It might be located on the beach but the picturesque village of Shanklin is anything but a typically british seaside resort. Theres so much more to it than that. Its like someone came along and condensed the British Isle into one. Shanklin has huge dramatic cliff faces (and a Cliff Lift for the lazy), beaches, rolling countryside, cliff top walks, chocolate box thatched houses, more history than you can shake a stick at and tons and tons for children of every age. The beaches are clean, spacious and closed to dogs between March and October. By far the quaintest thing are the brightly coloured beach huts which adorn the edges of the beach and can be rented out by the day, week or even the season. They're big enough to store your surf board and get changed too.

Shanklin, indeed the entire Isle of Wight, is obsessed with food. Go into any pub and order fish and chips and you'll be served it on a plate that could double as a serving platter, they don't skimp on anything. The beachside Steamer Inn serves up a delicious whopper of a battered fish with a mountain of veg, salad and enough chips for two for £8.99. The food is just as good at The Crab inn in Shanklins old town.

For those that like walks theres tons to choose from whether its the landscaped gardens of Shanklin Chine or a walk through the village following the tourist trail. Theres a seemingly endless amount of public transport available and the novelty of the village road train. If you venture a little further afield Shanklin Station is well connected to other towns on the island and also connects direct to the ferry terminal. Even this is a little unorthadox as the trains in question are clickety clackety 1970s London Underground carriages.

We stayed for a week with two young children and didn't run out of things to do, in fact we could easily have filled a fortnight. I'm rather glad we took the car though as it made getting from venue to venue much easier. Parking was great as there are plenty of affordably priced pay and display carparks with typical charges of £1 per hour but with a quick visit to the tourist information centre you can buy a tourist parking permit which allows you to park anywhere you like for £40 a week (longer durations were available).

Its definately somewhere we'll be returning to as theres plenty more things that we didn't get chance to see. Its worth noting that several visitor attractions offer a free return visit within 7 days of your original visit, not that we went anywhere twice but the demonic daughters would have loved a return trip to Black Gang Chine the islands only theme park.