Living on the Isle of wight

Damian

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Mar 14, 2005
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Yes, I do. I am a born and bred Caulkhead!
I was born there, escaped for 10 years but was caught and brought back.
Would I live anywhere else, no, apart from the ferries cost it has everything I, and like minded people want and need.
 

Damian

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Mar 14, 2005
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Hello Mel,
Generally the cost of living is the same as mainland GB as we have the usual run of supermarkets such as M&S, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Tesco, Co OP, Lidl, Aldi and Asda are just about to start building one of their supermarkets very soon.
The problems come when you want something from the mainland and then you run into the cost of delivery or the fact that some retailers just refuse to deliver.

I have on a lot of occasions had to have items delivered to Red Funnel at Southampton and then pay for them to bring it over on the boat and pick up at East Cowes.

There are a lot of people who visit in the summer months and fall in love with the place and decide to move here just to find that in winter it can be a very lonely place as most things apart from the main shops shut down for winter and they find the fact that they are cut off from the mainland on quite a few days due to weather, and of course availability of ferry places and the extortionate cost of the ferry crossings.

When we take the van over to the mainland it costs us around £180 return, and that is money spent going nowhere, sitting on a boat for 30 minutes !!!

You very rarely can just decide on the spur of the moment to go away, like for instance when the music festivals are on, there simply are no spaces available for a week.
The nearest decent theatre is the Mayflower in Southampton and again you have to consider the boat timings if you want to go and see a show, or spend a night in a hotel.

On the good side, if you want countryside to walk in , there is plenty.
There are some beautiful sandy beaches which are dog friendly from the end of September to beginning of May but then become no go areas for dogs, which is fine.
There is one place which is dog friendly all year and in my opinion is the very best place for dogs as there is a very large "dry " area to run around on and over a sand dune is the "wet" side where the water is very shallow and very sandy. The council tried to ban dogs during the summer but local opposition won and they withdrew the idea !!!!
Crime is on the low side and generally involves nuisance damage to cars, or domestic disputes.
Really violent crime is quite rare as is vehicle theft, or caravan theft (mainly as there is nowhere to run to as they stop the boats if a vehicle is stolen)

Housing I think is slightly lower than the mainland, but not by much, and we have a very high population of elderly folk so pressure on local services is high, especially as we only have one hospital and getting a doctors appointment is a 3 week wait usually.

Driving is, or can be ,challenging as the normal rules of the road seem to be ignored by a lot of people, so always expect the unexpected as it WILL happen on a daily basis.
 
Sep 5, 2016
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Damian,
Thanks for that comprehensive reply my brother in law is jut about to move over there and I think he will be bored out of his mind, he thinks that it is just one big holiday over there
 

Damian

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pitpony said:
Damian,
Thanks for that comprehensive reply my brother in law is jut about to move over there and I think he will be bored out of his mind, he thinks that it is just one big holiday over there

It is what one makes of it to be honest.
The Island is generally considered to be about 10 years behind the mainland in lots of things.
Its a rural community and it takes quite a long time to be accepted by the locals (of which I am one)

I guess the biggest change he will find is that time is of no real consequence here, if something is not done today, so what, there is always tomorrow !!
Choice of where to live is important as some areas are known to be more problematic than others.

OH !! One thing I forgot and very important !!!!!!!

Avoid Newport on a Wednesday as it is B&Q 10% off day for over 60's, so everyone over 60 descend on B&Q, take an absolute age to stagger round and stand in large groups in aisles chatting about their various illnesses and bits they have recently had replaced, then around lunchtime they all rush off (at 15MPH) to the local supermarkets, take up every available Disabled spot and Mother and Child spot (well, they mostly did have children once!!!!!) and then stagger up to the restaurants(well, café really) and spend all afternoon chewing their wonderful £3.50p lunch !!!!

P.S. Wednesday is also the day B&Q lose the most merchandise from theft !!!!!!!
 
Sep 5, 2016
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:eek:hmy: I'm a 10% on a Wednesday at our local B&Q, by the way do you know Waverley Park at East Cowes stopped there several times over the years but recently because of long stays I have had a job to get a decent pitch so might end up going back to Rookery Park,
 

Damian

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Quote " I'm a 10% on a Wednesday at our local B&Q, "
Shhhhhhhhhh,,,,so am I but don't tell anyone !!!

Yes I know Waverley very well, used to spend quite a few hours there fixing vans and servicing them. It is a nice site even if the access is a bit limited,and the approach road, Old Road, is something else!! but lovely views across the Solent.
Rookley Park is OK but a bit out of the way.
 
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We had friends staying there for six weeks last year and when we turned up they said that Peter the site owner had died suddenly a couple of days before, he worked really hard to build the site up to what it is today when they went from just a sloping field to constructing all those tiers, really nice chap,
 
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funny old thing, we are so close but so far living the other side of the water in Gosport, we are considering our summer holiday on the Island next year. But ferry costs are pretty high as has been mentioned.
 
Sep 5, 2016
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Saint,
We usually go across with Red Funnel from Southampton, they work with several touring sites on the island with an all inclusive deal including the ferry fare really cheap way of doing it, Wight Link will more than likely be doing a similar package,
 
Jun 2, 2015
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Cheers PP, we have been looking at deals from the sites, it isn't actually much further to drive up to the red Funnel terminal than it is to go to Whight-Link.
 
Sep 5, 2016
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Personally I like to stay at Waverley Park because I like the sea fishing spots along the front at EC and over the other side in Cowes, it is only two minutes from the ferry at East Cowes but recently we have struggled to get a pitch that over looks the solent and it can also get a bit hectic at certain times,
 
Oct 5, 2019
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This island is a dream for a lot of us. I just watched some pictures and my desire to travel lit up inside of me. I have never been to England, although I traveled to a lot of countries from Europe. London is the main city to visit there, but there are other amazing travel destinations like this island. A lot of my friends work and live there. It seems to me or England is an expensive country to live in? For the prices, I consult costoflivingreports.com. 15.48$ for a meal in a restaurant is expensive for me, for my current salary better said. What can you tell me about that? The more tourist a place has, the more expensive it gets. Are they many tourists in the Isle of Wight?
 
Oct 5, 2019
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This island is a dream for a lot of us. I just watched some pictures and my desire to travel lit up inside of me. I have never been to England, although I traveled to a lot of countries from Europe. London is the main city to visit there, but there are other amazing travel destinations like this island. A lot of my friends work and live there. It seems to me or England is an expensive country to live in? For the prices, I consult https://costoflivingreports.com/. 15.48$ for a meal in a restaurant is expensive for me, for my current salary better said. What can you tell me about that? The more tourist a place has, the more expensive it gets. Are they many tourists in the Isle of Wight?
 

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