It’s all smiles from the minute you cross the threshold of the Heatherleigh Hotel, yards from Shanklin, one of the UK’s best loved beaches. Mother and daughter team Mary and Kim Gregory are eal livewires; larger than life personalities with a simple philosophy for their little hotel: make people comfortable, attend to their well-being, keep things flexible and the guests will go home happy.

It’s a winning formula – inspired in no small part by the world famous Findhorn Foundation in the Scottish highlands, with its environmentally and spiritually-driven community of several hundred positive thinkers. Chefs by trade, the Gregorys lived nearby and are now busy translating the environmental good sense practised at Findhorn to their Shanklin hotel. This extends to every aspect of the hotel operation, from the Fairtrade beverages in Heatherleigh’s bedrooms and the clampdown on unnecessary use of paper and plastics to the water butts and drought resistant plantings in their award-winning gardens.

Family run for the warmest of welcomes

On the door step
Climb down to one of the Island’s best expanses of sandy beach or walk in Shanklin Chine, famous for its unusual flora and fauna.