Day trips from London #9 - isle of wight

I was slightly disappointed with this trip and if I had to pick a least favorite trip of the series, this would be the one🙄. We had good group of friends and teammates which usually make us plan to go on our own or, at least, book a private tour. However, since our previous trips with the tour operator were comfortable enough, we didn't hesitate to book for regular tour. They normally arrange tours with lesser number of people consisting 2 or 3 groups of friends/family.  Only this time they arranged for bigger number of people (got a bus instead of their regular mini van) and I felt the​ group was too much for the tour manager to handle.

I personally enjoy the journey as much as (at times more than) the destination and travelling with quarrelsome co-travellers wasn't a pleasant experience😤. Pushing it aside, we did manage to have good time.

As usual, we gathered at the pick up point. The drive took a while, through the pick up points due unexpected delays. We got into the ferry, where we had our breakfast. I took full English breakfast, overestimating my appetite, and wasted some food 😔. Later, we went to the deck and took some pictures.

The first stop is needles park which got an interesting collection of rides, displays and demonstrations. We have to get a bunch of tickets and every attraction have different number of tickets to enter - they will give a brochure with description and tickets required. With limited time, we could only narrow down to 2-3 attractions and bought the tickets - I think they have economical options for higher quantity, couldn't remember though 🤔.
They have two options to take the chairlift - take one way ride and climb up through stairs or take chair lift both ways. We had to make the decision before getting into the ride as they don't have collection counter at the bottom. We gave the tickets for both ways and got into the chair lift in groups of two.
It was quite fun ride which initially started over level ground with lots of trees which gradually disappeared, leading to a steep descent to the beach.



We got down and took a boat ride into the sea. This boat ride couldn't be paid with needles park tickets (we didn't have enough anyway 😊), but they accepted card payment. They got a guide on-board and we were able to move around comfortably taking in the beautiful view of wide sea and rock formations from various angles.

After the ride we went back up and some of us went to the gift shop. We got only few tickets left and didn't have enough time get more as there is big, slow-moving queue. So we went for the attraction which required only a single ticket per head - alum bay glass demonstration. They showed us how the glass is melted and turned to vases. Few of us went to the glass shop and got few home decor items 😀.



After a short ride from needles park, we visited Isle of wight Pearl which have the Pearl dress of princess Diana displayed along with few other Pearl themed displays.


After wandering around the pearl jewellery for some time, we went to the cafe which opened into a wide, well manicured lawn overlooking the sea.


From there we went to a beach (couldn't remember the name 😓) where we had late lunch. This one is a sand beach with shallow water and we got to spend some time playing in the water.


Finally we made our way back to London.


Many suggested that isle of wight would require two days, however, we felt one day was quite alright. There probably are many more places to explore we didn't get to. 
This trip definitely made my resolution to travel on my own stronger.