If picturesque cycling, coastal walks and simple seaside pleasures float your boat, make the Isle of Wight your first port of call. Home to Queen Victoria’s summer retreat, Osborne House, the island has 20 beaches and a series of unspoilt coves. A network of cycle and walking trails covers 17 miles of coastline and countryside. Famous for the Cowes sailing regatta in July and August, the 147-square-mile island also offers every water sport going, from kayak surfing and windsurfing to paddle-boarding and parasailing.
We explored by bike, our wheels borrowed from Foresters Hall, an impeccable, 14-bedroom Grade II-listed boutique hotel. Situated on a cobbled street in Cowes old town, Foresters is a five-minute walk from the Red Jet terminal – the journey to East Cowes from Southampton Quay takes 28 minutes.
The bike rack sits in the hotel courtyard, which leads past the lovely dining terrace to a small herb garden. Beyond, a white picket fence surrounds a small salt-water swimming pool, abutted by the Garden Suites building. A 3D mural by Joe Hill of 3D Joe and Max overlooks the pool, a swimmer looking as though he has just dived off the painted balcony.
Keen swimmers might like Room 11, which is next to the pool in the Garden Suite. For sea views and a bit of cinematic stardust, go for Room 12. Hotel owners Sara Curran and Peter Sussman, originally from Dublin and Toronto respectively, call it the Judi Dench suite. The star stayed in it during the filming of Victoria & Abdul, which was filmed at Osborne House.
On our second day, after a fortifying Foresters breakfast of Eggs Arnold Bennett, we took the four-mile wooded Cowes-to-Newport cycling trail that runs parallel to the River Medina. At Newport, we headed south to Carisbrooke Castle, where King Charles I was imprisoned, one escape attempt foiled when he got his head stuck in the window bars. Carisbrooke is also the starting point for the Tennyson Trail, which ends up at the Needles on the island’s most westerly point. We cycled the very short distance to the charming village of Shorwell for a veggie roast lunch at the Crown Inn instead. This route is more hilly than some might like – unless you are a cycling fiend, in which case you’d probably be on the Chalk Ridge Extreme anyway, a 50-mile route of steep gradients and cliff-top trails of which the Tennyson Trail is a part.
We had earned our pre-dinner cocktails, taken in the luxe Foresters bar, a striking blue room showcasing the couple’s art collection – including a portrait of a woman in a colourful robe, a signature motif of American artist Jim Dine. There’s also an Annie Leibovitz portrait in the ladies’ loo and paintings by Alex Katz, one of Peter’s favourite artists, throughout the hotel.
First-time hoteliers Sara and Peter met working in film and TV. They opened Foresters Hall in 2022. “Our desire was to have this place not just as a hotel but as a place of culture – and for conversations about art,” says Peter. “We want to share our love of art and design with whoever comes through our doors.”
The adjacent library is stocked with the couple’s books on art and wine, continuing the hotel’s arts club aesthetic. The Brasserie by Smoking Lobster, the hotel’s Mediterranean-influenced restaurant, serves not only very good fish dishes, but, unusually, really good wine by the glass, supplied locally by Wine Therapy.
There was more fresh fish on offer at Steephill Cove, a gem of an old fishing cove a 20-minute walk from Ventnor, a Victorian resort with vintage beach huts on the south side of the island.
The Crab Shed in Steephill Cove was serving fresh crab pasties and the Beach Shack next door fresh crab sandwiches. If we’d come with swimming kit, we’d have taken a sea kayak out, supplied by Cove Kayaks. As it was, we sat in the sunshine, watching a Labrador swimming in the sea, and felt the joy of simple seaside pleasures.
Foresters Hall (forestershall.com). Double rooms from £295 a night B&B
Sunshine and reign: three more Victorian seaside resorts
Selina, Brighton
Hove was once the demure cousin to snazzy Brighton; a stay at Selina Brighton, a trendy hostel-cum-hotel in Hove itself, gives you the best of both vibes. Selina, which combines stylish, multipriced accommodation and co-working spaces, works a funky aesthetic with this hip Hove outpost, a stone’s throw from the skeletal West Pier. Rooms from £53 a night, selina.com
Grand Hotel, Tynemouth
Tynemouth’s golden Longsands Beach is beloved of surfers, sandcastle-makers and sun worshippers. Overlooked by Tynemouth Priory and Castle, there’s an aquarium, crazy golf and a breakwater pier. But no Victorian seaside resort is worth its salt without a Grand Hotel; Tynemouth’s is suitably old-school elegant, with views of the beach from 14 of the 47 bedrooms. Rooms from £90 a night B&B, grandhotelynemouth.co.uk
The Sail Loft, Southwold
It’s about a mile’s walk along Southwold beach to the Sail Loft, a former sail-making warehouse. Set on the Blyth estuary, with several fresh fish shacks with tables nearby, this restaurant-with-rooms is a tranquil haven compared to the bustle of Southwold itself, with its fabulous pier, pubs and pebble beach. Rooms from £180 a night B&B, sailloftsouthwold.uk
