Little gems.

Isle of Wight has a lot of little gems scattered around. I had an opportunity to explore some of these amazing places during summer, so I thought I would share my findings in case anyone still thinks that there is nothing interesting on the Island.

Shanklin Old Village

Walk down High Street in Shanklin past a ridiculous number of places selling fossils and you will eventually end up in the Old Village. It's full of thatched cottages, some of them dating back to 1600s I believe. It's rather unusual to have so many thatched houses preserved in the same place. Really worth a visit. I particularly recommend, the Old Thatched Teashop.

Why on earth would I recommend a pink teashop with a different colour scheme in every room which makes you dizzy? Well, because of the fairies.

In the garden behind the shop there is a true fairies heaven. It looks incredible. There are little houses, animals, and tens of fairies of different sizes. Even if the shop did not sell cream tea, it would be worth a visit just to see the fairies garden.

The Needles

Go to the opposite end of the Island and you end up by the Needles. It's a beautiful place with 21 colours of sand, an opportunity to take a boat tour (or a jet boat tour, which I don't recommend if you are not a fan of extreme adventures). Mr Magic and I had a lovely day there, sitting at the beach, eating frozen yoghurt, walking around and generally enjoying ourselves.

Carisbrooke Castle

One word: amazing. We were lucky enough to visit the Castle when a Medieval Joust was taking place. It was a such a great day, full of story-telling, falconry, medieval jokes and beautiful surroundings. I think we've been there on the hottest day of summer too, so I was really impressed with the knights in their shiny armour, must have been boiling hot in that!

Osbourne House

It might not be the most exciting place, but surely it's really pretty on a Sunday afternoon. The gardens are absolutely huge, there is an opportunity to sit at the seaside where Queen Victoria would have gone for a swim and a little cafe serves really nice cakes and scones. 

Steephill Cove

Apparently this is one of the most secluded places on the Isle of Wight. I can vouch for that: when Mr Magic took me there I thought I would kill him, because it's quite far out of Ventnor and it was at the end of a long day at the Needles. Anyway, it is a really picturesque place, worth a visit should you be down that end of the Island. Peaceful.

Wight Karting

I'm an extremely careful driver, so I haven't thought karting would be so much fun. But I loved the speed. Shame the track only has one place where you can actually overtake, but I wholeheartedly recommend it.

I still have a few places on the island that I would like to see:
Shanklin Chine Lumiere
Isle Jump Trampoline Park
The Garlic Farm - Garlic Festival
But these need to wait for half term or an evening off (ha ha).