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  • Home
  • Why You Should Visit The Isle Of Wight
  • Ferry travel advice & discounts
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      • Last Minute Deals And Discounts At Holiday Parks
      • Is There A Haven Holiday Park On The Isle Of Wight?
      • Whitecliff Bay Holiday Park Reviews and Facilities
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      • 6 Tricks To Save Money At Isle Of Wight Caravan Holiday Parks
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      • Isle of Wight Hotels - a beginner's guide
      • 10 Best Isle Of Wight Luxury Hotels
      • Warner's Bembridge Coast & Norton Grange hotels
      • 5 Best Isle of Wight Coach Tour Holidays And Trips
      • Isle of Wight Hotels With A Sea View
      • 5 Ventnor Hotels And Guest Houses
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      • Isle of Wight Glamping
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      • 10 Things You Can't Do On The Isle Of Wight
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      • 10 Things To Do In Bembridge, St Helen's and Seaview
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    • Which Is The Best Isle Of Wight Beach For...
    • Isle of Wight Beaches Interactive Map
    • Isle Of Wight Tide Times
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    • Isle of Wight Watersports
    • The Beach Holiday Checklist - 5 Accessories
    • Mobile Version Of Isle Of Wight Best Beaches
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      • Walking The Isle of Wight Coastal Path
      • 10 Best Isle of Wight Walks (Circular, 3-9 miles)
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Isle of Wight Guru

How to avoid people on the Isle of Wight’s quietest and most remote beaches

3/7/2020

7 Comments

 
People are overrated aren’t they? They’re always blathering on about this and that when really you’d rather just have a quiet sit down and a chance to listen to the waves lapping on the shore.

Sometimes you need a beach without loads of people. Sandown, Shanklin, Ryde, Ventnor and Colwell are unlikely to offer you that unless it’s 3am on a wet Wednesday in November.

Here are some of our favourite spots for avoiding people on an Isle of Wight beach holiday. Apologies in advance if this page leads to a mass influx of visitors to previously quiet locations but I think that's unlikely.

If you've got your own favourites, please share them in the comments.

1. Chilton Chine, South West Wight

To be fair, most of the Isle of Wight’s South West coast is as empty as it is beautiful. However, some beaches are easier to access than others.

Chilton Chine has a small car park next door to Isle of Wight Pearl on the Military Road. You clamber down a few steps and then you’ve got a pleasant stretch of beach which is sort-of-sandy and sort-of-stony. If you look carefully, you might discover an enormous dinosaur bone and become world famous. Or more likely, you won’t.

Whale Chine on the same coastline used to be a favourite of ours before the steps disappeared and the council were forced to block it off and put up enormous red signs saying things like “DANGER OF DEATH”. I do wonder whether the phrase "danger of death" helps the Island’s tourist industry, but I’ll let that one go.
Chilton Chine
Chilton Chine offers a much smaller danger of death than nearby Whale Chine

2. ​Gurnard’s hidden beach, North Wight

Gurnard and Cowes beach both get pretty busy on a sunny day, but we usually head for the ‘hidden’ beach in Gurnard which is quieter although not completely empty. Take the footpath round the back of Gurnard’s sailing club and you get to a rocky and sandy-ish beach. You can park quite nearby with this one, which is a bonus.

I did swim there on our last visit but the tranquillity and peace was destroyed when I stood on a jagged rock under the water.
Gurnard's hidden beach
This is quite a high tide at Gurnard's hidden beach, it's usually a lot less squashed

3. Far end of Compton Bay, West Wight

​The Hanover Point end of Compton Bay is not a good choice for avoiding people on a busy day. The car park overflows, the ice cream van has a queue like Primark after lockdown ended and there’s an awkward back and forth as you work out whose turn it is to use the steps.

However, if you love that stretch of beach and want to avoid people as much as possible then it is much quieter at the far end. Park at the Compton Farm car park, walk through a field and climb down the steep steps with the gorgeous views down the coastline. The steps are a bit hairy if you’re also carrying three bodyboards, a windbreak and a picnic bag.
Compton Bay
The end of Compton Bay in the distance is much quieter than the Hanover Point end

4. Binnel Bay, South Wight

Most of the South Wight’s beaches are quiet, apart from Ventnor and Steephill Cove.

Binnel Bay is a rocky beach which we’ve had to ourselves before.

When I say that it's rocky, I don't mean it has that tiny shingle which you can sink into. I mean that it has massive great rocks which will poke you in the bottom. Top tip: find a rock with a similar indent to your buttocks for maximum comfort.

Click on the image below and you can have a look around, although this is a bit further along from the bit we have visited.

5. Orchard Bay, South Wight

Orchard Bay in the South Wight gained a bit of local attention about 20 years ago when it turned out it was the landing spot for a massive drug smuggling operation. 

For a while, you couldn't access it because the steps had given way. Thankfully, the St Lawrence Community Association and the landowners worked hard to get the steps re-opened. Three cheers for nice people doing a nice thing!

​Here's a virtual tour thing from On The Wight:

6. Woodside Bay, North East Wight

Woodside Bay is hard to access unless you're staying at Woodside Coastal Retreat and Woodside Bay Lodge Retreat. The bay gets used by residents at the holiday parks but it's a long stretch of beach so it isn't terribly busy.

It's shingly with the occasional patch of sand(ish) and is a bit too stony and seaweedy for swimming. However, it's facing the right way for sunsets. My mother told me 'it has a Robinson Crusoe quality about it' but I didn't see a single cannibal when I was there.

It's also right by the spot where Bob Dylan headlined the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival.

7. Watcombe Bay

Now, this one’s a bit specialist but if you’ve got a kayak and know what you're doing, you can make your way round from Freshwater Bay to Watcombe Bay.

The only other way to access it is by abseiling down from the cliffs so you aren't likely to find many other visitors there.

We visited as part of a trip out with Isle of Wight Adventure Activities so there's a chance that a whole school party will turn up just as you get settled in. There are also some caves which you can explore but I'd caution against doing that unless you are with a guide. Otherwise you'll probably end up as part of a cautionary tale used by the RNLI when they train their coastguards.
Watcombe Bay
Watcombe Bay is only accessible by boat or by abseiling
7 Comments
Lisenka Exell
4/7/2020 08:50:24 pm

Atherfield beach is pretty awesome too. It's quite difficult to access though... There are very steep "man-made" (someone has dug out footing in the cliff face) steps near the row of houses or further along there is a footpath at Shepherd's Chine and you can walk along.
Whenever we've been there we were the only people there and it has a nice shingle beach.
Worth a visit!

Reply
Isle of Wight Guru
4/7/2020 09:13:09 pm

Great suggestion thanks! Went to nearby Brighstone beach last year but didn't make it to Atherfield. Think we may have been there in my youth but not for many years so will pay it a visit!

Reply
Alex
21/7/2020 07:04:25 am

Would the Woodside Bay be accessible without staying at the retreat?

Reply
Isle of Wight Guru
5/6/2021 06:55:16 pm

We struggled to find anywhere to park nearby but I am pretty sure that there's a public footpath down to it so you can access it if you don't mind a good walk first! We last went a couple of years ago.

Reply
Mark
21/7/2020 10:04:16 pm

I went over to Thorness Bay this eve post work and practically had the entire beach to myself. Granted it's not particularly great for swimming but lovely for sitting on the beach enjoying the view (and maybe a BBQ with friends)

Reply
Isle of Wight Guru
22/7/2020 03:41:54 pm

Thanks Mark. We went there in an evening a few years ago and found it was really quiet and had a terrific sunset! https://www.isleofwightguru.co.uk/blog/the-search-for-the-perfect-isle-of-wight-sunset-part-1

Reply
Kate Houghton
26/8/2021 01:30:57 am

Appley Beach and Bembridge pier are my favourite places to be when visiting family who live near Whitecliff Bay.

Reply

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