Isle of Wight travel guide
The Isle of Wight is England's largest island and lies just off the Hampshire coast. A regular ferry crosses from the town of Lymington, near Bournemouth, to the island around 30 minutes. The 147-sq-mile (380-sq-km) island is shaped like a kite, with the capital, Newport, just about where you might attach a string. Cowes, at the mouth of the Medina River, is the venue in August for Cowes Week, the yachtsman’s Ascot.
Places to visit on the Isle of Wight
Carisbrooke Castle
tel: 01983-522 107
Carisbrooke Castle was built by Elizabeth I as a defence against the Spanish Armada and remembered chiefly as the prison where Charles I was held before being tried and executed.
Osborne House
tel: 01983-200 022
Queen Victoria’s summer residence on the Isle of Wight exhibits a fascination with Indian style. The Durbar Room, designed when the Empire was at its height, satisfied the Queen’s mania for all things Indian (she even had an Indian secretary who taught her Hindi).
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