A couple weeks in England - The Isle of Wight

We finished up last in England last week, and I wanted to share a few ideas and experiences we had there. We did the entire trip without a car, and hardly felt inconvenienced on the Isle of Wight (perhaps a bit) , in Portsmouth, Bath and London. Our itinerary originally included York, but in the end we decided it would require too much time on the train for the short time we had in England, hence the turn to Isle of Wight and Portsmouth. It turned out to be a good idea.
Coming in on a cruise, we departed easily from Southampton to Cowes. The ferry is just a short walk from the cruise ship pier, well organized, and easy to navigate. I booked tickets in advance, but probably could have gotten away with buying a ticket on site. That may have been partially because on April 30, the season hasn’t started yet.

In East Cowes, where we stayed in a small but comfortable Airbnb for 3 nights. There are lots of sightseeing options on the Isle, but with only a full couple of days, and no car we chose the Isle of Wight steam train excursion and Osborne House. The steam train was meant to be more of a rest day than anything else, and it was, but it also was just plain fun and interesting. It’s only open a few days a week, being manned largely by volunteers, so it was a little more crowded than I expected on a weekday, but not uncomfortably so. The train is about a 40-minute ride, but considering the amount of work that was required to get it up and running after years of neglect, it was a real achievement. If you want to ride more than once, you can without an additional ticket. Perhaps even more interesting was the wonderful museum and workshop that that are also open there. The workshop is the site of extensive renovations and rehabs of various cars, engines and equipment that have been accumulated over the years, lovingly undertaken by volunteers, many of whom have railroad, but surprisingly, not all. There were a fair number of teens working there as well,
East Cowes, as opposed to West Cowes, seems smaller. The bus station (on the other side of the bay or inlet, I’m not sure), is reachable by a short ferry or floating bridge ride. Shopping seems limited but adequate in East Cowes; with groceries and other shops on a pedestrian street, West Cowes is be more the center of regatta week (late July - early August) but I would imagine that with the popularity of the event, the town is full at that time.
Osborne House was nearly fully accessible, with an elevator, and only a few rooms closed to everyone on the top floor. Designed/renovated by Prince Albert, it is a lovely (large, of course) home with a beautiful garden, and Queen Victoria’s private beach, one for walking rather than swimming it seemed. There’s also a cottage designed by Albert as well to help their kids see how the other half lived, as well as providing classrooms, their private history and nature ‘museum’ and playhouse. It was very interesting to see what a proactive and well-educated father he was. It is easily accessible by bus. Well worth the time, for royalists and not, since it is a pleasant afternoon of garden and forest walks and seeing how the well-to-do of the time lived. There’s a small café, restaurant and an ice cream place on the beach. There was enough there to occupy most of a day. We bought tickets on site with no problem.
If anything, I’d say we underestimated the amount of time we planned on the Isle of Wight, as we never really got out of Cowes. There are a number of nature sites, amusements and parks elsewhere on the island but bus trips to them would have taken a couple of hours each way. Beyond Cowes and Osborne house, a car would make seeing things a lot easier. For us, 4 or 5 days there, would not have been too much. It should be noted that beyond West Cowes, longer taxi rides around are 25 pounds. Pre-booking is helpful.