Isle of Wight

A slightly tattered, slightly romantic place, this island sometimes gets so crowded it seems that it might sink beneath the weight of the throngs of summer visitors. Its appealingly dusty Victorian look comes courtesy of Queen Victoria, who put the Isle of Wight (pronounced white) on the map by choosing it for the site of Osborne House. She lived here as much as she could, and ultimately she died here. Perhaps understandably, islanders are chauvinistic; like Tennyson, who lived here until tourist harassment drove him away, they resent the crowds of tourists. But every season the day-trippers arrive—thanks to the ferries and hydrofoils that connect the island with Southampton, Portsmouth, Southsea, and Lymington. People come to this 23-mi-long island for its vacation resorts—Ryde, Bembridge, Ventnor, Freshwater (stay away from tacky Sandown and Shanklin)—and its rich vegetation, narrow lanes, thatched cottages, curving bays, sandy beaches, and walking paths. The fabulous ocean air, to quote Tennyson, is "worth six pence a pint." All is not sea and sails, however. There is splendid driving to be done in the interior of the island, in such places as Brading Down, Ashley Down, Mersely Down, and along Military Road, and the occasional country house to visit, none more spectacular than Queen Vicky's Osborne House.