Last month, we returned to Sandy Lanes Resort, which is being constructed on the site of a former holiday park. The old resort apparently opened in 1935 and closed in 2007. We don't know the planned opening date for the new resort but will update when we do.

As previously discussed, a planning application was approved in 2016 and the land sold for £650,000. The advert outside the resorts talks about a bar, restaurant, tennis courts and a wellness centre. There are about 60 lodges.

You can read more here about the site, including how much the properties have been advertised for and how much owners will pay in service charges. There has also been some controversy about changes to the site, which are discussed in last year's blog.

This is just a short blog to show off a couple of excellent deals that have appeared for ferry travel to the Isle of Wight Festival 2024.

The car ferry can be very expensive for the festival once standard fares kick in, so get organised and get booked if you can.

Wightlink and Red Funnel are the two main ferry companies - take a look at this guide if you want to know more about which ports they travel to and from.

Wightlink's deals are really good and are valid until 9th October 2023. However, they "reserve the right to modify or cancel the offers at any time" so I wouldn't hang around.

The car ferry deals are:

• "Vehicle day returns for £49.50 (Day returns are valid for Friday, 21, Saturday, 22 and Sunday, 23 June with the return leg taking place by 02:00 the next morning)"
• "Vehicle short stays for £99.50 (Short stays are valid for travel out from Thursday, 20 June with your return leg taking place any time on Sunday, 23 June or on Monday, 24 June after 16:00" 
• "Vehicle long breaks for £99.50 (Long breaks are valid for travel out on Wednesday, 19 or Thursday, 20 June with your return leg taking place between Tuesday, 25 and Friday, 28 June)"

Standard weekend fares are likely to top £300, so a £100 deal is not to be sneezed at. As I said, don't hang around! The price includes a car full of passengers.

They also have a foot passenger deal which is £12 or £18. It looks like this:

• £12 "Day returns are valid for Friday, 21, Saturday, 22 and Sunday, 23 June with return travel taking place by 04:30 the next morning"
• £18 "Short stays are valid for travel out from Thursday, 20 June with your return leg taking place any time on Monday, 24 June." 

The standard foot passenger fare is about £20 - £35, so it's less of a saving but still good value.

Red Funnel's Isle of Wight Festival 2024 deals work a bit differently.

The car ferry deal doesn't have an expiry date but it will end once a "limited number of early bird ferry sailings" are sold. 

The car ferry deal looks like this:

• "​Book with a car and up to 7 passengers from just £34 each way (off-peak dates) or £55 each way (peak dates).
• Off- Peak dates include: 18, 19, 22, 23, 25 & 26 June 2024
• Peak dates include: 20,21 & 24 June 2024."

Again, that's a BIG saving on the standard fares.

The foot passenger deal is an £18 return and doesn't appear to have an expiry date, so you can either book now or wait until nearer the time (I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think that's the case based on previous years). It is 'Valid Southampton or West Cowes/East Cowes'

This is an additional for anyone who stumbles across this blog whilst desperately searching for a deal in May 2024.

If you are travelling to the Isle of Wight Festival as a foot passenger then it's not a big problem. Check our guides to foot passenger travel with Wightlink and Red Funnel for some money saving suggestions. Also check Hovertravel's fares (they didn't have an Isle of Wight Festival deal when we checked but they might have something when you read this).

If you need to bring your car then you may be slightly irked at having missed the best offers. Sorry about that.

Take a look at our main guide to discounts on Isle of Wight ferry travel for discount codes, money saving tips and loopholes which might help you. 

The first issue with this bike ride is that you have to pay seafront parking prices from Monday to Friday. This irks me as Seaclose Park is hardly as busy and short on parking spaces as Shanklin seafront in August. I erred between one hour (£2.05) or two hours (£3.60). 

Some money saving alternatives can be found on our guide to cheap parking. A couple of drinks at nearby Beefeater is probably your best strategy, as it gives you free parking.

​An alternative way to do this bike ride would be to start at Island Harbour and then cycle towards Seaclose Park. I haven't tested this out for myself but the Island Harbour website says that it has 'extensive, free of charge waterside car parking'. You could then stop halfway at Beefeater and avoid the parking charges.

Seaclose Park has a good playground so you might want to include that in your plans. See our guide to the Isle of Wight's best playgrounds.

We wrote an update a while ago about Totland Pier, which has been undergoing a transformation in recent years. Prior to that it was looking pretty holey and at risk of going the same way as the piers in Shanklin and Ventnor.

Things have been a bit quiet in the last few weeks, but we’ve recently spoken to the company which owns Totland Pier and have cobbled together a bit more of an update. All of this is subject to change but it’s good to know things are progressing.

Totland Pier (including both of the new buildings) is now owned by the Wooldridge Group, which is based in Surrey. Google suggests they are a demolition company but they do various things, including hospitality, property development and er, roadsweepers. Their hospitality experience is as the parent company of Seasons Kitchen and Farm Shop in Surrey.

The company bought Totland Pier in November 2022 from the people who were behind the redevelopment. They are the same people who are revamping the Albion in Freshwater and who own the highly-rated Sentry Mead Hotel in Totland.

At the moment, the big new building at the wet end of the pier is just an empty shell. The new owners told me that they hope to start working on it this winter with a view to opening it at Easter 2024. They told us that it would serve lunch and dinner and that it would be open all year (with some closures in the depths of winter likely to give staff a break). There are 20 moorings at the end of the pier so that people could sail across to use the restaurant. 

In January, there were news reports that an application was turned down to convert the Bay Café into ‘five short-stay holiday rental rooms’. This is the building at the dry end of the pier which opened for one season and quickly became a popular place for dining with a sunset.

Sophie from the Wooldridge Group told me that the plan was for ‘hotel rooms’ for guests who would dine at the new restaurant at the wet end of the pier. They plan to put another application in.

Anyway, I hope that update is of some interest. Hopefully we can soon add the new restaurant to our places to eat with a sea view.

I'm currently putting together an updated drone video of Totland Pier, filmed in August 2023. Until then, here are some screenshots of how it currently looks.

There are two ways to do this car-free cycle ride.

Option one is to start at the Causeway. This is probably the best choice if you have your own bikes as the café is a good half way point.

Option two is to start in Yarmouth where you can hire bikes from Wight Cycle Hire next door to Off The Rails and then finish the ride at the café. There is some free parking at the Bouldner View Car Park, which is an eight minute walk to the start of the cycle track.

If you can cope with a little bit of time on the road, I would carry on to Freshwater Bay where you can buy an ice cream from the lifeboat shop or from Dimbola's café. The most direct route is to carry on along the path at the end of the Causeway which leads to Tesco and the End Of The Line café. It is then just under a mile on the road to the beach via Afton Road. It's a 40mph road and is fairly wide. You may want to walk on the pavement or wiggle through back roads.

We went for option one as we have our own bikes.

The moment of idyll arrived at the widest point in the track when the sun shone through the leaves and everyone pedalled happily. Couples who were walking along the same path gave us a smile which - almost certainly - was meant as a congratulations to us for being outstanding parents.

After about 25 minutes we reached Off The Rails, who found us a table and served us drinks. If you want food I would book in advance.

There's nothing I love more than an Isle of Wight ferry loophole or discount.

Well, I love Mrs Guru and the kids more but ferry loopholes aren't too far behind.

My latest discovery is a trick which will give you a foot passenger period return from Portsmouth to Cowes for £10. 

"But that's impossible!" I hear you cry, with a confused but polite tone. 

The deal involves using Solent Cruises, which describes itself as a 'passenger vessel company'.

The main service they run is a foot passenger service for shoppers, which goes from Cowes to Portsmouth on Saturdays and Sundays at 9.30am. Islanders spend a day buying trousers in Gunwharf Quays before returning on the afternoon ferry at 4pm/5pm (the time varies depending on the time of year). 

It's not a new service, but the loophole involves using it backwards.

There is nothing to stop you from using the Portsmouth to Cowes 4pm/5pm leg as the outward journey and then the 9.30am leg from Cowes to Portsmouth as the return. 

They only travel on Saturdays and Sundays, but they are perfectly happy for people to leave a week between crossings rather than using it as a day return service. 

I emailed Solent Cruises and they confirmed that this would be fine, but will need to mention it when booking so they know who will actually be on which crossing. If you give it a go, please leave a comment below as I'd love to hear if you've had some success with it.

You can even get a free cup of tea or coffee if you hand over this voucher.

​It could potentially save you about £20-£25 compared to Wightlink's standard fares (although there are lots of other ways to save money). It could also be more convenient if you live in Portsmouth and are planning a holiday in Cowes.

You could use the same ferry for a period return if - for example - you live in Cowes and wanted to spend a week on the mainland. Solent Cruises would get you to Gunwharf Quays, and then you could catch a train from Portsmouth Harbour to London. 

If that doesn't work for you, see our main guide to discounts on the Isle of Wight ferry or our guides to saving money on foot passenger travel with Red Funnel and Wightlink.