Camping for Cowes Week and the Round the Island Race

In short: Cowes Week is a week of yacht racing in the Solent in early August, ending with fireworks over Cowes on the Friday night. The Round the Island Race is a single day in early summer, usually June or early July, when hundreds of yachts sail all the way round the Island from Cowes. For Cowes Week, camp in the north of the Island near Cowes and book early; for the Round the Island Race, camp near one of the headlands the fleet passes, such as the Needles or St Catherine's Point.

Cowes Week: what it's like

Cowes Week is one of the oldest sailing regattas in the world. It began in 1826, and 2026 was its 200th anniversary year. It runs for about a week at the start of August, with races every day for classes from small keelboats to big offshore yachts. Many races start from the line off the Royal Yacht Squadron on the Cowes waterfront, and on a busy day the Solent off Cowes is full of sails.

Ashore, the town is busy from morning to late evening: the Parade and the Green along the waterfront are the best free places to watch the starts, the high street fills up, and there's music and food stalls around the town. The week traditionally ends with a fireworks display on the Friday night, which brings in day visitors from all over the Island and the mainland, and with them the heaviest traffic of the week.

The Round the Island Race

The Round the Island Race is organised by the Island Sailing Club in Cowes. It's one day, usually a Saturday in June or early July, chosen to suit the tides. The fleet is huge, many hundreds of boats and sometimes well over a thousand, from family cruisers to racing yachts, and they start in waves early in the morning from the line off Cowes.

The course is about 50 nautical miles, and boats normally head west first: down the Solent, out through the Needles channel, along the south-west coast, round St Catherine's Point, past Ventnor and Sandown Bay, round the eastern end and back up past Ryde to finish at Cowes. That means you can watch the same boats at different places through the day.

Where to watch from

• The Green and the Parade, Cowes. The best place for the start of both events, close to the line. Get there early on race day, as the waterfront fills up.
• Egypt Point, Cowes. A little west of the Parade, where the boats pass close inshore along the Solent shore.
• Fort Victoria, near Yarmouth. The shore here looks across the narrow western end of the Solent, as the fleet heads for the Needles.
• The Needles and West High Down. The classic view of the Round the Island Race: boats rounding the chalk stacks with the lighthouse below you. It's a walk up from the Needles car park or over Tennyson Down. See campsites near the Needles.
• St Catherine's Point, Niton. The southernmost tip of the Island, where the fleet turns east. Paths from Niton lead down to the cliffs by the lighthouse.
• Ventnor and Bonchurch. The seafront and the cliffs above it give a long view of the boats running along the south coast in the middle of the day.
• Culver Down. The high chalk at the eastern end, above Sandown Bay and Whitecliff Bay, looks both ways along the course.

For the Round the Island Race, the fleet takes several hours to pass any one point, with the fastest boats far ahead of the slowest. Timings depend completely on the wind and tide, so check the race's spectator information for the day rather than turning up at a set time.

Where to camp

For Cowes Week

Stay as close to Cowes as you can, so you can walk in and out for the fireworks. There are several campsites within a couple of miles of the town in Northwood and Gurnard.

• Comforts Farm, Northwood, is a simple summer meadow about a mile from Cowes, with the Travellers Joy pub on the doorstep.
• The Hydeaway is a small off-grid site near Gurnard with tent pitches, campervan pitches and furnished bell tents.
• The Ark Park and Tiny Homes Holidays are glamping a few minutes from Cowes.
• Thorness Bay is a big holiday park above the Solent west of Cowes, with touring pitches, safari tents and caravans.
• Waverley Park in East Cowes looks over the Solent and is a short walk from the Red Funnel terminal and the floating bridge across to Cowes.

See all campsites near Cowes, the North and Central Wight area, or our guide to camping around Cowes and Newport.

For the Round the Island Race

Choose a site near the stretch of coast you want to watch, and you can walk to your viewpoint without fighting for a parking space.

• The Needles: Stoats Farm at Totland sits below Tennyson Down, and The Bungalow is a small members' site near Freshwater Bay. More in the West Wight.
• St Catherine's Point: Castlehaven is right by the shore near the lighthouse, and Puckaster Cove has sea-view yurts above Reeth Bay. See Niton.
• Culver Down: Sandhills sits under Culver Down with a path down to Whitecliff Bay, and Whitecliff Bay is on the cliffs nearby.

Or pick a campsite with sea views and watch the boats go past from your pitch.

Booking around the busy weeks

Cowes Week falls at the height of the school holidays, so it's the busiest and dearest time of year for both campsites and ferries. Book the campsite as soon as the dates are announced, which is usually months ahead, and book the ferry at the same time. Sites near Cowes fill first.

The Round the Island Race is a single Saturday but brings hundreds of crews and their supporters, and in some years falls close to the Isle of Wight Festival in June. Ferries on the Friday and Sunday either side can be busy.

The price calendar on each campsite's page shows which nights cost more, and the price comparison lets you compare across sites. If Cowes itself is full, the campsites near a ferry port are another good option, since most of them are within a short drive or bus ride of Cowes. Our guides to taking a tent on the ferry and festival camping cover the other busy weeks.