Isle of Wight, GB

Pan-Asian fire-cooking applied to Ventnor's day-boat catch, right on the esplanade with the sea two metres from the window. The lobster tempura and miso black cod are the menu's anchors and the room is small, marble-bar lively and almost always full. The Cowes branch on the high street is the same kitchen with a quieter dining room.

A contemporary European bistro on Yarmouth quay, looking out over the marina toward the castle wall. The menu changes with what the boats and the island farms bring in, holding the line between a smart dinner and a relaxed lunch. Good for a long meal after the ferry.

A whitewashed beach restaurant on Colwell Bay built directly onto the sand, with windows the length of the room facing the Solent. The menu leans hard into local crab, lobster and grilled fish, with a wine list that takes itself seriously for a place where people eat in flip-flops. Famous enough that boats moor offshore and tender guests in.

A farmhouse kitchen attached to the UK's largest specialist garlic grower, in a quiet fold of the Arreton valley. About three quarters of the menu has garlic in it somewhere, from the breakfast mushrooms on toast to the slow-cooked lamb at lunch, with a shop and free tastings either side. Good lunch stop between Newport and Sandown.

A salty old pub at the western end of Ventnor Esplanade, hung floor-to-ceiling with seafaring junk and serving crab and lobster landed at Ventnor Haven a few metres away. Live music most nights, dogs welcome and a sun terrace that catches the afternoon. More pub than restaurant, but a fair plate of fish at a fair price.

A 22-seat all-day kitchen on Ventnor high street, doing brunch hard with house-baked sourdough, Swedish hash and Square Mile coffee. The room is tight and noisy in a good way, with the bakery counter running into the open kitchen. A short walk uphill from the seafront.

A whitewashed thatched pub built into the cliff at the foot of Shanklin Chine in 1817, only reachable by the esplanade or the Chine stairs. Crab, fish and chips and a beer garden right on the sand make this the obvious east-coast lunch stop. Closed in winter when the cliff weather closes in.

A long-established family Italian in Shanklin Old Village, in a low thatched building with low beams and a long wood-fired pizza counter at the back. Pasta and pizza done straight, no surprises, and the kind of place locals book for birthdays. Good after a day on Shanklin beach.

The two-AA-Rosette kitchen at the Seaview Hotel on the north-east coast, known for its celebration of island produce with an emphasis on locally landed crab, lobster and catch of the day. The Pump Bar does a famous crab ramekin and fish and chips in a less formal register; the Bistro sits between the two. The east-coast location makes it an easy addition to a Bembridge or Brading day.

An Italian-run, Italian-staffed trattoria tucked into St Thomas Street in Ryde, open since 2000 and still doing southern Italian classics with a daily blackboard of fresh fish. Old-school service, white tablecloths, a serious wine list and a regular crowd of returning islanders. The default special-occasion Italian in Ryde.

A double-decker fish restaurant on Yarmouth quay with the harbour outside the window and an upstairs room that catches the breeze. Crab and lobster come from boats moored within sight; the menu is simple, generous and properly priced for the location. Sits two minutes from the ferry slip.

A converted Victorian station building on the old Yarmouth railway line, now a brunch and small-plates spot with platform tables looking onto the green way. The kitchen turns out shakshuka, eggs Florentine and decent flat whites alongside an evening sharing menu. Five minutes from the ferry, ten on foot.

A working family farm shop and cafe on Hale Common between Newport and Sandown, with the butchery and bakery feeding straight into the kitchen. Breakfast and lunch are big plates of farm meat, eggs and seasonal veg from the fields out the back. Good drive-through lunch on a touring day.

A Cowes high-street institution that has been turning out plates of fish and chargrills for over forty years, quietly outlasting most of the fashionable openings. Wood-panelled, white-tablecloth, the kind of place sailors slip into for an early dinner before catching the tide. Good for a long meal without a scene.

The Cowes sister to the Ventnor original, in a tall narrow room on the high street with the open kitchen visible from the bar. Same pan-Asian seafood DNA, more focused on the grill and tempura, with a Japanese-leaning sharing menu that suits a slow evening with wine. Useful if Cowes is your base and Ventnor is a drive too far.

The chalk ridge above Freshwater Bay that runs west to the Tennyson Monument with the Needles, the Solent and the south coast all on view at once. About 4 km to the monument and back, or you can press on to the Old Battery and make it a 13 km loop. Open downland, almost no shade and one of the great walks of the south.

A short, dramatic walk out along the headland to a Victorian fort hung on the cliff above the chalk stacks, with a tunnel down to a viewing post directly over the Needles. Above sits the Cold War rocket-test site, kept as it was abandoned. Best done from the Tennyson Down end rather than the car park.

A National Trust circular over the highest ground on the island, the chalk hump of St Boniface Down behind Ventnor, with the Channel below and the whole south coast in view. About 5 km on grassed paths and an old shooting range track; steep up from the town, gentle on top. Great for a clear blue day.

A grassy chalk ridge running west from Brading toward Arreton with a long view down over Sandown Bay one side and the Solent the other. Mostly flat once you are up, with the iron-age hill fort of Nunwell beneath you. About 5 km out and back from the Brading Down car park.

The only National Nature Reserve on the island, a flat 2 km circuit through saltmarsh, meadow and oakwood around the tidal creeks of Newtown harbour. The old Town Hall in the middle is the National Trust visitor centre. Birds, butterflies and the chance of red squirrels in the woods, rather than a workout.

A coastal-path section between two seaside towns that drops through the woods at Shanklin Chine, crosses Luccombe and runs the wooded Undercliff into Ventnor. About 6 km one way, varied underfoot and one of the more sheltered stretches when the coast is in a westerly. Bus back from Ventnor.

A quieter alternative to Tennyson Down on the same headland, climbing over heather to a Bronze Age burial mound and looking straight onto the Needles. About 6.5 km, gentler than the Down and far less busy, with a return along Totland seafront. The views land at the top without the long ridge slog.

A short, steep climb up to the medieval stone tower nicknamed the Pepperpot, the surviving lighthouse-oratory of a 14th-century chapel. From the top you get the whole south coast from St Catherine's Point to Ventnor and inland over the chalk. About 3 km out and back from the lay-by on the Niton road.

A working heritage railway running Victorian and Edwardian carriages behind period steam engines for ten miles between Wootton and Smallbrook Junction. The Train Story museum at Havenstreet is an interactive shed of restored stock you can climb in. An easy half day, especially with kids or in cold rain.

Britain's oldest amusement park, opened in 1843 on the cliffs above Chale Bay and now a patchwork of themed lands from cowboy town to a dinosaur forest. The cliff is slowly slipping into the sea, so the layout shifts year to year. Pitched at under-tens but the views from the upper paths are universal.

88 acres of woodland adventure park near Downend with toboggan run, falconry, treetop trail and a summer amphitheatre where acrobats perform at dusk. More gentle exploration than rollercoasters, which suits its tucked-in woodland setting. Good rain-or-shine option in the middle of the island.

A 600-seat Edwardian theatre in Shanklin that programmes touring drama, music, comedy and tribute acts year round. Restored after a fire in 2010 by a community trust, with a small bar and the original proscenium intact. The island's main road-stop for visiting shows alongside the smaller Quay Arts.

A converted Victorian brewery on the Newport quay running three contemporary art galleries, a 145-seat theatre, a craft shop and a cafe by the water. The programme leans toward visiting visual art, folk and acoustic gigs and family workshops. The island's main contemporary arts venue and an easy half day in Newport.

A working dairy-turned-family farm park near Yarmouth with alpacas, wallabies, meerkats and a long roster of outdoor activities from go-karting to an aqua park on the lake. Less polished than Robin Hill, more hands-on with animals. Good full day in West Wight when the beaches are cold.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's Italianate seaside palace in East Cowes, kept much as the family left it after the Queen died here in 1901. Beyond the gilded state rooms there is the Swiss Cottage where the royal children played at gardening and Victoria's own bathing machine on a private beach. A solid half day for anyone who likes period interiors paired with sea air.

The hilltop Norman fortress above Newport where Charles I was held in the year before his execution, still circled by Elizabethan artillery walls you can walk in a complete loop. The wellhouse keeps the tradition of donkeys winding water up from a 49-metre shaft, which is the bit children remember. Half a day, with views from the keep across most of the island.

The clifftop pleasure park above Alum Bay with the chairlift down to the multi-coloured sand cliffs and the best framed view of the three chalk stacks and lighthouse. There is a sand shop where you fill a glass ornament from the cliff colours, plus boat trips out to the rocks in summer. Touristy, but the view is the real thing.

A working Benedictine monastery near Binstead, built in striking pink Belgian brick in 1907 next to the ivy-clad ruin of its 12th-century predecessor. Visitors can sit in on the sung daily offices in the church, wander the woodland and orchard, and eat in the tea shop run by the community. Calm, free and easy to underestimate.

A sub-tropical garden on the sheltered Undercliff at Ventnor where the microclimate lets palms, agaves and Australian gums grow outdoors year round. The 22 acres are split into geographic beds, with a Mediterranean terrace that smells of resin in summer. Good for a slow two hours and a long lunch at the on-site cafe.

The only surviving windmill on the island, a stone tower mill from around 1700 that still has all its original wooden machinery in place. You can climb four floors from the meal bins up to the cap and see the grinding stones, hoists and gears as the millwrights left them. A focused half hour, often paired with a walk down to Bembridge harbour.

Henry VIII's last coastal artillery fort, finished in 1547 to protect Yarmouth harbour and the western Solent from French raids. It is small enough to see in an hour, with the gun platform looking straight across to the Hampshire coast and a recreated Tudor master gunner's room inside. Slots neatly into a day around Yarmouth and the ferry pier.

The Freshwater Bay home and studio of Julia Margaret Cameron, the pioneering Victorian portrait photographer who worked here from the 1860s. The galleries rotate exhibitions of her prints alongside contemporary photography and a small Isle of Wight Festival room with Bob Dylan memorabilia from 1969. Easy to combine with Tennyson Down across the road.

A late-Roman courtyard villa near Brading covered by a modern wooden building so you can walk over the mosaics on raised glass walkways. The Bacchus and Medusa floors are the most complete on the south coast, and the small museum sets out everyday Roman finds from the site. An hour, more if children take to the dressing-up box.