Needles Breezer - The Isle of Wight's Most Scenic Bus Journey?

The Needles Breezer will cost you about £15 for adults or £10 for children (or less for groups of 4-5)

I am not generally a big user of buses.

I am ashamed of this and know that they are one of the things we need to embrace to save mankind from destruction.

However, on a normal week we just find it so much more convenient to drive everywhere. You can come and go when you want, use the vehicle as a mobile restaurant or bundle the children into the car if one of them is having a tantrum. You also don't have that frustrating moment where the bus turns left and wiggles through a housing estate for 20 minutes when it could turn right and get you to your destination in five minutes.

However, despite that long pre-amble I can wholeheartedly recommend the Needles Breezer. 

It is one of two open top buses on the Isle of Wight and was the one we took this week. A few years ago, we travelled on the Needles Breezer and Downs Breezer but child two didn't remember it all so we wanted to make it right. (It is unsurprising that she doesn't remember it, as I think she was a foetus at the time). 

The plan

Stay on the Needles Breezer and do the loop to the Old Battery for the best views

On this occasion, the plan was that myself and child two would catch the Needles Breezer as part of a visit to the Needles and Alum Bay. This works particularly well, as you don't have to pay to park (a saving of £6 or £4 if you have National Trust membership). It is also convenient as cars aren't allowed on the road that leads to the National Trust's Needles Old Battery, so a bus saves you a walk of about half a mile.

One option is to stay on the bus when it arrives at the Needles Landmark Attraction, as it does a loop up to the Old Battery and then returns to the pleasure park with its chairlift, minigolf and glass blowing.

We didn't do the Old Battery, although I would recommend it, particularly if you want to justify National Trust membership for another year. You get closer views of the Needles and the lighthouse than you get from the main attractions at the pleasure park. The tea rooms and the tunnel are the two highlights for me.

Hook a duck and stuff a rabbit

On this occasion, we did the touristy things including making a plastic bunny out of sand, riding the carousel and hooking a duck. We skipped the chairlift as it was a little blowy but it's good fun and we will return another time to do it.

As a side notes, it's worth saying that the chairlift is a little more thrilling than you may be imagining. A bar lifts over you, but you aren't strapped in by a belt and the drop below is rather a long way. I would wait until your children are sensible enough to sit still, or you will have grey hair and loose bowels by the time you reach the bottom.

The Needles Landmark Attraction has various pay as you go attractions...

...including these handsome chaps on a dinosaur jeep safari (which I did twice)...

...and a minigolf course...

...plus the obligatory sand sculpture shop

Anyway, back to the Needles Breezer.

Child two is not a great traveller, so it was something of a tense moment as the bus started to move. Thankfully, she took to it very well.

We sat upstairs in the open air, which immediately transforms a bus journey into a much more interesting occasion. Branches swoop past your head, speed bumps feel like a modestly-sized theme park ride. A recording waffles on with nice little nuggets of local history. The ticket you need is called a 'Rover + Breezer' ticket, which allows you to leap on and off as you please. It allows travel on all of Southern Vectis' buses, not just the open top ones.

​I enjoyed not having to concentrate on driving and being high enough up that I could peer into people's back gardens and observe how many people own trampolines. There are also occasional moments where you realise how two landmarks sit in relation to each other, which was another little thrill for me.

Besides the Needles headland, the Needles Breezer also stops in Yarmouth, meaning it is particularly good for a day trip from Lymington (personally, I think it's a much better day trip than can be managed as a foot passenger via Southampton, as discussed in our day trip guides).

On our journey, the bus stopped in Yarmouth for about 12 minutes so we had a little walk round the town whilst I remarked how much I liked Yarmouth and would like to live there. Child two shrewdly observed that I say this every time we visit. She didn't exactly refer to me as a 'broken record' but that was certainly her tone.

The bus was not exactly jam-packed as we approached Yarmouth, but it gets busier in summer

The route along the seafront in Yarmouth is a nice part of the route

Other optional stops on the route include Fort Victoria, which is an old military base with a couple of small attractions. The beaches at Colwell and Totland are also nice stopping points. Both have somewhere where you can buy a coffee.  

Our journey ended with a circle back to Freshwater Bay. The sun shone as we returned and the whole thing was bordering on idyllic. Freshwater Bay is a particularly good place to stop for an hour. There are rock pools at low tide, good views from the cliffs, a lifeboat shop with ice creams and a photographic museum/café called Dimbola that overlooks the sea.

A few assorted bits of advice about the Needles Breezer

• The open top buses on the Isle of Wight are much better value if you travel as a group of five. The other family on the bus with us were a group of five, and I sensed they had a certain smugness about them having paid much less than us per head.
• The standard "Rover + Breezer" ticket is valid for 24 hours, which can be spread over two days. For example, you could get a 24 hour ticket at 1pm and do the Needles Breezer in the afternoon. The next morning, you could do the Downs Breezer in the East Wight using the same ticket and really squeeze every penny out of your ticket. You can also get a 48 hour pass which can be spread over three days with careful planning.
• Buying the tickets on the Southern Vectis app is a bit cheaper, but it requires you to plan ahead as you have to upload photos and have them approved.
• The Needles Breezer doesn't go over Compton Down, which is my favourite stretch of road on the Isle of Wight. This is something of a shame. There is a bus service that follows this route called the Island Coaster, but it isn't an open top bus (it was a few years ago, but isn't any more).
• It gets pretty fresh up on the top deck. Bring a jumper, even if it's a sunny day.

Chill out on the top deck of the Needles Breezer