So where is the Isle of Man??

If you're from the U.S.A., the Isle of Man is geographically (but not politically) in Europe - which is in the same approximate vicinity as London, England and Paris, France (not Texas!). Look at the map above (courtesy of DigitalVision) to get a basic idea of what another important part of the world looks like. Over here in Europe we have some cool things - royal families, great cars that don't squeal tyres at 20mph, arts and culture, history and lots of curvy roads (like freeways but better).

Of course, we have some problems too - we have to pay for all our telephone calls (so we can't surf for free) and petrol costs up to $6-7 a gallon. If you ever come to visit, don't panic - there's a McDonald's in most towns these days.

If you're surfing from nearer to home, the Isle of Man isn't one of the Channel Islands - it's about halfway between England and Northern Ireland in the Irish Sea. A fast car ferry from Liverpool takes around 2½ hours, or you can fly here from most regional hub airports - Manchester and Dublin are about 35 minutes away, London around an hour.

Apart from a waning tourist industry and a beaurocratically-hampered fishing fleet, the Isle of Man is now mostly famous for three things - it's a major offshore financial centre; it's host for the annual T.T. (Tourist Trophy) motorbike race fortnight in June where competitors from around the world compete on a frighteningly dangerous 37-mile closed road circuit; and it's become a major film location of choice with its own Film Commission offering a number of attractive incentives to lure movie producers here. Allegedly some scenes from the new Star Wars prequel were shot on the island, as was the recent hit film Waking Ned, a gangster movie called Everybody Loves Sunshine starring David Bowie, and many others.

For further information, please call
Stuart Peters
on
621769 (from the Isle of Man)
or
01624 621769 (from the UK)
or
++ 44 1624 621769 (from overseas)

Or click below to send an email:-

Last updated 25/11/03