REVIEW | Haven Hall Hotel in Shanklin on the Isle of Wight

June 2022. Making the best of four weeks off, after the Mediterranean cruise for Danny and Mexico for Timothy, we organised a train trip in England. On the menu: Bletchley Park, the night train to Penzance, the Dartmouth Steam Railway and the Isle of Wight. On the last day, we roamed around London to sample the new Elizabeth Line.

Just like in Paignton we found mostly mediocre hotels when checking for hotels on the Isle of Wight. Luckily we had one big exception here, the Haven Hall Hotel in Shanklin. It looked like it was the only 5-star hotel on the Island and its location in Shanklin at the terminus of the Island Line meant that it was relatively easy to get to.

The hotel itself is located at the end of a quiet residential street, behind a big iron gate. Looking more like a big villa you wouldn’t expect there to be a 5-star hotel on this location. Once you enter the property you only notice how big the grounds really are, with a vast sea side garden with different little seating options and a beautiful outdoor terrace.

In the garden you also have some tennis courts, a helicopter landing spot and the outdoor pool. At the outdoor pool is a pool house with an honesty bar and showers.

Inside the building the ground floor offers a number of grand rooms and another honesty bar. They also have some photobooks showing you the before and after of the site because the owners did do an immense refurbishment of the somewhat rundown building to restore it to this magnificent state.

Our room was located on the first floor and offered a huge and comfortable double bed. There was a seating area near the windows and a big closet to store your stuff.

They also provided still and sparkling water aswell as tea and coffee making facilities, both with a water cooker and a proper nespresso machine. The most appreciated item in the room where the scissors, we never encountered that as a room amenity before but it was very handy to have it. The decoration is a bit over the top but it really fits in with the style of the house.

The bathroom was also very nice, with a very high water pressure. Both multiple use toiletries and small single use ones where provided. We loved the fact that it had an outside window, which you don’t often see in hotels.

Once again in the mornings breakfast was served according to the breakfast menu you filled in the evening beforehand.

There where ample choices on the menu and all of very good quality. AS the weather was typical UK weather on both mornings we were there, breakfast was served in the inside breakfast room. Everything we ate at breakfast was delicious and of excellent quality.

In the evening the hotel doesn’t offer dinner but the owner, David, Kindly mailed us a list of recommended restaurants beforehand so we could make dinner reservations as restaurants fill up quite fast. David really was a very nice host, taking time to talk to all his guests enquiring how their stay is going and giving tips and tricks of how to make most of your time on the island.

We had a wonderful stay at the Haven Hall hotel on the Isle of Wight and we can highly recommend it as your base to explore the island. Do enquire about prices with David himself as he probably can get you a better price than is quoted on the online booking sites.