Sandown, Isle of Wight

Renowned for having long hours of sunshine, Sandown offers an excellent sandy bay with life guard cover and a blue flag award. A full range of water sports are catered for with tuition/hire being readily available.

All the traditional trappings of the English seaside are available in addition to some more unusual ones: a tiger sanctuary, a dinosaur museum.

Sandown still enjoys excellent rail, bus and road links. Where steam trains were once, now there are cycling and walking paths making Sandown an ideal location for families, walkers and cyclists.

Most visitors arrive by car and use the Wightlink or Red Funnel car ferries which depart from Portsmouth, Southampton and Lymmington and arrive at Fishbourne, Cowes and Yarmouth.

If you are cycling or walking, there are also a train and coach servicies to Portsmouth which join the Seacat passenger ferry to Ryde Pier and link to a train service from Ryde to Sandown. Ripley Cottage is a short walk from Sandown station.

There is also a Hovercraft service for foot passengers running between Southsea and Ryde Pier.

The Wight Link car ferries run from Lymmington to Yarmouth and Portsmouth to Fishbourne. There is also a Seacat service for foot passengers going between Portsmouth and Ryde, which links directly with the train service to Sandown.

The Red Funnel car ferry runs from Southampton to East Cowes approximately hourly, booking is advised.