Welcome to Isle of Wight!
The Isle of Wight is an island and county five miles (8 km) off the southern coast of England. It is easily and quickly accessible by multiple sea routes from the mainland cities of Southampton and Portsmouth. The island has long been an excellent place for an upmarket but traditional seaside holiday, with beaches and towns that were very popular in Victorian times. It has become a must-visit destination for young people seeking watersports and outdoor activities generally. Cowes is a famous yachting centre and attracts the 'London set' together with members of the worldwide sailing fraternity during Cowes Week in August. The island has a similar atmosphere to Guernsey or Jersey yet is much closer to the mainland and is three times the size. It has a population of 138,000. Despite being only 6 miles (10 km) across the sea from Portsmouth and 15 miles (25 km) from Southampton it is a world apart in terms of scenery, culture and pace of life. Known as "England In Miniature" it offers an incredible variety with the landscape changing dramatically in the space of a few miles and each town and village offering something different. Beaches are fantastic and the water quality is good.
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest and second-most populous island of England. It is in the English Channel, between two and five miles off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. The island has resorts that have been holiday destinations since Victorian times, and is known for its mild climate, coastal scenery, and verdant landscape of fields, downland and chines. The island is part of the historic county of Southampton (or Southamptonshire). It is designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
The island has been home to the poets Algernon Charles Swinburne and Alfred, Lord Tennyson and to Queen Victoria, who built her much-loved summer residence and final home Osborne House at East Cowes. It has a maritime and industrial tradition including boat-building, sail-making, the manufacture of flying boats, hovercraft, and Britain's space rockets. The island hosts annual music festivals including the Isle of Wight Festival, which in 1970 was the largest rock music event ever held. It has well-conserved wildlife and some of the richest cliffs and quarries for dinosaur fossils in Europe.
The island has played an important part in the defence of the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth, and been near the front-line of conflicts through the ages, including the Spanish Armada and the Battle of Britain. Rural for most of its history, its Victorian fashionability and the growing affordability of holidays led to significant urban development during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Historically part of Southampton, the island became a separate administrative county in 1890. It continued to share the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire until 1974, when it was made its own ceremonial county. Apart from a shared police force and fire and rescue service, and the island's Anglican churches belonging to the Diocese of Portsmouth (originally Winchester), there is now no administrative link with Hampshire, although a combined local authority with Portsmouth and Southampton was considered, this is now unlikely to proceed.The quickest public transport link to the mainland is the hovercraft from Ryde to Southsea, three vehicle ferry and two catamaran services cross the Solent to Southampton, Lymington and Portsmouth.