The location...:
The house really is on the beach. To the front the house overlooks Bembridge Harbour with a lovely sandy beach 50 metres from the front door. You can chill on the beach with a nice cold bottle of white while the kids paddle in the water. At the back of the house is a private 1 acre garden that leads down to Silver Sands beach at Bembridge Point. Silver Sands is reputedly one of the best wind surfing beaches in the UK - you can hire all your watersports gear (wind surf boards, kite surfs, dinghies, kayaks etc) from X-Isle, just 200 metres from the house. Silver Sands has plentiful rock pools as well so you can hunt for crabs with the little ones. Take one of the portable BBQs with you and make your lunch on the beach. One of the beauties of the house is that even if you forget the corkscrew on the bikini march to the beach you can pop back and get it in no time! Opposite the house is the Pilot Boat pub - one of the best pubs on the Island, with great food and a warm welcome.
Bembridge Village...:
Bembridge is a very pretty seaside village with a small number of good quality shops, just up the hill from the harbour. The centre of the village is a 5 minute walk from our house along a couple of pleasant lanes that criss-cross the village. It has several pubs, a delicatessen, a greengrocer, a a florist, gift shops, a traditional butcher, a chemist, a bakery and a convenience store. There are several art galleries and an antique shop and a couple of takeaways - Fish and Chips and a very good Chinese called China China. If you like seafood then you are spoilt for choice - our favourite is Captain Stan's Fishmonger who sells lobsters and crab caught on his own boat plus other fresh seafood. The deli also does freshly caught local lobster and crab plus other very tempting seafood delicacies. The greengrocer does fresh local produce - it really does taste different to Tescos (however, if you are desperate for Tescos Finest range, it is a only 5-6 minute drive!).
The Isle Of Wight...:
The IOW has some 500 miles of footpaths and bridleways, 60 miles of breathtaking Heritage Coast & virtually half the island is categorised as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with many Sites of Special Scientific Interest. We have both walking and cycling festivals each year in addition to the Isle of Wight & Bestival music festivals and more carnivals, shows etc than there's space to list. The island has so many visitor attractions for every age & taste that if (God forbid) it should rain every day of your stay, you wouldn't run out of places to see & things to do. It's impossible to encapsulate the Island's attractions but to give a flavour; lobsters, lemurs, beach huts, Osbourne House, Garlic Farm, golf (7 courses), Lavender Farm, red squirrels, tigers, Ventnor Ale, Mingella's ice cream, fishing, steam trains, extreme sports, Carisbrooke Castle, sand castles, Roman villa, model village, donkeys, dinosaurs, watersports, Cowes and cows. Oh and a place called Lake with no lake.
