Guernsey, Herm & Sark

My sister and I (both in our 70s) enjoyed a wonderful week in Guernsey at the end of March. Yes, a week - we added 3 extra nights to the 4 night holiday on offer and were thus able to do all the suggested walks including visiting Sark. These were all very varied and enjoyable, though we did indeed find Walk 1 'moderately challenging' (as Inntravel do of course forewarn!). Our abiding memory of this holiday will be how friendly and helpful everyone was, from bus drivers (the bus service is excellent) to the Hotel de Havalet staff, waiters in restaurants, people who thought we might be lost on Sark, people who thought we might want to cross the road......

Some people might find the steep hill from the hotel down to the town and back a bit of a drag (though there is a slightly less steep alternative via Hautville) but we're pleased to say we never gave in and got a taxi. Re restaurants: the Copenhagen restaurant at the hotel is very good. As is breakfast in the Wellington Boot. Of the town restaurants recommended by Inntravel, sadly the Octopus dramatically burned down a few weeks ago and the Petit Bistro has permanently closed (now a Bangladeshi?) But we can certainly recommend Christies Brasserie - you might need to book here as it is very popular. Otherwise we enjoyed: Sorrento (www.Sorrento.gg) a friendly, upmarket Italian with good meat and fish dishes as well as the usual pasta and pizza. Went there twice and they remembered us. Sitar. Excellent friendly neighbourhood Indian restaurant not that far from the hotel. 2 Victoria Road, St Peter Port. No website but menus can be viewed online as they also do takeaway. Crêpe Maison. (www.crepemaison.gg). Not open in the evenings but their onion soup certainly hit the spot at lunch on a chilly day. Not just crêpes either - large menu. NB we found that on Sunday evening pretty well everything in St Peter Port seemed to be shut (except maybe Sitar?). Even local pub kitchens were closed. A good night to book to eat at the hotel! 

Our first day was rainy and gusty so we did the town walk. The Hugo house does not open until April. Similarly Castle Cornet. On the remaining 2 days we did the coastal walk in the North and the Pleinmont headland walk. We enjoyed both but particularly the second. Note, that some of the buses as numbered in the notes do not go to Fort Grey so do check with the driver when you get on. The hotel was excellent. Food very good and we loved the pool and the sauna. Only slight downside is the steep hill to walk up. We had booked the Octopus restaurant but this burnt down a few days before we arrived and will be closed for many months. We enjoyed a good Thai meal and also the cafe at the foot of the hill did excellent bacon and Brie sandwiches. Overall an excellent break. Our ages ranged from 26 to 63 and everyone enjoyed it. Very good if you are interested in WW11 history.

Excellent 5-day break in Guernsey. People very friendly and helpful. We used the Puffin Bus passes which are a good way to get around the island. Lots of great places to eat - No 19, in St Peter Port and No 57 on the harbourside and The Octopus on the seafront. The food in the Hotel de Havelet was also very good, with very efficient, helpful and friendly staff. Take the ferry to Herme and do the Inntravel recommended walk. Unfortunately due to weather conditions we were unable to go to Sark.

We've had a number of Inntravel holidays in the past and this one was just as good as all the others. The hotel was excellent and all the staff were friendly and helpful. We enjoyed using the pool and jacuzzi. 

The walks were good and we especially enjoyed the ones to Jerbourg Point and Pleinmont Headland which had beautiful views. The buses worked very well and were easy to navigate. I found Google maps better than the Guernsey bus app.

The hotel restaurant was of a high standard and as others have said Octopus was very good too.

The café by the bathing pools down the hill near Octopus was nice for tea and cake with great views across the bay. The Renoir tea garden at Moulin Huet was worth stopping at too.

All the walks we did were interesting and enjoyable but Walk 4 was our favourite. It had fantastic scenery and lots of points of interest. The extra notes about Renoir on walk 1 made this walk even more enjoyable, thanks.

This was my first holiday with  Inntravel, but I was not disappointed, I will definitely be back. The information provided was excellent, you did not need to be an expert map reader to follow the written routes, although the map was helpful too. I very much liked the flexibility of the holiday.

Excellent walking holiday with good accommodation, food and indoor pool.

We had an excellent week with remarkably good weather every day. The variety of walks gave us a good picture of the islands as a whole. We left Walk no 1 to Jerbourg until the end of the week when we were hopefully getting a bit fitter as we were wisely warned that it was relatively demanding with the frequent climbs and descents. Herm was charming and our undoubted favourite. 

A thouroughly enjoyable holiday from start to finish. The weather was kind to us (after the first evening downpour when we got soaked to the skin!), the walks were accurately described and delightful and the hotel was truly splendid.

We had a very pleasant time on Guernsey. Both in our 80s, we had not expected to do a full walk each day, and in the end only walked to Pt Jerbourg the first day - it rained whilst we were on the bus back so a good decision! We then completed that walk to Moulin Huet Bay (a highlight of our holiday) on our third day and visited the nearby house and gardens afterwards. The middle day was wet so we visited the German Occupation Museum and the Shipwreck museum and enjoyed both. The grade of the walks we did was absolutely right for us. We were touched and delighted on our third day to return to our hotel room to find complimentary Prosecco for us to celebrate our Diamond Wedding Anniversary that day! We were given to understand that Inntravel had alerted the hotel about this, so many thanks.

Enjoyed all our walks and explorations. Our favourite walk was Jersey #1 Noirmont headland but even with that we modified it: drop down directly through a delightful old quarry to Ouaisne Bay beach then along sea front to St Brelade for refreshments, church and seafarers chapel with wall paintings before bus back. Enjoyed many restaurants and eateries; could add Dix-Neuf (StPP, Guernsey) and Quayside (StH Jersey) to your lists. We thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to indulge in some island-hopping: Jersey +1 and Guernsey +4. Everyone we met were so friendly and chatty.

Highlights: The visit to the dolmen, the excellent buses, and our day on Sark.

Breakfasts in the hotel are truly excellent and the early 7.00 a.m. start is ideal for early island ferry trips. It is always helpful to have recommendations for restaurants and we found Christies to be excellent and not overpriced. We particularly wanted to visit Herm and Sark and we felt the need to add the extra day to do justice to the routes/sites around Guernsey. We picked up a tourist brochure on arrival at the airport which is very useful.

Guernsey is quite beautiful and the people are friendly and helpful. The staff at the Havelet were especially helpful and friendly. The food was very good - all of it! And the colorful flowers everywhere were delightful. 

Definitely need to book ahead for Sark. We didn't and left it too late in the holiday to try. The buses worked very well except for one bus driver who refused to 'accept responsibility' of telling us when we had reached our stop. There is someone at the terminus who we were able to consult about the best bus to get as sometimes there is a quicker and more direct bus.

Castle Cornet was a holiday highlight - beautiful setting and lots to see and do.  Also Herm is a wonderful island - untouched and pristine and worth the ferry over!

Great beaches,great food options, and regular public transport. The walks were quite easy, and instructions were good. A really relaxing holiday.

The hotel was good - comfortable and the staff very efficient friendly. We enjoyed the meals there too.  The walks were quiet, the scenery very beautiful - especially on the coastal areas such as Clod du Valle and the utterly delightful Sark with its butterflies and wild flowers in abundance. The buses were really useful to access all parts of the island and usually on time. We arrived very early on our first day and not wanting to embark on any of the walks immediately we used the 91 to explore the south west of the island. It was great not having to drive anywhere.
We can recommend Nelio's Deli by the Travel Information office for great sandwiches and coffee; the Octopus has a view of the harbour and good food; the Old Quarter restaurant was our favourite for the standard of its food, however. The notes, as usual, were reliable and helpful and everything went smoothly.

This was a delightful holiday. The island has much charm and feels like a different culture from UK. We particularly enjoyed the cliff walk around Fermain Bay and Moulin Huet. The staff in the hotel were especially helpful and charming. We noted how much birdsong there was and this emphasized how depleted our birdlife is in UK.

Another excellent Inntravel holiday with well chosen walks. The hotel is well positioned (although a short steep uphill walk from the bus terminus) and comfortable. Booking ahead seemed near essential for restaurants (thanks previous reviewers!). We had excellent fish at Pier 17 and Le Nautique. Unfortunately even trying to book ahead did not get us to Sark but Herm was an excellent alternative.

Our 4-day Guernsey walking holiday was thoroughly enjoyable. We had good walks through beautiful and varied countryside aided by detailed and accurate notes. Our hotel was very comfortable and peaceful and was relaxing to go back to after the day's walks.

This is a wonderful holiday and most walks can be managed by people with mobility issues, such as walk no 3 (the interior) and 4 (Clod du Valle). Walks 1 (Jerbourg) and 2 (Pleinmount) should be taken with caution. Jerbourg in particular should be graded at least 2 since there are a large amount of steps and uneven surfaces. Hotel de Havelet is wonderful with amazing staff everywhere you are. The food in the restaurant is so fantastic that we never ate anywhere else during the 4-night stay. There is just one issue: breakfast is served in an upstairs restaurant which can only be reached by a steep spiral staircase. Not at all suitable for people with mobility issues. However, the restaurant (which is a separate business from the hotel) served breakfast for us downstairs. Breakfasts are stupendous! The spa is wonderful with a good size pool, a very good sauna and steamroom and the hotel gardens are a dream with sun loungers and good seating for an evening drink outside. We would definitely go back to the Hotel and repeat the holiday over and again since we did not do all the walks. 

Excellent. The hotel was spot on in every regard. The walks were varied, cliff tops, secluded beaches, quiet lanes and footpaths with hedgerows to die for.

Much preferred Guernsey to Jersey. Jersey very built up and unsightly, although low rise, flats on coast. Splendid ferry trip to Sark from Guernsey. Would highly recommend a day there. Beautiful wild flowers. 2 restaurants of note: Pier 17 in St Peter Port (Guernsey) - excellent fish dinner, Mark Jordan on the Beach in St Aubin (Jersey) - another excellent fish dinner. Both these restaurants are a bit more pricey but worth the cost! Most restaurants closed on Mondays in St Aubin. We ate in The old Courthouse which did a restricted menu that evening of pizza only. Freshly made sourdough but ridiculously expensive. Would not recommend.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers did our Discovery Walking Holiday 'Guernsey, Herm & Sark' followed by 'Jersey - An Island Escape'.

Another very enjoyable Inntravel experience. The walks were varied with lots of points of historic interest, places for refreshment and wonderful views. Herm and Sark are not to be missed and well worth booking extra days to have time for all the options. The hotel was in a good location and offered excellent service. The staff were always cheerful, helpful and attentive. The Puffin bus pass made travel around the island so easy and fun too. We would recommend picking up a current bus timetable from the bus station. It was a great time to see the profusion of wild flowers too. Thank you Inntravel for all your wonderful holidays.

Our visit to Sark was a lovely day out.

1. Scenery on cliff path was stunning and lots of wild flowers - primroses , bluebells etc. I would recommend a detour to the German cemetery after the Clarence Battery, especially if visiting the German Occupation Museum later in the week.

2. Sark was very interesting, scenery a bit different. The chocolate cafe/shop Caragh is worth a visit and was a welcome stop . Not everything was open at Easter and the town does not have much to offer.

I would recommend booking the ferry in advance. We did, and glad we did so. 

3. Food at Octopus restaurant was very good but service slow.

I loved my holiday with Inntravel. Everything on the trip was perfect for me. The process of booking was so easy and the hotel Inntravel had picked for the holiday was friendly, spotless and comfortable. Guernsey was a brilliant place to go walking in spring, with beautiful coastline. I especially liked the printed walking notes/directions - it was much more fun and relaxing following them on paper than digitally.

Another excellent Inntravel holiday. Everything was well-organised and ran smoothly which I have come to expect from Inntravel and why I am a return customer. The walks were interesting and variable, especially the Pleinmount one which was fascinating from a WW2 perspective. I also enjoyed visiting Sark. Excellent accommodation as usual. 

Hotel De Havelet was an excellent base for the holiday with friendly staff and good facilities. We enjoyed the walks and found the instructions easy to follow. It was useful to have the Puffin Pass as bus travel was efficient. Our day trips to Sark and Herm were very enjoyable.

excellent. just enough days to explore. 
walk along the cliffs, ferry trip, bus tour and great long walks all a must. 
glad we were out of the summer season and we were so pleased my with the weather. 

My personal highlight would have to be Sark. It lived up to all my expectations and more. Admittedly we were extremely fortunate and had beautiful weather, not something you can guarantee. A tip for people travelling at the same time of year is that many of the independent interesting shops close on Sundays except when there's a cruise ship in!

We are so glad we took the boat over to Herm as it was a delightful walk and Shell Beach is glorious.

The best meal of the trip was in Octopus, where it was busy but had really friendly and efficient staff and delicious food. We also enjoyed The Slaughterhouse for early evening drinks and for an evening meal, it had a good atmosphere.

Rough seas at Cobo Bay were exciting to sea with crashing waves over the many rocks in the bay. On a calmer day we spotted curlews on the rocks there and a cormorant catching fish. Moulin Huet is another amazing bay with lots of rocks catching the surf and well worth a visit.

To get to the hotel without the steep up hill climb, you can take the 91/93/94/95 to Colborne Road and then walk down George Road to the Dorset Arms pub, sharp right 100mt to hotel all down hill.

1. The walks were set so that the maximum amount of interesting sites could be seen.

2. They covered all parts of the island.

3. We saw the occupation museum, the prehistoric burial ground and the defence placements that we may not have seen had we just been on a visit.

4. The accompanying notes gave very useful information.

A very good, enjoyable and well balanced short holiday combining easy walking with good food, comfortable and very pleasant accomodation and interesting sight-seeing. If the weather is right a day trip to Herm is a must; more could be made in the notes about Shell Bay, a superb sheltered beach and despite late September warm water. The Puffin bus passes made for easy exploring, the reliable bus services offering a good way to get to know the whole of Guernsey.

Guernsey and Sark were lovely and well worth visiting. The food in restaurants was surprisingly good and reasonably priced. We enjoyed all the walks -- most of them along coastal cliffs but the interior walk was excellent, too. On Sark, we recommend the garden at La Seigneurie and lunch at its restaurant, Hathaway's.

This was our 13th or 14th Inntravel holiday and one of the most enjoyable. It would be a good start for anybody who wants to try a walking holiday for the first time. There's a shortage of taxi drivers on the island (fares need to go up in October) so booking well in advance is recommended. The recommended restaurants should be booked before travelling - Octopus was booked solid when we were there. Add ChinaRed to your list and another Inntraveller thought highly of Pier 19.

Another fabulous holiday with Inntravel and quite different to our previous ones where we walked from hotel to hotel. It was a luxury spending six days (we added two nights) in one place and we managed six out of the seven walks. Our favourites were Jerbourg Point including Moulin Huet but pretty challenging with a lot of steps, North to Clod du Valle, Herm and the Town Trail. Herm was lovely. We only had an afternoon there as we were there during the Queen’s funeral but the boat was running before and after the service. On the walk to Clod du Valle, there were several good kiosks with a variety of drinks and snacks so we had hoped to get something to eat at the Bordeaux Harbour kiosk but there were only drinks and ice creams and we found the bay a little disappointing but we loved all the bays on the walk.

On the interior walk we found the Occupation Museum fascinating (you need £6 in cash) and the Little Chapel is astonishing but you could visit those separately. Sark was interesting but we had too long a day there going out at 08:30 and back at 17:45 - we didn’t need as long we expected.

Using the buses was an excellent idea. The printed timetable only gives an overview of the main stops. The bus website gives more detail but much the best information was on Google Maps showing locations of all the bus stops, routes and schedules. Beware, most of the stops are request stops, marked discretely with the word ‘BUS’ on the ground without posts or information. To get an overview of the island, bus 91 does the circuit clockwise and bus 92 anti-clockwise. We took 92 back from Cobo Bay to see a little of the western side.

The hotel was very good, particularly the staff who were always friendly and helpful. We ate there 3 nights. We love fish and also ate at Pier 17 (our favourite), Octopus and Da Nello (not as good as the others). As suggested we booked all the restaurants in advance.

Climbing that steep hill up to the hotel got rather tiring so we tended to walk back from the town via Cornet St, then Hautville, where Victor Hugo’s house is and then down Havelet, opposite the Dorset Arms. Also if you are getting a bus back to the hotel from the south e.g. past Saumarez Manor, you can get off at the Fort George stop (end of Fort Road opposite a green and before a large roundabout where the bus turns left to go to the terminus) and then walk down the hill along George Road and down Havelet again.

We couldn't have asked for a better experience with Inntravel and our trip to Guernsey. The staff was helpful and organized, the routes were challenging enough for a mixed group of hikers, we had great options for our four days and still did a lot of dining and shopping, and Guernsey is about the most special place we've ever travelled to. The Hotel de Havelet was an ideal property with great accommodations, amenities and dining and a wonderful staff. Highly, highly recommend this trip and company!

HIGHLIGHTS: The Jerbourg Point walk was most picturesque, and offered plentiful swimming opportunities, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Sark was a unique experience, and we could have spent more time there. Herm was just about perfect - an ideal size to cirumnavigate, with perfect bays and beaches to swim from, and good facilities on exactly the right scale. A real Goldilocks island: "Just Right".

We made extensive use of the puffin pass. The bathing pools were an unforgettable experience, once you braved getting in the freezing water!!

Everything was excellent except Birmingham Airport which is nothing to do with you.

Food. We enjoyed the Hotel, Da Nello and Christie's. Although the bottled wine was expensive we enjoyed reasonable house wines at all venues. The taxi rank was very near our town restaurants which helped save the climb back to the Hotel. We enjoyed a day on Herm even if the crossing was rough due to high winds.

We particularly enjoyed the walks to Jerbourg Point (and Moulin Huet Bay) and on Herm. The Hotel was very comfortable with good service and food. We were impressed by the frequency and number of buses and the Puffin Pass made it easy. The number 91 bus does a circuit around the island with good views of the coast.

This was an excellent holiday. Highly recommended. Due to staffing difficulties at many hotels and restaurants, it is extremely difficult to get bookings for meals. We just ate in the hotel which was fine. 
If eating out, book well before you go (Aug22).

We loved the cliff walk to Shell Beach on Herm Island. We recommend catching the early (8:30am) ferry to the island as it is very quiet and you can enjoy the beauty of the island before hords of folk arrive on the 10:15 ferry. 

We also enjoyed the walk around the north of Guernsey to Clod du Valle, dodging thunder showers. This too was a quiet walk. The bus stop at the t-junction at the end of the walk was closed as the road was closed, but you only have to walk left around the corner towards Bordeaux harbour to catch a bus. We caught bus 13.

We had two excellent meals at Pier 17 and Octopus. Octopus is closed Tuesday and Wednesday. Pier 17 is closed Monday. We can't stress enough the need to book ahead a table for dinner in the summer. We were caught out on Tuesday evening as so many restaurants were either closed or fully booked and wouldn't take walk-ins. 

Finally, two other little tips: the kiosk at Portlet beach does a really good value crab roll and delicious Guernsey ice cream cone and if you like cider I recommend trying the traditional Rocquette cider made on the island of Guernsey.

The service at the hotel was quite outstanding, and we couldn't fault the room or the restaurant, where we ended up eating every day. We were grateful to be allowed to use the pool after checking out on the last day.

Some people might like the Jerbourg walk split into two, which is what we did. We preferred to take the bus to Jerbourg Point on each day and walked back to the hotel one day and to Sausmarez Manor the other day, so that we didn't need to wait for an infrequent bus at J. Point.

As I was travelling solo I ate in the hotel restaurant every night. The food was excellent and the service friendly and efficient. Great to have the spa facilities at the end of a day's walking. The bus service with the puffin pass was great in servicing the walks and a really goood way of getting to know all parts of this beautiful island.

We really enjoyed this holiday and found the walks varied and interesting. On an essentially 4 full day trip we found it difficult to choose which of the seven walks to miss out. We would say that all of the walks, apart from Herm, require a full day, and even then we were able to find enough of interest on Herm to fill 3-4 hours. There was much more to see than we had time for! The highlight of the trip was the walk through the interior to Cobo Bay, which had coast and countryside, lots of wildlife (birds and butterflies). Unfortunately the fish and chip shop at Cobo Bay is closed "until further notice" but we were able to have excellent fish and chips with a sea view at the Rockmount. Unfortunately we were not able to visit the German Occupation Museum as it is at the start of the walk, and were were there at 9.00am, an hour before it opened at 10.00am. Would recommend the Folk and Costume Museum, and the cafe in Saumarez park very good.

This was a very satisfying introduction to Guernsey. The hotel was of good quality and the staff were charming and friendly. The walk to Jerbourg Point was particularly beautiful although very steep in parts - more challenging than expected. We can thoroughly recommend the day trip to Sark, a truly unique place. Last but not least, we ate some of the finest seafood we've found anywhere and can highly recommend several restaurants - especially Le Nautique and Da Nello.

A nice relaxing holiday with several different walks. Good accommodation and food.

To note though: It was virtually impossible to get a taxi into and from town in the evening. Most didn't answer their phones, the taxi rank seldom had taxis parked. Most restaurants closed on Sunday evenings. 

The walks south from St Peter Port and on Herm were particularly enjoyable. The northern route less so - partly the weather, but also because the firing ranges seemed to be fully in use and we had to improvise alternative routes to the ones set out in the walk notes.

Our trip to Sark was a personal highlight and also our 3 hour tour with Ant of Real Tour Guernsey in his  safari style Land Rover.

For me, the highlight of the holiday was simply wandering round the back streets of Guernsey, getting to know St Peter Port, a truly delightful town.  and....I LOVED Herm, what a stunning place!