As feral young children, back in the days long before Snapchat and Roblox, we used to roam the fair English countryside looking for animals to manhandle and straw bales to muck about on, whilst dodging heavy farm machinery and hippies. In these more enlightened and safety-conscious times it's still possible for kids to have fun like it's the summer of '72. They just need to pay an entrance fee.

Tapnell Farm Park lies on the Middle Road between Freshwater and Shalcombe and is an absolute lifeline for parents whose kids have overdosed on holiday ice cream and Smarties. What started as a "destination" farm where a handful of enclosed animals were subjected to petting/ear pulling by toddlers has now become a major complex of play zones and fun activities such as giant pillows, spider webs, zip lines, and go-carts.

The animals are still there, and have been climbing up the exoticness scale. Pigs and rabbits apparently don't have the same box-office allure as they once did, so now it's wallabies and meerkats vying for hotly-contested attention in this space.

If your kids want to be unicorns, Tapnell Farm Park has the best face painter we’ve ever seen. There’s now an Aqua Park on the same site, which apparently is awesome, as well as some padel tennis courts and an absurdly ridiculous activity called "frisbee golf". 

🌐 https://tapnellfarm.com/play/tapnell-farm-park

Compton Beach

Chessel Pottery Café

Once upon a time this amazing place was a traditional zoo set in the ruins of a Victorian military fort, built just a few years later than Fort Victoria. Today it is an animal sanctuary doing incredible and laudable work in animal conservation, education and rescue, as well as being a great place for young animal lovers to visit.

A lot of the animals here, mostly big cats such as tigers and lions have been rescued from appalling conditions in circuses, the entertainment industry or traded illegally as exotic animals. The most recent celebrity arrivals here are brown bear brothers Benji and Balu, who spent years confined in a cage in a restaurant in Azerbaijan, before being brought to the island in a complex and challenging rescue operation.

It is possible to get really intimate with the tigers as long as you are 8 or over by booking a feeding experience. Combine this trip with a visit to Dinosaur Isle next door, a great museum for anyone with an interest in geology or palaeontology.

Dinosaur Isle

Brading Roman Villa

Considered to be the oldest theme park in the UK, Blackgang Chine is born from the quaint Victorian vision of kids' fun, rather than the eyeball popping, screaming version of modernity. Nevertheless there have been big efforts in recent years to ramp up the flow of adrenaline at the park.

Some of the imaginary worlds created here are superb, such as the emotional roller-coaster at the old house Rumpus Mansions, haunted by animatronic fairies, witches and goblins. Others worlds are humorous and engaging, but some others can appear dated and naff.

Blackgang Chine is mostly about imagination and role-play, so if your kids are way too cool to play cowboys in the Wild West, they might find this theme park a bit of a bore. Kids under 10 mostly love it though.

Permaculture Island

Ventnor Botanic Gardens

The kids may think that a trip to a Roman Villa sounds like boring old history, but don’t let that put you off. The curators have cleverly supplied a wardrobe of Roman clothing at the entrance to the excavated villa, so the kids can feel like centurions and senators as they bomb around these well-preserved remains of a posh villa. There’s adult sizes too, so even Dad can fantasise he's Cicero orating on the steps of the Senate.

Quite apart from the role-play, there are some incredibly well-preserved mosaics at the villa, including a mystery person with a cockerel's head. Keen followers of politics in Britain will have a few ideas about who that would be. With any luck, the kids will refrain from bashing each other with plastic swords for a few moments, and actually learn something. Look out for the regular events at the villa

Wildheart Animal Sanctuary

Dinosaur Isle

The steam railway is a volunteer-run venture so utterly charming it actually hurts. Trips in these lovingly restored Victorian and Edwardian-era carriages run every 60-90 minutes through some woods and back again. It’s a wonderful trip down memory lane for anyone over the age of 90, and for the children under 9 is is possibly the most exciting thing that ever happened outside of an iPad. Don’t tell the volunteers you used to have a Hornby train set though… you’ll never get away!

Robin Hill Adventure Park

The Garlic Farm

As a site, Carisbrooke Castle possibly dates back to late Roman times, although there definitely was an Anglo-Saxon fortress here in the year 1000. The castle itself was built shortly after the Norman Conquest, and around 300 years later in 1377 was instrumental in repelling an invasion of the island by French and Castillan raiders, who burned Yarmouth (the rotters!) and Newtown.

Carisbrooke's biggest claim to fame is as the place of imprisonment for both King Charles I and his head, shortly before they became forever separated in 1649. The year before, Charles executed a very cunning plan to escape his captivity by climbing out of a window. But the plan failed on account of Charles misjudging the width of the bars. He got stuck.

Carisbrooke is also famous for its donkeys, which ‘donkey’s years ago’ were used to power a medieval water pump. All the animals have names beginning with a "J", as that was the way Charles signed his secret correspondence whilst in captivity.

Check the website for special events here, and especially look out for jousting tournaments, usually in August. A jousting tournament on a fine summer day, with the castle as a backdrop is an experience you will ne’er forget.

The Cow Shed

The Mill Trail Heritage Walk