Isle of Wight Walking & Social Weekend

The Isle of Wight has everything you would want from a weekend break – sandy beaches, delightful villages, dramatic coastal paths, stunning views, and more touristy stuff you could fit into a week, let alone a long weekend.

This weekend will appeal to both social walkers who want shorter walks and more serious walkers who want longer ones. The walks are easy to moderate, as some will have more gradients than usual with Steve, which gives the island its wonderful scenery, but we will take our time and admire the stunning scenery. Some days will have the option of a shorter or a longer walk.

The Isle of Wight is a beautiful part of the country and has so much to see: Pretty villages with many thatched houses, dramatic and stunning coastal paths with breathtaking scenery. It is a walking heaven, which is why it has not one but two walking festivals each year.

Each day there will be a walk followed by the opportunity to spend time looking around the local area. We will concentrate on the southern part of the island where you will find the delightful villages of Shanklin & Godshill, beautiful coastal walking around The Needles and Alum Bay and rolling down land giving stunning views all over the island.

We stay in Shanklin, a pretty coastal village with thatched cottages, lovely pubs and tea shops.

To take advantage of the extra bank holiday there is an option of 1 or 2 extra nights, making it a 4 or 5 night break. These need to be booked separately so please see additional event(s) on Monday 4th June.

There is also plenty to do for non walkers or if you want to mix & match walking with social / tourist stuff. We are close to many Isle of Wight attractions such as Osbourne House, The Model Village, Alum Bay, Carisbrooke Castle, Blackgang Chine, several lovely beaches to name a few.

Variations:

• The walking programme is designed to be flexible to accommodate the groups’ requirements. There will be the choice of a shorter and a longer walk on some days.
• There are many walks in the area and Steve will have details of a selection of them. We can decide as a group which walks we do each day. Steve will go through them during the weekend. These are some of the walks available to us.
• After each walk there will be the opportunity to spend time discovering the local area.
• The Needles, Alum Bay and Freshwater – The Needles is a must see iconic feature of the Isle of Wight, Alum Bay is the multi coloured sand is found. There are many attractions here including “make your own” coloured sand souvenir and of course the chair lift to the beach. All of this is linked by some of the most scenic coastal walking anywhere. This will be an option of a shorter 6 mile or a longer 10 mile walk.
• Godshill & Appuldurcombe - this lovely 6 mile walk from the pretty village of Godshill with several thatched cottages, tea shops and pubs as well as the home to the famous Model Village. The outward part ascends to Appuldurcombe Down giving superb views of the island including The Needles and Sandown Bay. The return, by contrast is in the lower valley through Appuldurcombe Park and House.
• Carisbrooke Castle and Bowcombe Down– A walk of around 5 miles starting from the village of Carisbrooke as we walk onto Bowcombe Down following the Tennyson Trail. There are superb views of the castle as we make our way back.
• St Catherine’s Point and Down – Visit the most southerly point of the Isle of Wight. As well as the famous lighthouse, this spectacular walk takes in many of the islands features such as the St Catherine’s Oratory, Hoy’s monument as well as stunning from Blackgang Chine and St Catherine’s Down.
• The social après walking
• The social stuff on the evenings is designed to be flexible – we can decide as a group what happens on each night.
• Friday night – Dinner will be at the hotel and afterwards Steve will do a welcome chat where he will go through the plans for the weekend.
• Saturday and Sunday nights – We will have our dinner at the hotel followed by either a quiz, which have always proved popular or maybe find our way to some local pubs to make a change from the hotel.