Jersey – an Island Escape

We really enjoyed the Jersey holiday. It was not as "rural" as other Inntravel trips we have done, but the island is lovely, the walks were varied and the hotel was nice. We enjoyed the north coast walk paired with the winery lunch the most, followed by the lighthouse walk, if only there a few days. We stayed six nights and were able to do all the walks. We went out most nights and found Bracewells to be far and away our favorite dining experience. A small, charming place not to be missed. We personally thought The Salty Dog and Mark Jordan's were a bit overrated, and enjoyed the Muddy Duck.

The South Downs holiday had nice, fairly easy and varied walks that we enjoyed. The accommodations were fine, a bit too similar between one and two, as now owned by the same group.

INNTRAVEL NOTE: These customers booked our walks Jersey - An Island Escape and South Downs to the Sea

We would like to recommend Bracewells in St.Aubin for evening meals. They only open Wednesday to Saturday eveings, but their homemade cooking is used where possible, including their ice creams. Our evening meal there was excellent, and we were able to try black butter icecream.

Jersey is a lovely island to enjoy a walking holiday, especially the beautiful walk along the north shore. Use of buses was a breeze to connect to walks and to access supplies. The inclusion of bus passes was very useful. The Somerville Hotel is very comfortable and conveniently located to access all bus routes and bike rentals. 

St. Aubin is a lovely, pretty place on the Bay with lots of restaurants. We especially enjoyed a cafe called The Gallery Cafe on the bay for lunch where the food was delicious and not so expensive. We loved walking on the beach which was very wide because of the tides and the sand was wet and firm to walk on. We planned to take a bus to the start of a walk but found that when the bus arrived it said Full and we could not get on it. The driver said there would be another coming shortly so we waited for a while but it did not come so we changed our plans. Maybe we were unlucky but it was rather annoying. The people were very friendly and the Island is pretty peaceful. 

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.

Buses were great to use. War Tunnels and the zoo were our top highlights.

We had a pretty perfect holiday. The island felt much bigger than it really is and the walking was surprisingly diverse. All of the three walks we did were enjoyable and had lovely sections. Corbiere lighthouse was a highlight and the coastal walks generally were spectacular, particularly the section to Brelardes Bay. Food was another highlight. We enjoyed both of Mark Jordan's restaurants and thought the one near the beach was particularly good value.

An interesting itinerary, based on good accommodation in an ideal location. We had a ringside seat for Jersey International Air Show, which was an unexpected bonus.

Plenty of local restaurants of good quality. Sorrento was a particular highlight and the short trip over to the The Oyster Box in St Brelade's Bay was well worth it.

Renting e-bikes from the business at the bottom of the hill enabled a circumnavigation of the island from a different perspective, and the bus pass was invaluable too.

Swimming is possible from the bay in front of the yacht club just down the hill from the Somerville, or from the adjacent slipway at high tide. There is a often small gang of local swimmers there with good tips and reassurance for the nervous dipper, so don't miss it! Portelet Bay is a 25 minute walk over the headland for a lovely swim, with a characterful beach bar among the rocks behind: their coffee is first class. Beauport Bay is also very swimmable during the Corbiere walk. Pack your kit!

We enjoyed the Jersey visit because the walking covered some lovely areas of the island and covered all the main areas.  

The coastal walks had stunning views and in general, the countryside was very picturesque. The War Tunnels and Mont Orgueil Castle are definitely worth visiting. The sand sculpture exhibition by the St Catherine's Bay breakwater was an unexpected highlight - it is stunning and the sculptor (a former World champion) is on hand to explain how he creates these masterpieces.

Highlights included the beautiful wild flowers so would recommend May as a good time to visit. For history lovers, Elizabeth castle and the War tunnels are a must. The Hampton heritage farm, is lovely and an ideal place to stop for a sandwich on the Waterworks walk. On that walk, look out for le Rat, which is the most beautiful little cottage about 1km after the heritage farm. Just so pretty. The Greek restaurant in St Aubin was our party's favourite restaurant. As stated above, we found most restaurants in St Aubin were closed on Monday evening so if you want to eat in the hotel, book early as it was full by the time we realised. The descent to the beach on walk one is quite difficult with numerous steps and a bit of scrabbling at the bottom. Finally, we found the bus service to be excellent. Overall an excellent break with lots of variety.

Somerville hotel staff excellent, particularly helpful on reception. Particular highlight for us were the wild flowers and the orchid field Located at Le Noir Pre and Clos de Seigneur. Very good restaurant in St Aubin was Bracewell's. Very small so need booking in advance.

Everything about this holiday was wonderful. I loved my room. The Sommerville hotel chef should get a Michelin star. Even the set menus were A*.  I ate at the hotel on 3 nights. The bus pass was used every day and the walks were great.

I would advise more than 3 days (I stayed for 7) and there is so much to see it would be a pity to try to cram in too much into one day

The highlight of our holiday was the last full day which was sunny! We walked out on the causeway from St.Aubin and had magnificent views of the bay. Later that evening we had a superb dinner at Mark Jordan's Bistro as recommended by Inntravel. The bus pass proved very good value and all the routes we used were on schedule. I can recommend the cafe at the Botanic Garden for lunch - delicious food including superb crepes and French cider. We booked dinner at the Old Courthouse on one evening but had a phone call to tell us they could not provide dinner after all, only a choiuce of 2 pizza. Luckily the Salty Dog were able to fill the gap and we had a good evening too. 

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'.

Somerville hotel was superb, service was excellent, decor delightful, food and view from the dining room brilliant.

It was a well-designed holiday with a comfortable hotel in an excellent location, and with a good variety of pleasant walks with excellent walking notes. Exactly the short break I was looking for.

St Aubin was an excellent base and the variety of walks, easily accessed by the very good bus service, was impressive.

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An excellent holiday all round - great accomodation ( comfortable, friendly staff, good facilities), good walking in a beautiful setting, good travel arrangements. We could not have asked for more!!

An excellent holiday.  Everything was perfect. The routes were varied, some challenging, some easy, but overall, great choice of walks. Hotel was perfect, also near to beaches, restaurants and bars and a walk or bus to St Helier. Glad we didnt hire a car as the buses are so numerous and drivers so helpful, we really didnt need a car. The pass we were given was well used. Well impressed with the everything about the holiday. We would certainly go back.

An Island Escape is a good description of this holiday. The island is small so easy to navigate using the included bus pass. St Aubin's Bay is a good relaxed location because it is away from busy St Helier (but it's easily accessed) and St Aubin has lots of places to eat but only the mini Morrisons at which to purchase supplies for the day. Their fresh sandwich selection is limited and doesn't arrive particularly early. Well worth adding extra days to make up a week's holiday and by doing so we were able to really escape and enjoy a lovely island.

We thoroughly enjoyed our week. The extra for the sea view is worth it. The bus pass and buses were easy to use. This was especially helpful as one of us can no longer drive. St Aubin was a great location for views, easy access to buses and facilities. Recommend the Uno cafe for lunch / tea & coffee and the Salty Dog was our favourite restaurant. We hired bikes to go to Corbiere along the old railway rather than do the walk. I'm sure the occupying forces of WW2 didn't expect their bunkers to shelter walkers from the rain and lightning! The Glass church was very inspiring. The occupation tapestry in the Maritime museum was very moving. If you go to the viewing level of the airport there are tapestries of aeroplanes.

Jersey surprised us with its diverse scenery, great walking and friendly atmosphere. The walking routes really uncovered Jersey's fascinating history. 

It was very useful to be able to review and book at the restaurants of our choice in good time - BUT this was only possible by you kindly providing the information early [April, for a July holiday!] in response to our request, having noted the tip given in previous feedback to book early. We found the Sorrento very poor value!

A great holiday, set in lovely St Aubin. Access to transport is very easy and good to see other parts of the island. Great walks and we hope to return.

It is definitely worth adding an extra night as this allows time to complete most of the walks and to visit all the recommended sites which are all worth seeing.

The Somerville Hotel is in a stunning location and we were glad that we had opted for a room upgrade as  we had a wonderful view of the harbour.  We stayed for a total of seven nights which enabled us to tackle most of the recommended walks at a pace that suited us. We particularly enjoyed the walk to the Corbiere lighthouse and the north coast walk with lunch at the La Mare Wine Estate cafe. The St Helier town trail was excellent and the Jersey Museum was well worth a visit.  We made good use of the bus pass - the bus service was reliable and the drivers very pleasant. Overall, a very relaxing holiday.

It seems essential to book restaurants as early as possible. We had excelllent meals with lots of delicious seafood. St. Aubin was a very good base with a nice atmosphere, lovely views, particularly from our hotel, and easy to get to other places easily by bus. We particularly enjoyed some fantastic cliff path walks on the north coast from the delightful cove of Greve de Lecq, one day to Devil's Hole, and the next to Le Chateau de Gros Nez. There was a good inn near the Devil's Hole, but nothing near the Chateau etc. We met friends at the Botanical Gardens that was well worth a visit. There is still a lot left to do and our visit was too short to fit in anything else.

This was our first Inntravel holiday and the whole package was exceptional, and despite variable weather we did a lot of walking and had an amazing time, enjoying all that Jersy had to offer. We made good use of the island's excellent bus network which, having added extra days to our holiday, allowed us to see as much of the island as possible. A useful tip... generally the restaurants in St Aubin need to be booked a couple of days ahead.

Another excellent holiday from Inntravel.

The weather was perfect - we were blessed with dawn to dusk sunshine for 7 days!  Beautiful scenery, both along the coast and the wooded valleys and rural areas.  There are obviously more places to visit if you prolong the holiday, the Zoo and the Orchid House, come to mind.  We found Jersey relaxed and friendly.  The Somerville was definitely a good choice!

We were very pleasantly surprised by the walks in Jersey. The scenery was much nicer and more varied than we expected, everything from rugged coastal paths to densely wooded river valleys to medieval fortresses. And not at all flat! Classy hotel. And Jersey people very friendly.

The holiday was excellent. We really enjoyed the walks. We would recommend Jersey Crab Shack at St Brelades Bay. As mentioned by others there was a particularly warm welcome from the restaurant Sorrento in St Aubin. Hotel location was superb with a view across the bay that was priceless. 

Our personal highlights were the ease of travel from Southampton airport via Blue Island Plane to Jersey, the wonderful Somerville Hotel with its comfortable charm and cosy rooms and the excellent bus service across the island. The included bus passes are a brilliant idea. 

Jersey is a beautiful island, largely unspoilt and with the most fabulous beaches. In early May it's covered in flowers and the beaches are almost empty. Beach cafes are stunningly good, local crab is amazing and the people are very welcoming. It's the perfect place for a get-away-from-it-all break. 

Excellent views from hotel. We made very good use of the excellent bus service and pass. The recommended restaurants were good.

Walking routes were excellent 

Lovely sea view from our room. Excellent restaurants in St Aubin - a really good place to stay. Fantastic bus service, even on Sundays.

Really enjoyable different walks. We felt as though we had seen a lot of the Island.

It is worth booking ahead for tables in the restaurants. We would highly recommend the following: Bass and Lobster, Gorey; Mark Jordan at the beach; Muddy Duck, St Aubin.

We really enjoyed our spring trip to Jersey. The hotel is wonderfully situated in St Aubin's bay. The walks we did were very varied and a particular highlight was the variety of wild flowers on the coastal paths. There was a good choice of restaurants in St Aubin and the bus services around the island were excellent. Another highlight for us was the excellent birdwatching at the Jersey Wetland Centre.

The walks were all lovely and very varied and the whole holiday start to finish was very well organised indeed.We had no particular highlights as each walk was so different in its scenery and history . We enjoyed them all.We did all the walks but looking into castles /War tunnels would have been a little rushed for just 3 days walking really.

Somerville hotel was very nice and we upgraded to a garden room with private patio which was lovely. We very much enjoyed the walks - for Noirmont headland, the WWII bunkers are sometimes open to the public so worth checking dates online before you do that walk if you want to see them. The Hamptonne museum and Jersey war tunnels were also very interesting and well worth a visit.

We loved Jersey, we thought St Aubin was the perfect base. Seven day bus pass was excellent, very good bus service. The walks were lovely, our weather was mixed but we still enjoyed them. German tunnels was a great tour. Sorento the Italian restaurant in St Aubin was fabulous, great food and service. The hotel was very comfortable, great service and lovely breakfasts. Another great Inntravel vacation many thanks.

We loved this holiday, which we took in early April. We were blessed with a couple of lovely sunny days, but then rain on the other 2. We enjoyed each of the walks. We did two coastal ones (the northern coast walk is glorious in the sunshine), and the interior one with a visit to the WWII museum, which was extremely well done and very informative.  The Gourmand Deli has closed permanently. Good choice of places to eat, but check the days they are open and I suggest that you reserve as not all are open every night.

We had added 2 nights to make this a 6 night holiday and were so glad that we did as we wouldn't have wanted to miss any of the recommended walks, which were quite varied. The buses were excellent as was the Somerville Hotel. 

The bus pass was a great idea as the buses all ran regularly and on time. Lots of nice restaurants in both St Aubin and Brelade Bay.

This was our first trip to Jersey and we were totally amazed at how beautiful it was. We loved the walk out to Corbiere Lighthouse and subsequent walk into St Brelade's Bay. The beach took our breath away. I would recommend a visit into the church with its tranquil setting overlooking the beach and stunning wall frescoes in the fisherman's chapel. For a taste of history try to visit the Mont Orgueil Castle at the end of walk 5. The sheer scale will impress. And for a little relaxation during the Greve de Lecq walk stop off at the La Mare wine estate for lunch.

Would definitely recommend this holiday.

We found Jersey to be a beautiful island and the walks just right.  One of our best holidays.

The walks were supposed to be all 'easy' but I found some quite challenging. I am not a fit as I used to be and cannot cope with steep downhill sections.

This is a delightful short break in a beautiful hotel with outstanding views over St Aubyn's bay and harbour. There is a variety of local restaurants offering excellent seafood, including a very good Bangladeshi restaurant. In the Covid era the short flight from the very easy-to-access Southampton Airport, the simple Jersey government pre-flight registration form and the free PCR test (for fully vaccinated travellers) giving a result in a few hours after arrival - with no need to quarantine in the interim - is a major bonus.

A very enjoyable walking holiday with good local routes and other walks easily accessible by bus. Hotel breakfasts and evening meals were very good. Also ate out at two local restaurants, Salty Dog and Sorrento, which were both good. We enjoyed visiting La Maré Wine Estate, The Jersey War Tunnels, Samarès Manor and The Jersey Museum. 

We enjoyed our chosen walks very much, especially as on one occasion we saw two live red squirrels. Red squirrels are not mentioned in the notes but perhaps should be as they are a a rarity in the UK. We were fascinated by the War Tunnels which were informative and made the history very accessible. It greatly increased our knowledge of what life under occupation was like.

Our first visit to Jersey and we really enjoyed it. The Somerville is a good hotel with excellent food. It is being refurbished in January so should be an even better hotel in 2022. St. Aubin was busier than we expected and all the restaurants were busy so I would recommend making any reservations as early as possible. La Belle Gourmande Deli was closed when we were there and the only place to pick up supplies for the walks was a small Morrisons. There's a large shopping area with M&S and Waitrose at Red Houses which is a short detour on the walk to Corbiere Lighthouse. The bay behind the Yacht Club is good for swimming or further along at Belcroute Bay which you can get to along the beach at low tide. 

Hotel excellent, recommend paying for better room (we tried on booking but were fully booked). Bus passes were great, very useful and excellent way round the island). Need to book restaurants long before the visit (we did and had great meals locally). Walks were very enjoyable, just our standard, and not too long....8 to 10km plenty for us. 

The recommended restaurants were excellent and we would also recommend Barros' Tropical Bistro in St Helier. The Jersey Zoo was also very worth a visit. We enjoyed swimming from the beach in front of the [Golden Sands] hotel. Overall, we would recommend the stunning scenery along the coast.

We had a wonderful few days with a superb hotel right on the beach - we even managed a few swims. The food was excellent and there were restaurants nearby. The walks were interesting and the notes accurate, interesting and easy to follow. It was also easy to get around the island by bus, and the bus pass included was really useful. I wish we could have stayed longer. Perfect short break.

The trip was very pleasant , not sure I would have been so happy if the weather had been wet but it was ideal for a walking holiday. the notes were detailed and provided lots of ideas. We may well return again in the future as there were lots of things we would like to follow up. A thoroughly enjoyable time was had by us both. Thank you for organsing it so well.

We did enjoy a visit to Samares Manor and its beautiful garden. Easily accessible by bus.

Apart from the few matters mentioned above, we enjoyed the holiday very much.  We didn't attempt the longer walks, but on a 5-day holiday (effectively 4 walking days) three walks were all we needed.  It was a very good overview of the island.