Being part of the British Crown, but not part of the UK, I wasn’t really sure where to place this web page! I’ve ended up placing it under the Europe menu…
The two largest of the Channel Islands, closer to France than to Britain, were our choice for a 12 night camping holiday. The ferry times dictated how long we decided to spend on each island, as we didn’t want to be setting up camp after dark or packing up really early. To work around the best sailing times, we ended up choosing 7 nights on Jersey and 5 nights on Guernsey, which worked well.
The fact that we were camping and also bringing our inflatable kayak and folding bikes dictated the method of travel – i.e. car and ferry. It was a long haul there and back, and although we were glad we did it, it is unlikely we would do it again in such a small timeframe. We allowed extra days to stop over at Paul’s sisters in Cheshire both on the way there, and again on the way back, plus a night in Poole before the ferry over, which was at 10.30am. Even so, the travelling was quite brutal, 4.5 hours to Cheshire, and nearer 5 hours to and from Poole due to heavy traffic, roadworks, etc.
Planning
We took 2 weeks off work, plus an extra day to allow us longer coming home. This allowed us to stay at Glynis & Tony’s on the Friday & Saturday night and Poole on the Sunday on our way there, then a couple of nights getting home. We were unsure whether to stay in Poole again after the ferry back, but instead pushed on up to Cheshire so that we could have 2 nights at Glynis & Tony’s and a day without any driving before our final push back to Glasgow.
The best option for getting to Jersey was with Condor Ferries from Poole. This is the quickest way to travel. The ferry was scheduled to depart at 10.30am, however they ask you to be checked in at least an hour before (which was fine on the way out as everything ran to schedule, however it was not so good in the hot sun on the way from Jersey to Guernsey, and again from Guernsey back to Poole, when the ferries ran an hour late).
Once the ferries were booked, we then looked at the options for camping and selected The Palms on Jersey (we liked that it was promoted as being a quiet campsite that didn’t allow things like ball games, dogs off leads or late night music) and Fauxquets Valley on Guernsey (which offered both camping pitches and “glamping” options). Both were excellent choices with very good facilities and swimming pools. What we liked about Fauxquets was that their pool was heated (to 25 degrees) so we made much more use of it (we also had much warmer weather there as a heatwave had hit both the UK and Europe). We also liked that Fauxquets allowed us to choose our pitch on arrival within the pitch grade that we had booked, whereas The Palms had pre-allocated our pitch but it was mostly covered in shade and awkward to get the car into, so we ended up asking to move. They moved us to a bigger and sunnier pitch near the facilities block, which was very handy, but as it was a larger pitch we had to pay an extra £70 (ouch!) However it was worth it, as it was also an easier pitch to manoeuvre the car in and out of.
For Poole we looked on Airbnb and the place we found (an ensuite room in Bonnie’s apartment with kettle, mini fridge etc) was perfect for us. It was close to the harbour and the Condor ferry terminal. Bonnie met us on arrival and let us use her private parking space under the apartment building as we were a bit worried about leaving the car out on the street with all our gear in it (however, it was very quiet and I’m sure it would have been fine there). She then showed us to our room and told us to help ourselves to the treats by the kettle and in the fridge (even beers and mini prosecco’s) as they were included in the price! For the price we paid Bonnie’s place was excellent value.
As far as packing went, we minimised our camping gear as much as possible without compromising on comfort. On both campsites we had booked electric hook-ups, so we brought our fridge/freezer box and (just in case – and just as well during the first week!) a small fan heater.
The inflatable kayak was a must, and we decided to bring our new folding bikes that we had just bought a few weeks before. The bikes proved really useful for going out to dinner as this allowed us to have a drink without worrying about driving back. Mind you, the narrow roads (which often had high hedges or walls) were quite scary, both for driving and for cycling on, bearing in mind we normally only use dedicated cycle paths at home. I couldn’t decide which scared me the most – driving or cycling!
Prior to our trip I also found it useful to follow the Visit Jersey and Visit Guernsey Facebook pages, as they were useful both for getting ideas of places to go or things to do, as well as asking questions such as where are good places to kayak from/to. It helped to go there with a rough idea of what we would like to do and see once there.
Duty Free!
It is worth knowing that you can buy duty free on the ferry, and it is excellent value! Both Barefoot, Yellow Tail and Jam Shed wines were a particularly great buy. We bought 12 bottles going to Jersey and another 12 bottles going to Guernsey. We also were emailed a money off voucher with our tickets, which made the 24 bottles we bought on our way home exceptionally cheap!
Jersey
We had six full days on Jersey excluding our arrival and departure days. The ferry arrived an hour late, which seemed to be “par for the course” as we found out later. Our first day was just a “settling in” day as we arrived later in the afternoon. We did a quick shop at the Morrisons close by for some basics and nibbles for dinner. We found that weirdly eating out was priced much the same as home, but supermarket shopping was eye watering by comparison, despite our current UK cost of living crisis. In hindsight it would have been worth bringing some of the non-perishable basics such as teabags, cereal and sugar.
Both Jersey & Guernsey seemed (& were) very populated compared to our quiet Scottish islands. There were houses everywhere and no vast expanses of farmland or crop fields like we would be used to seeing at home. Also, for small islands, there were a heck of a lot of roads! A lot of the time we felt like we were going round in circles somewhat (and perhaps we were…)
Both islands were occupied by the Nazis for about 5 years during the Second World War and there is a lot of historic war sights and museums. However, much of what we had planned for the holiday was kayaking, so we didn’t opt for a lot of the traditional historic sightseeing and museums etc.
Parking was very confusing in and around St Helier and the east / south east coast, with parking “clocks” or a weird “parking voucher” system in use (and apparently you cannot use a parking clock from another country, nor can you leave a note on the dashboard with your time of arrival!) Fortunately the places we took the car to were all free parking with no need for clocks or vouchers, but this is something to be aware of, and something you will need to purchase if planning to visit these areas in your own car (though I believe car hire companies issue you with “parking clocks” if you are hiring a car).
On Tuesday, our first full day on the island, we headed round to St Brelade’s Bay for some kayaking, or to be more specific, to Ouaisne Bay (at low tide both beaches become one, but Ouaisne bay has free parking next to the beach with easy access for kayaking). From there you can paddle round the headlands to either Beauport beach (to the west) or Portelet Bay (to the east). However, on this particular day, there was quite a swell and a fairly breezy wind, so we stayed within the bay for our paddle, deciding not to risk going round either headland. We did later on drive to the parking for Beauport beach and then walk down for a look. It was fairly quiet, probably due to the many steps to get down there. It is a pretty beach and worth a visit. Like many of the beaches on Jersey (& Guernsey) there are big stones or boulders to walk over before you reach the sand, and if the tide is in, the sand is usually covered. Before heading back to the campsite we stopped off for a look at Plemont Bay. It was high tide, so there was literally no beach. I’m pleased to say that we went back on another day at low tide and we were so glad that we had as it was the loveliest beach on the island at low tide with lots of rock pools and caves. It’s not feasible to kayak from due to all the steps to get down to the beach, but you can easily pass a couple of hours exploring the beach on foot when the tide is out and having lunch or a drink at the beach café.
The nearest pub/restaurant to the campsite was the Farmers Arms, so we decided to cycle there for dinner. However, it turned out that they only serve meals a few days a week, and Tuesday wasn’t one of these days! The girl at the bar recommended a pub further down the road, the Tipsy, so we headed there and enjoyed a nice meal and a couple of drinks. Having the bikes to go our for dinner was handy, as I had said before, it meant we could both have a drink without worrying about driving afterwards. It’s worth mentioning that the drink-driving laws in the Channel Islands are stricter than in the UK.
On Wednesday we went up to Greve De Lecq beach, which was recommended by the campsite, to see how it looked for kayaking. It looked too choppy to go out in at the time, though we did go back on a couple of other days for a short paddle. Instead, we drove on to the La Mare Wine Estate to have a “cream tea” and to check out their wine tours. We both actually had coffee rather than tea with our scones, and I have to say that it was wonderful coffee (I don’t drink coffee often, but I found their coffee very mild and pleasant with no bitterness). I had their home made “black butter” with my scone, while Paul has jam, both of course served with clotted cream – yum! The “black butter” isn’t a butter at all, it is more like a paste/jam made with Christmas type mixed spice, sort of similar to what you have in a mince pie. I liked it, but Paul wasn’t too keen (fortunately they let us have a taste before deciding what we wanted with our scones). Then we went up to check out the Devil’s Hole, which to be honest we were unimpressed by – apparently it is better to visit at high tide when you can watch the waves crashing through the blowhole. The Devil statue seen on the path down, however, was eerie and interesting!
After lunch, we went back to the wine estate on our bikes to do the “wine tour”. To be honest, although it was a nice thing to do, and we would recommend it, we felt that it wasn’t great value (in our opinion – we have been spoiled in the past in South African vineyards!) – for £19 for the “premium tasting” you got a small taste of their three wines (white, rose & red – they were pleasant, but nothing special), a tiny drop of fruit cider (which was lovely, I wish they had given us more!), a small chocolate cup filled with their liqueur (which was similar to Baileys and quite nice) and a tiny taste of their home made fudge. The fizz was unfortunately not included in the tastings. Finally, at the end of the premium tour, you were offered a gin, brandy or vodka with mixer to enjoy in the garden. La Mare is the only winery on the island, and we did have a lovely time, it was a pleasant way to pass a couple of hours.
Once back at the campsite, I was feeling a little bit off (with some kind of cold / sinus infection which I probably caught on the busy ferry), so we had dinner at the Oasis Café at the campsite, which was nice, rather than heading out again.
Since our arrival the weather had been quite mixed, and cold at night (cold enough that we needed to use our heater once the sun was going down). Meanwhile, much to our disgust, Scotland was getting a heatwave! By Thursday evening the weather had deteriorated, with torrential rain overnight. Fortunately during the day it stayed mainly dry, although at times what we in Scotland would call “driecht”. We headed east to St Catherine’s, where we could have paddled, but decided not to as the visibility was so poor. It was very sheltered from the wind, though, and would have made a good paddling option had we got round to going back there (which we didn’t).
We attempted to head further south on the east coast, but ran into road closures, so instead we headed to Portelet Bay to have lunch at the brilliant beach café (their pizzas are amazing!) Then on to check out the Corbiere Lighthouse, which we had timed well as you can only walk out to it during low tide. We bought some delicious Jersey ice cream from the van at the lighthouse car park, and sat for a while overlooking the beach and enjoying the ice cream and the view.
As we had lunch out instead of dinner, we just had a sandwich for dinner back at the campsite. We found that having a meal out for lunch or late lunch / dinner, and then just a sandwich in the evening worked well for us.
By Friday, the worst of the weather had passed and the rain had stopped. The forecast was looking much better, with the heatwave due to hit come Saturday. We tried again at Greve De Lecq for a paddle and found the sea to be calmer now, so we went in for a little while. This is a nice beach, but it is near a shooting club and we found the constant gun shots a little disconcerting!
After our paddle, we went back to Plemont beach to see it at low tide – what a difference from our last visit there at high tide! It was a stunning beach and we enjoyed spending time exploring and paddling in the rock pools and taking lots of photographs. It was our favourite beach on the island and definitely the most stunning. Before leaving we had drinks in the café overlooking the beach.
We dropped off the kayak and car back at the campsite, and then cycled to Bonne Nuit Bay to have some Thai food at the café for a late lunch / early dinner. The food was lovely, though it was a pity we didn’t realise that they operated a BYO for alcohol, so we just had a soft drink. Maybe it was just as well as it was a long, steep & winding road down to the bay – and once there we realised one of the bikes back tyres had gone flat! After our meal we tried stopping a few other cyclists to see if we could borrow a pump as we had left ours in the car. We finally got lucky and found a cyclist who actually had a pump with him, however, the tyre just deflated again as it had been punctured. We got to the top of the hill pushing the bikes, found a garage with a store where we hoped to be able to buy a new inner tube, but they didn’t have any. In the end Paul cycled back to the campsite while I waited at the garage with the other bike, and he came back for me in the car. The next day we took the bike to a repair shop that the cyclist who had stopped to help had recommended. We just paid to have the man at the shop replace the inner, as it was much quicker than Paul trying to do it himself.
So on Saturday, after getting the bike sorted, we headed back to St Brelade’s / Ouaisne Bay for a paddle from there round the headland to Beauport beach, then back and around the other headland to Portelet Bay for lunch at the beach café again. The sea was relatively calm, with just a gentle swell. It was a warm and sunny day, so this time we sat outside to eat. I enjoyed another pizza, while Paul had the crab linguine. We dropped the car and kayak off afterwards at the campsite and took a short cycle to the Farmers Arms for a drink in their lovely beer garden.
Our last full day was Sunday. We didn’t want to drive far, so we decided on a paddle from Greve De Lecq again. This time there were loads of really big jellyfish in the sea – they were beautiful to watch. We (sort of) got used to hearing the gun fire from the shooting range, although it was still a little disconcerting, especially as we were in an inflatable!
After our paddle, again we dropped the car and kayak off at the campsite, had a shower and change of clothes, and cycled to St Marys for lunch – a Sunday roast for Paul and crab linguine for me. Crab is not something I would tend to eat, and I would have preferred it without, but I thought I should at least try some seafood while we were there.
We finally used the campsite pool today as the weather had heated up, although the pool was still super cold, so we didn’t last long! In the evening we had a couple of drinks at the pool bar as we watched the sun set, which was nice, as until now it had mostly clouded over before the sun had gone down.
The ferry to Guernsey on Monday was booked for 1.10pm, with check-in a minimum of an hour before, so we had no rush to pack up. It was now very hot (and stayed that was for the rest of our holiday), so once we had packed everything away, we took a final dip in the pool to cool off.
This was one day that we could have done with being cooler, as the ferry was an hour delayed. There was nowhere to get out of the sun and people were putting their car boots up to use for some shade. It was pretty awful. We had checked in about an hour and twenty minutes before, so with the delay that meant we were stuck there waiting for well over two hours. This day was our 30th wedding anniversary, and not a great start to it, but if we had taken the ferry a day either side the sailing time was really bad, so we didn’t have much option.
Guernsey
Fortunately the day got better once we finally got on the ferry. It was a short journey of an hour during which we got lunch and stocked up on some more duty free wines. The campsite was fairly easy to find and was really lovely. As mentioned before, their pool was heated and we were able to choose where we wanted to pitch the tent. We ended up pitching on a spot that was near both the pool and the facilities block.
Once pitched up, we had a quick dip in the pool, showered and changed, got the bikes ready, and cycled to the Cobo Bay Hotel, which Paul has already pre-booked for our anniversary dinner. We had a lovely meal in the outside area looking over to the beach. By the time we left the sun was almost setting, so we had to cycle a bit in the dark (part of the road as we neared the campsite had high and overgrown hedges, so it was dark to cycle this part – made worse as we had no lights on our bikes and it was uphill!) We were glad to get back and relax, open a bottle of our duty free wine and talk about what we might do the next day.
Before leaving home, as I had already mentioned, we tried to do some research about good places to kayak from. Many spots, although accessible on foot, are not easy to access with a kayak if you want to park close by so that you don’t have to carry it far (or down lots of steps!), so particularly on the south of the island, our choices were rather limited. Some people at the campsite on Jersey had told us about Petit Bot bay, where you can park close to the beach (albeit spaces are very limited, but we got lucky as we were there quite early in the day). They had hired kayaks there. The south of the island has lots of small bays and steep cliffs, and is picturesque for kayaking around, as opposed to the wider open sandy bays on the northern “half” of the island.
So on Tuesday morning we decided to start there. As is often the case, we had some large stones / boulders to negotiate before reaching some sand / shingle. The tide was in, so there was not much sand, but just enough to make launching easy. We spent a nice couple of hours paddling from the bay, although not going as far as we had hoped due to the wind and swell. Being in an inflatable we have to be very careful not to get into a situation where we struggle to control the kayak. We take a marine radio for emergencies, but obviously we don’t want to get ourselves in a situation where we might need to use it, so we tend to err on the side of caution.
On our way back to the campsite we stopped off at the “Little Chapel” which was beautiful and well worth a visit (free entry too, although donations were gratefully accepted).
Back at the campsite we had some chill out time by the pool for half an hour, then we headed off to check out Lihou Island during the short window in which it was accessible before the tide turned. This was our only opportunity to visit as it was due to be inaccessible during the next several days. We had a walk round the island, passing the Venus Pools where some people had gone in for a dip (they looked lovely, but would have involved clambering over the rocks to get to them, not to mention that we hadn’t brought swimwear as we were going for dinner afterwards).
Speaking of dinner, we had booked Rocsalt for 6.30pm, which timed nicely with our access to Lihou Island. Rocsalt would have been at least a 30 minute cycle, so we took the car this time as the nights were already starting to draw in with the sun setting around 7.30pm. We enjoyed a lovely meal there, fish & chips for me and burger with a half lobster (yes, a weird combination!) for Paul.
Our campsite was pretty much right next to the Rocquette Cider Farm, so on Wednesday that became part of our agenda and we booked for the 5.45pm tour & tastings. The timing was good as it meant we could be out and about during the day. First stop to kayak was at Grand Havre, followed by Pembroke & L’Ancresse Bay, where we also had a lovely lunch by the beach in the Pembroke Beach Café (nice Thai curries!) We then visited Bordeaux Bay, which would also have been a nice kayaking spot had we not been to full after lunch. Finally, we enjoyed some more time back at the campsite pool to cool off before our cider tour.
The Cider Farm was a very short cycle along the main road (uphill on the way, downhill – thankfully – on the way back). We had been recommended this tour by the same people in the Jersey campsite who had recommended kayaking at Petit Bot. The tour cost £25 and included around 45 minutes of tasting as much cider as you could drink, their gin and vodka liqueurs, and their home made cheese & chutneys with crackers, so although expensive, it was reasonably good value.
I am not a cider fan, but I was looking forward to trying their fruit ciders after enjoying the one at the wine estate on Jersey. However, the fruit ciders were boxed and therefore flat, so to be honest I found them quite horrid. They did have their basic cider on draught, so at least it was sparkling. Instead, though, I got several shots of the liqueurs (you got to help yourself) which were both delicious, so much so that we bought a bottle for Glynis & Tony as a thank you for putting us up on our journey there and back. Was the tour worth it? Well, for me I would say no, although if we hadn’t done it, I would never have tasted these lovely liqueurs; for a cider fan who doesn’t mind flat ciders, then perhaps yes, though you would have to drink a lot of cider to get your £25 worth. However, like with the wine tour, it was just a nice thing to do, and being able to cycle (or walk – it was close enough) was a bonus.
Having had a substantial lunch out, and cheese & biscuits on the cider tour, we just had a few “nibbles” later on back at the campsite for dinner.
By Thursday, the sea swell had dropped considerably, as had the wind, so the sea state was much calmer. We managed to get a parking space (of which there are very few) at Saints Bay harbour. This is a beautiful harbour and one of the prettiest views on Guernsey, especially if you take the ladders up to the “fisherman’s landing”, which makes for a great photo opportunity (see below).
It was easy access for kayaking as there is a slip near the parking, and there are other small bays that you can paddle round to past some stunning rock formations. We paddled past Petit Port, which saved us the walk there down almost 300 steps! Gosh, did they look steep viewing them from the sea! This was a lovely area to paddle, and we could easily have spent the day and gone further had we wanted to, however we only went about as far as Jerbourg Point.
In the afternoon we headed to Rocquaine Bay where we had a short paddle and a lunch at the Guernsey Pearl (very nice!)
Friday was our last full day on Guernsey and we wanted to fit in as much as we could. This started with a walk to St Martins Point Lighthouse (well, most of the way to it – the path got quite overgrown near the end and we gave up!) Then we headed into St Peters Port to park up near the La Vallette bathing pools for a kayak round to Fermain Bay (which had been recommended to us by a person on the Visit Guernsey Facebook page). To be honest, finding a place to park was a nightmare as it was super busy despite there being loads of spaces. It took us a couple of drives round the area before we finally got a space that someone had just come out of. It is worth mentioning that in and around St Peter Port (the main town where the ferry comes into) you need a parking clock. Most of the parking was free, but depending where you parked you either got 2 or 10 hours free, so you needed the parking clock to display your time of arrival. We had one with us that we had bought on the ferry as I had already found out that many cark parks and street parking on Guernsey use them.
The beach at the South Esplanade had a slip (near the Octopus restaurant, where we had dinner later) but it was quite a long way to carry the kayak from where we had parked (it would have been no trouble had we had our trolley). However, a local told us that he thought it would be fine to just take the kayak through past the swimming pools to launch it (the pools are free, so there is no-one there to say if you can or you can’t launch from there). This turned out to be easy, and no-one seemed to mind. There were even some steps into the sea, so it was perfect.
The sea was like a millpond on Friday early afternoon and it was a lovely paddle round to Fermain Bay. We had a light lunch at the beach café and then took a short walk up to the top of the cliffs to see the bay from a different perspective. It was very pretty, although hazy, as it had been for most of the week (this was during the time when the dust from the Sahara had blown all across Europe).
We paddled a little further after lunch before heading back for a dip in the bathing pools before dinner. There was nowhere private to change, so after our dip we dried off and changed as discreetly as we could into something appropriate to wear for and early dinner. Paul had already pre-booked Octopus, which was probably just as well. In fact, it is worth noting that many of the popular restaurants book up quite far in advance for dinner, so it is worth making a reservation in plenty of time before you go. Octopus is in a great setting right next to the beach, with lovely views over the bay – worth stopping in for a drink even if you are not eating there.
Finally, Saturday came and it was time to go home. Our ferry was quite late (4.10pm) so we had quite a lot of time to still enjoy the island. The campsite said there was no rush to pack up as they weren’t busy, so we had a late(ish) lazy breakfast before packing all our gear and tent away. It was still very hot, so a dip in the pool was a must afterwards.
We had decided to book the Rockmount at Cobo Bay for lunch, so we headed there on the bikes and I enjoyed my favourite meal of the trip (a lovely vegetarian tagliatelle) whilst Paul had excellent Korean style sticky ribs, which we ate on the outdoor terrace opposite the beach.
After our cycle back (the last bit being uphill), we were ready for another swim in the pool before getting changed for the journey home.
Once again, the ferry was a hour late, so we stewed in the sun as we waited. At least we had plenty of water with us. When we finally boarded, we paid extra to sit in the Horizon lounge – £15pp, but worth it to have a more comfortable allocated seat with extra legroom in a separate lounge, so no-one pushing past or nicking your seat if you went to the deck or duty free shop.
It was a 3 hour sail, so we had a drink and dinner, then Paul tried to have a nap as he was doing all the driving. As the ferry was late, we got to watch the sunset, which was glorious as it reflected over a calm sea – a lovely end to the trip.
The journey back home, via Glynis & Tony’s for a 2 night stay, was pretty arduous, especially driving in the dark after the ferry for 5 hours (the sat nav took us through lots of country roads as apparently that was the quickest way!) Would we do it again? Not squeezing it into a 2 week holiday, I think we’re getting to old for all the driving! Maybe when we retire and we can take our time, make lots of stops on the way, and make a longer trip out of getting there & back…
So, finally, which island did we prefer – Jersey or Guernsey? To be honest, neither of us could really say. Both equally had things in their favour – for one example, we loved that in Jersey we could paddle round to Portelet Bay and have a fantastic lunch. On the other hand, in Guernsey, we really enjoyed paddling around the bays on the south coast. As yet, we haven’t been able to decide if we preferred one over the other. There are also quite a lot of small outlying islands that you can visit for the day. This was something that we would have liked to have done, but in the end we were kept busy as it was, so maybe some other time…
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