Isle of Wight band Plastic Mermaids and Pulp who headlined after previously appearing at the 2011 festival.

Here are a few photos from Friday, used with permission of Isle of Wight Festival 2023:

Thursday has traditionally been seen as the 'campers' night at the Isle of Wight Festival. The main stage is still being tidied up for Friday but the Big Top is ready. It's a clever way of encouraging people to arrive across two days rather than trying to cram everyone onto the ferries in one day.

By my reckoning, 2008 was the first year that the Isle of Wight Festival offered four nights of music.

Over the years we've had some pretty big names headlining on Thursday night including The Human League (2009), Boy George (2011), Primal Scream (2012), Razorlight (2017) and one of my favourites - Wombats - in 2018.

This year, Thursday night was headlined with a Groove Armada DJ Set with other acts including LF System, Oh My God! It's The Church and Lottery Winners. The final act on that list is particularly impressive since they had a number one album about six weeks ago.

Anyway, here are some photos from Thursday, used with permission from Isle of Wight Festival 2023.

This is just a quick blog to share a new* discount I've found with Wightlink for 15% off car ferry travel and 20% off passenger journeys.

The discount won't be available to absolutely everyone but the criteria is so broad that I think it will include a huge number of visitors and residents.

It is for journeys to or from the Isle of Wight and is valid for: teachers and other school staff, health care workers, carers (paid carers or someone who helps look after a relative), charity workers (and their families) and volunteers for 'any organisation or group'. 

It is free to sign up and took me about a minute to fill out the form. You can get the discount via these similar websites:

• DiscountsForCarers.com ('For care assistants, live-in carers, those that care for loved ones, and everyone in between').
• DiscountsForTeachers.com ('For teaching assistants, headteachers, administrators, and everyone in between').
• CharityWorkerDiscounts.com ('for charity workers, and is also available to their families and retired charity workers' and also 'anyone who volunteers in any role for any organisation or group')
• HealthServiceDiscounts ('For nurses, doctors, administrators, midwives, and everyone in between')
  
  

The three which caught my attention are:

1. unpaid carers which would include anyone looking after a relative or loved one. There doesn't seem to be a requirement to be doing this on a formal basis or being in receipt of benefits for doing so.
2. families of charity workers, so you could presumably get the discount if your sister-in-law works at the donkey sanctuary.
3. volunteers for 'any organisation or group'. This one is particularly broad. My reading is that it could include things like social groups, churches and schools as well as registered charities but you may want to dig into the smallprint yourself.

I signed up for the charity website as I do a little bit of volunteering (Ed: excellent humblebrag). My brother works for a charity so I also qualify that way.

I wasn't asked which charity I volunteer with and I wasn't asked to provide evidence. ​Of course, I would strongly encourage you to only sign up if you are genuinely entitled to. 

​*This discount may well have been available for months but it's the first I've heard of it.

What an odd question. I'm not sure I like your tone.

For a long time, Wightlink has offered 15% off car ferry travel and 20% off foot passenger travel through workplace discount schemes and things like English Heritage Membership. Many of these are in our ferry discounts guide already.

However, these deals usually require you to pay for membership or do something like join the army. I considered enlisting but I doubt I'd pass basic military training, even if there was the promise of a 15% ferry discount at the end. 

These 'new' deals don't require you to pay anything to sign up.

This seems like a good time to have a quick run down of other ways of getting a similar 15% car ferry/20% foot passenger discount with Wightlink:

• English Heritage Membership (from £69 for annual membership)
• Gardens Illustrated Magazine Subscribers (from about £20)
• AA Members
• Blue Light Card holders
• CSMA (Civil Service)

Yes, there might be. Wightlink's standard fares aren't necessarily the cheapest option, even with the 15% off deal. The Isle of Wight ferries use a 'flexible' pricing structure so they increase with demand.

I would do these three things first before you book:

1. Check if your accommodation provider can book the ferry for you at a discount. This can slash the cost of the ferry in half in some cases. It's particularly generous if you stay with a big name such as Away Resorts (four holiday parks and lodge resorts), Parkdean Resorts (four caravan parks with lodges and glamping) or Warner Leisure (two big hotels which are both adults only and popular with older visitors). 
2. Check the price with Red Funnel, which travels from Southampton to East Cowes in about one hour. We've got a 10% off deal which is ongoing (see this page) and they sometimes do more generous discounts of 15-25% off. In previous years, they have offered a third off for Black Friday. 
3. If you are visiting family, ask them if they've been sent vouchers in the post by Red Funnel. They sometimes offer fixed prices deals which are a big discount.

There are other options - such as Wightlink's Tesco Clubcard deal and foot passenger discounts - in our guide to 40 ways to save on the Isle of Wight ferry. There are also better deals for residents if you are using the ferries regularly, which are also explored in this blog post.

Most importantly, bring a sandwich and a flask when you catch the ferry. I once saw a ham and cheese sandwich for £4.40 on a Wightlink ferry and I'm still complaining about it.

I always raise an eyebrow when a concert promoter tells you that they are 'nearly sold out'. 

Is this a strategy to shift a few tickets because they've still got 30,000 left and have spent the morning crying?

Anyway, we can say with confidence that the Isle of Wight Festival 2023 really has sold out. Well, there are a few day tickets left for Friday but all the weekend tickets have gone so you will need to try your luck with the resale market.

This is quite an achievement during a cost of living crisis. It's also excellent news as it should increase the chance of the Isle of Wight Festival continuing to come back year after year, unlike many other UK Festivals.

As an aside, let's not take for granted that the Isle of Wight Festival will go on forever. Anyone want to reminiscence about V Festival, T in the Park or the Island's Bestival? Please consider these extinct festivals next time you complain about the line-up being too: similar to six years ago/full of people you haven't heard of because you aren't 17/full of people you haven't heard of because you aren't 56/full of people you have heard of but don't like.

Here is my theory as to why the Isle of Wight Festival 2023 has sold out:

I've made this argument before, but if you a) live on the Isle of Wight and b) pull your finger out then the Isle of Wight Festival is extraordinarily good value.

If you bought early bird Islander tickets for the Isle of Wight Festival 2023 you would have paid about £145 for the weekend including booking fees. Anyone who doesn't consider that a bargain for four days of music and camping needs to have a quick check on Ticketmaster. Gigs don't cost £5 anymore, Grandad.

​Some campsites cost more than £145 for four nights.

An adult ticket to see Robbie Williams in Norfolk in August will cost you £85 plus booking fees. A ticket to see Pulp in Sheffield is £106 plus fees. I admit that the latter is the 'resale' value on Ticketmaster but it's the cheapest ticket I could find. Keep in mind that neither of those include camping which piles on the cost for the promoter.

If you live on the Isle of Wight and waited for the lineup to come out then you would still only pay about £170 for a weekend ticket. 

We waffled on about this in a blog post back in 2019.

The Isle of Wight Festival organisers seem to have taken the strategy of not significantly raising ticket prices over the last 12 years.

​Way back in 2011, the weekend price was £175 whilst in 2023 it had increased to £215. I can't honestly remember if the 2011 price was including booking fees but it's still a very modest increase over 12 years.

Meanwhile, Download Festival was £170 in 2011 but had increased to £315 in 2023. 

That puts the Isle of Wight Festival a full £100 cheaper.

I've simplified the argument a bit here by not including early bird deals and so on, but you get my point.

Red Funnel have also been doing some very reasonable ferry fares for the Isle of Wight festival. Foot passengers can get a £17 return deal, which is about half what you would normally pay. They also did some early bird deals for those bringing car which were around £100 return.

This is particularly good when you consider that the Isle of Wight ferries usually increase fares during busy times. My hunch is that this 'investment' of not emptying everyone's pockets at the first opportunity means people are more likely to come back to the Isle of Wight for a holiday at a later date.

Sorry to obsess over pricing but it's also worth saying that the Isle of Wight Festival organisers have made the decision not to rinse parents who want to bring children.

I bought a kids' weekend ticket this year for £11 which is slightly more than a trip to the cinema for us. 

Organisers have obviously realised that the festival's audience from the early 2000s is still keen to attend but now has the glorious blessing of parental responsibility. If you start charging adult prices for kids tickets then it will get out of reach for many people.

Don't get me wrong, I'm one of the cool kids. 

As a child, I shunned Power FM and recorded the late night rock show on Radio 1 onto a cassette. I passed around Pixies albums in high school and had heard of Wet Leg before they even existed.

However, I do think that including several pop acts is a wise move as it drags in a wider audience than you will get if you just stick with guitar bands.

Mrs Guru wouldn't enjoy Pulp, The Courteeners or Manic Street Preachers but she would happily watch Robbie Williams, Sugababes, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Mika, Gabrielle and Sam Ryder.

Some will complain that there's too many pop acts but I can guarantee you that there'll be plenty of guitar bands thrashing out an almighty noise.

On a related note, I do think the Isle of Wight Festival would benefit from a female headliner in the next few years. In the last 20 years I can only think of Fleetwood Mac as being main stage headliners with a female singer.

Florence + The Machine have performed and so did Pink, but neither headlined. Amy Winehouse joined the Rolling Stones on stage but only as a guest.

I wouldn't mind a big name female pop act performing, even though it's not what I sing in the shower. If the Festival can have Robbie Williams in 2023, why not have Kylie Minogue in 2024? 

This may not make a big difference as to whether a festival sells out, but good weather makes a difference as to whether people come back. 

I always quote the statistic that the Isle of Wight gets 500 hours more sunshine each year than London (I found that on a Met Office comparison about five years ago). You'll find claims that the Isle of Wight is the sunniest place in England, but it really depends how you measure sunshine. I won't bore you with the details (Ed: you usually do...).

Anyway, I went to a couple of very wet Glastonbury festivals back in the day. It didn't completely ruin the weekend but it came close. Walking barefoot to find a toilet at 3am was a low point, as was getting back into my sleeping bag afterwards. 

The modern day Isle of Wight Festival has only had one really wet year out of 20. It was 2012, when Tom Petty, Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen were in the lineup. The cruel twist is that it was the year that they changed the date of the festival to avoid clashing with the Jubilee. 

Other than that, the weather has been pretty decent which makes standing in a field for days on end much more pleasant.

You will hear a lot of rude things about Sandown at the moment, including a suggestion that it is the Isle of Wight's 'Turd Town'.

We didn't disagree with everything the Turd Towns visitor said but we felt a rebuttal was in order, without brushing over Sandown's obvious issues.

I headed off for Lake at about 6.30 in the morning. 

This is a time of day that I once considered to be unpleasant but now quite enjoy. There is an initial reluctance to get out of bed but I could see the early sunshine coming through the window in Carisbrooke, which was enough to get me moving.

My plan was to park in Lake, and then walk between Sandown and Shanklin. There's not a lot of parking in Lake, but I managed to find the one unused parking space on the residential roads near to the coastal path and made a swift exit. I always fear that I will get an earful from a local resident, so I moved away from the car with the pace of a cheetah and the sheepishness of a, er, sheep.

Fellow money savers may like to read our guide to cheap and free parking on the Isle of Wight. It's a thrilling read.

Lake itself is - to be honest - quite a dull place but the beach is a real gem. You'll sometimes see it referred to as Dunroamin Beach. It has golden sands and high cliffs but doesn't have the crowds of Sandown or Shanklin because it's not quite so convenient. If you can't park on a residential road then you'll probably end up at the big council pay and display car park which is attached to The Heights.

The main road through Lake used to have a cinema called Screen De Luxe which apparently closed in 2000 with a screening of Gladiator. One of my life's regrets is never visiting Lake's cinema, since Newport or Ryde was always more convenient. I have a memory that it had intervals with a puppet show to encourage you to buy more popcorn (comment below if you can clarify this detail).

Anyway, my plan was to get some good drone photography of Sandown's Pier and then get some footage of the crumbling Ocean Hotel.

The sun was glistening as I walked along the seafront towards the Pier and there was the pleasant scene of deckchairs being unfolded and cafes opening. Deckchair renters were adjusting their bumbags and unfolding their parasols.

I embarked on my mission to make a video that shows Sandown to be a sunny paradise and certainly not a Turd Town. This proved very easy, since Sandown has some of the best sand on the Isle of Wight (Countryfile Magazine named it the UK's best beach in 2019).

Sandown also has the Isle of Wight's last kiss-me-quick style pier. Ryde Pier, Totland Pier and Yarmouth Pier are all very attractive but do they have an Aztec themed minigolf course? Sandown Pier isn't swanky but that's not really the idea of a traditional seaside pier.

There has also been some significant money invested on Sandown seafront in recent years. There's a new Premier Inn, which was much delayed by expensive 'technical issues'. It has a nice pub-style restaurant attached called Sandown Cliffs where I twice gorged myself on a mixed grill. The Trouville still looks smart and gets good reviews from customers. There seemed to be a notable number of people happily eating their breakfast as I walked past.

At the Yaverland end of Sandown there's also been significant investment in the last decade. Sandham Gardens now has enough to fill half a day including the bouncy nets and the minigolf course which opened about four years ago. There's also the Bandstand which is one of our favourite places for a meal with a sea view.

The main problem with Sandown at the moment is the row of empty hotels on the seafront. Roofs are letting in a little more daylight than they should, windows are broken and letters are falling off signs.

This feels like a real tragedy when they have prime locations overlooking such a gorgeous stretch of coastline. 

The most prominent is The Ocean Hotel.

The Daily Star reports that it opened in 1899 and was visited by Charles Darwin. This would be a terrific nugget of local information if it weren't for the minor detail that Charles Darwin died 17 years earlier in 1882. The same report also says that Lewis Carroll was a visitor. Unfortunately, he had been dead for a year by 1899 so something doesn't quite add up.

On The Wight sheds a little more light on this confusion. It suggests that Lewis Carroll visited 'The King’s Head, the gabled section of Ocean Hotel' which was extended and renamed as the Ocean Hotel in 1899.

If you want to fall into a rabbit warren of local news, take a look at this summary of why the Ocean Hotel got into such a state after closing in 2012. 

I spent a little longer than planned farting around with Tony the Drone at Sandown Pier and at the Ocean Hotel. 

Time was not my side, so I gave up on my plan to visit Shanklin as well. It seemed likely that the children would be awake by now, so I headed home.

It's hard to deny that parts of Sandown seafront are in desperate need of a bulldozer. We have gone beyond a lick of paint and a hanging basket.

But as long as the sun keeps shining and the beach stays sandy, I remain of the opinion that Sandown has something going for it.

If you're convinced, check out our guide to 10 places to stay in Sandown or our guide to hotels with a sea view.