Single Supplement £199
We haven’t been to this lovely island for many years and felt the time was ripe to return to this slightly detached part of the United Kingdom, even though it’s actually a part of Hampshire.
We will visit a number of venues during our stay and get a good look around the Isle at the same time.
We generally try to depart between 8am and 9am, and exact times will be confirmed in the final timings itinerary which arrives about a week before travel.
We send this close to travel so we can plan for any major traffic issues which sometimes arise due to road works etc.
Sunday 5th July 2026
Our aim at Pennywood Tours is to give you a relaxing and carefree time where we do all the work so you can sit back and enjoy the trip.
To this end, all tours are escorted by a group leader who will check you on board and make sure you can find your allocated seat. We’ll seat you with the person/people you are booked with but if you know of anyone else on the trip who has booked separately please let us know in advance and we’ll try to seat you all together. The coach will be a super deluxe vehicle with a toilet and is incredibly comfortable.
Our Group Leader will advise you of all the details of travel times, stops, when to return to the coach etc. so you will be in no doubt about what and when. He or she will be available for any additional questions you may have.
We will do our best to stick to our itinerary but you will understand that when there are traffic jams or adverse weather conditions, we may struggle to do everything as planned but we will let you know what information we have in these situations when we have it.
We look forward to seeing you and welcome any questions you may have by contacting us at info@pennywoodtours.com or on 01622 434 981.
We’ve booked no visits today so we can enjoy an unhurried journey to the ferry for the crossing to the Isle and our hotel, the lovely 4-star Lakeside Park Hotel where we will stay on a dinner, bed and breakfast basis for the holiday.
No visit to the Isle of Wight would be complete without a visit to the Needles and here you can enjoy an unparallelled view of them. Depending on how fit you feel, you can either walk down the 185 steps to the beach below or ride in the chair lift up and down.
Mottistone Gardens is a lovely National Trust property and one of the most peaceful and magical gardens on the Island with colourful borders, shrub-filled banks and grassy terraces which surround an Elizabethan manor house. Although most of the house is closed, two rooms are home to a second-hand bookshop.
There is a small organic kitchen garden and in the tea garden is a hidden gem: The Shack, the former country office of architects Seely & Paget, a tiny and unusual example of Modern Movement design. The lower gardens have recently been replanted in a swirling pattern of feathery ornamental grasses, while beneath the avenue of trees in the orchard, a field of wildflowers appears each summer.
The gardens also have a tea garden, serving drinks, cakes and light lunches, and plants grown in the gardens are available to buy as normal!
In Farringford, with great views to the sea, Tennyson chose a fantastic place for a home with a walled garden full of lovely plants. The house is Grade-I listed, and we will have a guided tour of the interior to discover more of this famous poet.
Moving along, we’ll also visit Godshill, one of the most scenic villages on the Island and with it the beautiful Godshill model village, where we’ll be giants in a tiny land!
It’s interesting that we have had far fewer Queens ruling as sole Monarch than Kings, and yet they have often achieved great stability over long periods of change – Queen Elizabeth I as England blossomed into a European Power; Elizabeth II as Great Britain moved from Empire to Commonwealth and, before her, Victoria, who presided over a long reign of peak British power.
Victoria and her also famous consort Prince Albert used Osborne as a summer home and rural retreat. With beautiful buff stonework, Italianate architecture and lovely gardens running down to the beach, it’s easy to see why they would want to stay here.
Come and enjoy the house and grounds with us before we move on to Carisbrooke Castle, a great fortress which began life as an Anglo-Saxon earthwork defence against Viking raids. The Normans raised the shell keep on its towering mound, which you can climb up for amazing views.
There is also a Royal connection: the castle’s most famous resident was King Charles I, who was imprisoned here after his Civil War defeat. You’ll find Charles I memorabilia in the Carisbrooke Castle Museum. The visit will be fabulous but nothing to lose your head over!
Today, we check out of the Lakeside Park Hotel, take the ferry back to England and return home, with regular breaks on the way.
We don’t yet have the ferry timetable but we anticipate returning late afternoon.
Please note, all venues will require walking, possibly with steps and steep slopes, which may be slippery and uneven. You should be prepared to dress appropriately for the weather.