Beach activity guide
Beaches that work well for a family day out, with practical access, food, toilets or gentler water where known.
Beaches that work well for a family day out, with practical access, food, toilets or gentler water where known.
Colwell Bay Beach is a Freshwater beach with sandy beach with sandy seabed and smooth, gentle depth increase. Good for swimming and families in settled conditions, especially at low tide; shallow, sheltered.
Compton Beach / Compton Bay is a Freshwater beach with long sandy beach with rocky ledges and reef areas, especially around hanover point. Good for confident swimmers and wave play in settled conditions; less.
Steephill Cove is a Ventnor beach with small cove with shingle, sand patches, rocks, fishing boats and rock pools. Good for a sheltered dip in calm weather for competent swimmers; watch rocks, seaweed and.
Gurnard Bay Beach is a Gurnard beach with sand and pebbles, with sand/pebble seabed. Reasonable for swimming, but stony in places; best with water shoes.
Appley Beach is a Ryde beach with wide beige sand with sandy seabed. Good family paddling beach; proper swimming is better at high tide because it is very shallow at low tide.
Ryde Beach is a Ryde beach with broad beige sand with sandy seabed. Good for high-tide swimming and low-tide paddling; too shallow for serious swimming at low tide.
St Helens Duver Beach is a St Helens beach with sand and pebbles with sand/pebble seabed. Pretty good for swimming and paddling in calm water, but shallow; best around suitable tide levels.
Yaverland Beach is a Sandown beach with long sandy beach with sandy seabed, chalk-cliff end toward culver. Good sandy swimming beach in settled weather; family-friendly but check tide and cliff end conditions.
Small Hope Beach is a Shanklin beach with sand and pebbles with sand/pebble seabed. Good for paddling and swimming in calm weather; use caution because it is not separately lifeguarded.
Bembridge Beach is a Bembridge beach with sand and pebbles with rock pools and small-boat shoreline. Fine for paddling; generally too shallow for proper swimming at low tide.
Shanklin (Clock Tower) Beach is a Shanklin beach with sand and pebbles with sand/pebble seabed; broad resort beach. Great for swimming with plenty of sandy patches and good family facilities; water shoes can.
Ventnor Beach is a Ventnor beach with sand and shingle/pebbles with mixed seabed. Good for swimmers in calm conditions; deeper/choppier than Colwell/Yaverland and best for confident bathers.
Alum Bay Beach is a Alum Bay beach with pebble beach below coloured sand cliffs. Scenic for paddling/dips in calm water, but not ideal as a primary swimming beach because of pebbles, access and no lifeguard.
Sandown Beach is a Sandown beach with gently sloping sandy resort beach. Good swimming beach with nice sand and steady gradient; best in flagged lifeguarded area when service operates.
Fort Victoria Beach is a Yarmouth beach with small pebbles with pebbly seabed. Good for careful dips in calm conditions according to beach listing, but better known for rockpooling/fossils than resort swimming.