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The Seaview Hotel - Seaview, Isle of Wight

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Award-winning island luxury

It’s not often you get to stay in a legend – an Isle of Wight legend, at least – but the classic Victorian seaside hotel that is The Seaview is just that. A local landmark sitting in the midst of a pretty and surprisingly unspoilt fishing village, from the outside The Seaview is your traditional seaside hotel, but step inside and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at its luxurious, modern interior. Award-winning interior designers Keech and Green have turned The Seaview into the essence of boutique. The hotel’s twenty-four bedrooms are individually and stylishly furnished, with all of them – from standard to the uber-flash 2-bedroomed apartment – offering gorgeous bed linen, flat screen tellies, DVD players and bathrobes. The four-poster and gold rooms offer a little more luxury than the standard rooms, with handmade soaps and White Company toiletries, while in the newly-built modern wing, bath water flows from the ceiling, blue lights in the bath will help you relax and a flat screen tellies have been moulded into the marble at the end of the tub… yes, really.

Away from the bedrooms, the hotel is a gentle hive of activity, with two award-winning restaurants and two comfy bars – perfect for relaxing. Both restaurants offer a mouthwatering menu compiled by young, but super-experienced, head chef Graham Walker, using only the finest ingredients. Local seafood features heavily of course, but the hotel’s herd of Carisbrooke deer provide amazing venison – in fact, many argue that the hotel offers the best food on the island. The pudding and cheese menus are also to die for, so it’s lucky that The Seaview has a whole fleet of beauty therapists who can make you feel your best après-lard.

But The Seaview wouldn’t be The Seaview without a, well, sea view, and the bracing air, wheeling seagulls and fab views from the hotel’s terrace bar are simply the icing on the cake.

Where is it?

Seaview is situated on the east coast of the Isle of Wight, about ten minutes’ drive from the ferry terminal at Ryde. A sleepy fishing village, with narrow streets, whitewashed cottages mixed with grand Edwardian houses, cafes and an extremely popular crabbing net and line shop, it is bustling enough to avoid feeling cut off, but hidden enough to keep the hordes of day trippers at bay. Seaview’s quiet beach is popular with sailors, crab-catchers and paddlers alike, while providing some lovely pre-dinner sunset strolling opportunities.

The small harbour town of Bembridge, four miles south of Seaview, is a buzzier place due to its excellent sailing links. The harbour marina is full of clanking masts, and the facilities shoreside are suitably tailored to their yachtie clientele. Bembridge is one of the best places on the island to get water-borne, thanks to the funky X-Isle sports (www.x-is.co.uk Tel: 01983 873111), one of the UK’s best watersport training centres. Courses in wind-surfing, sailing, waterskiing and surfing are all on offer, but the one-day introduction to kite-surfing will certainly blow a few urban cobwebs away.

Otherwise, the rest of the island is there to explore, and is perfectly proportioned to cover all the best bits in a weekend. Sandown Park racecourse is just a 15 minute drive from Seaview, while Queen Victoria’s bolthole Osborne House, is just half an hour away. For all the best places to see and eat on the island, read The Weekenders Guide to The Isle of Wight.

Where can I eat?

The restaurants at The Seaview Hotel really are a no-brainer option, as their menus are probably the best on the island. For a more laid-back lunch or supper, however, nearby Bembridge has some great places to eat. Baywatch on the Beach (Tel: 01983 873259), right on the water’s edge is a fab beach café, offering freshly-caught fish and seafood, mouthwatering steaks and some of the best views you’ll ever see from your dinner table. The award-winning St Helens retaurant in Bembridge (Tel: 01983 872303) is the perfect place for lovingly-cooked, locally-produced delicious dishes and will suit comfort eaters down to the ground. Their ‘mush-in’ ice-cream sundae is worth feeling full for.

For more great places to eat on the island, read The Weekenders Guide to The Isle of Wight.

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A local landmark sitting in the midst of a pretty and surprisingly unspoilt fishing village, from the outside The Seaview is your traditional seaside hotel, but step inside and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at its luxurious, modern interior.