The Channel Islands Small Group Tour

This holiday is designed assuming you’ll fly from Southampton to Guernsey; however, we’ll be delighted to help get you here via your own specific route.

Once on Guernsey, it’s only a few minutes by taxi to your hotel.

Your Accommodation on Guernsey

Perched high on a hill above Fermain Bay with superb view on the island’s east coast, your hotel on Guernsey is a peaceful sanctuary skilfully blending traditional and modern influences. Diverse dining spaces offer fine dining, a contemporary steakhouse/ bar, and even a Mexican cantina.

After checking in, perhaps enjoy a stroll down to the water – though it’s a pretty steep incline, so bear in mind the slope coming back! Enjoy dinner with your guide and fellow travellers, setting the scene for your week ahead.

Enjoy a bountiful breakfast including unusual wake-up options like huevos rancheros, before boarding a private coach for a full-day’s guided tour of Guernsey featuring an inspiring and eclectic itinerary.

Places like the eye-popping Little Chapel – one man’s unique labour of devotion – contrast with sites like the Pleinmont Battery and stern observation towers that provide reminders of the island’s role in conflicts going back centuries. The German Underground Hospital, meanwhile, is an eerie and thought-provoking reminder of the island’s years of German occupation in WW2.

Breathtaking contrast comes with glorious sandy beaches at Portelet, Vazon Bay and L’Ancresse Bay, swept by some of the largest tides in the world. You may want to ask your guide to tell you how islanders once came to these shorelines to gather vraic (seaweed) to enrich local crops. In the capital St Peter Port, meanwhile, marvel at the ornately decorated former home of Victor Hugo, Hauteville House, where the French author of Les Miserables spent fruitful years drawing inspiration from Guernsey life.

Your expert local guide is on hand throughout this fascinating day-long tour, providing insightful commentary alongside personal stories – and you’ll stop for lunch at leisure along the way. In the evening, dinner is at leisure too, perhaps in one of your hotel’s contrasting trio of restaurants, or in St Peter Port, just a few minutes away by taxi, seeking out seafood treats like local lobster and crab, Guernsey cheeses or Bean Jar, the island’s distinctive take on French cassoulet.

After breakfast, you’ll make a short coach transfer to the harbour at St Peter Port to board the small boat to fill your lungs with bracing sea air on the 50-minute crossing to Sark, keeping your camera handy to capture any of the accompanying wildlife which often escorts the boat.

Reaching Sark, it’s no exaggeration to say you step onto another world. One of the few motorised vehicles on the island is the tractor-bus that transports visitors up the hill to The Avenue, with its parade of higgledy-piggledy shops, crafting workshops, a gallery and museum – plus the tiny 1850s Sark Prison that is believed to be the smallest still functioning jail in the world.

There are no paved roads here, no street lighting and very few signs of modern life; just a sense of calm and a loosely ordered built and natural beauty, in a place where horse-drawn carriages pick you up in place of Uber.

Despite being barely two square miles in size, there’s plenty to see as you stroll Sark’s tree-lined lanes: one minute passing old-fashioned cottages and shops with corrugated iron roofs locals jokingly call “Sark thatch”, then stopped in your tracks by the grand 17th-century manor known as La Seigneurie – still home to the island’s hereditary leader (a reminder of Sark’s only recently-ended  feudal history), as well as ravishing walled gardens with a bonus maze to tackle. Literature fans, meanwhile, can pause at the humble former home of acclaimed writer Mervyn Peake, who wrote sections of his 1950 epic novel trilogy Gormenghast here, as well as his 1953 novel Mr Pye.

Head south off the beaten track to take in the 21^st century stone circle Sark Henge and wonderful coastal views, then cross the slender La Coupee natural bridge to Little Sark to seek out secluded archaeological sites and natural swimming pools.

Enjoy lunch on the terrace overlooking the garden at the luxurious Stock’s Hotel, before heading back to the harbour for the return crossing to St Peter Port, arriving in late afternoon. Take the early evening to yourself, perhaps for a drink in one of the capital’s pubs, before returning to your hotel.

This morning, in the company of your local guide, clamber the battlements of the harbourside Castle Cornet. Steadfastly protecting the island for some 800 years, the castle has resolutely come through sieges in the Hundred Years’ War and English Civil War, years of conflict with France, plus more recent German occupation. Drink in fabulous views that include the neighbouring islands of Jethou, Herm, Alderney, Jersey – and sometimes the northern coast of France – as your guide brings the story of the castle to life.

The afternoon and evening are yours to fill as you please. If grand houses appeal, you could visit the 18^th century Saumarez Manor and sculpture-dotted gardens, just a 2-mile taxi ride from St Peter Port, and often regarded as the finest example of Queen Anne Colonial architecture in Britain – built in the 1710s for the man who became the first Governor of New York. Near the Manor, the Guernsey Cans workshop showcases artisan metalworkers creating iconic hammered copper containers made on the island for over 1000 years.

Art-loving walkers, meanwhile, may want to consider a stroll on the Renoir Trail, a short route around the gorgeous Moulin Huet Bay and valley on the island’s south coast which uses metal frames to let visitors share the superlative views that inspired a series of canvases by legendary painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir on a visit to Guernsey in the 1880s.

Head back to your hotel for a good night’s sleep, ready for fresh pleasures awaiting on Jersey.

A full day ahead, starting with an early breakfast, before the short transfer to Guernsey airport for the brief 20-minute flight to Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands. You’ll be met by a coach and local guide for a full day’s exploration.

There’s a certain stridency and bustle about Jersey that differs from Guernsey, complemented by its own set of vast golden beaches and craggy cliffs, plus individual history. The island offers plenty of unspoiled corners and coastal drama, including wonderful La Corbiere, endless St Ouen’s Bay, and a ring of castles, forts and gun placements that encircle the island. Of course, the German occupation during WW2 looms large here too – a story brought to vivid life in the Jersey War Tunnels, surely one of the most affecting museums in the British Isles.

Your Accommodation on Jersey

In a commanding position in the centre of island capital St Helier, your historic hotel on Liberation Square overlooking the marina has been a mainstay of island life, welcoming guests for almost 200 years, and ‘enjoying’ a brief spell as the Germans’ HQ during the WW2 occupation.

Inside, as well as comfortable and spacious rooms, you’ll find several dining options, and a popular bar. All of St Helier is right on the doorstep should you choose to spend an evening out.

A gentler pace today, with a morning to explore at your leisure. Perhaps a late breakfast, followed by shopping in this most modern island town, seeking out local buys such as Jersey pearl jewellery. Or visit the Jersey Maritime Museum for a fascinating interactive and immersive dive into centuries of island history, housed in a set of waterfront warehouses at New North Quay on St Helier harbour. The museum is also home to the moving Occupation Tapestry, woven by islanders to mark the 50^th anniversary of Jersey’s liberation from German forces.

After lunch, meet up with your fellow travellers and guide to continue your discovery of the island by coach.

In the early evening, join another local expert on the beach at La Rocque in Jersey’s southeast corner. At low tide, the island experiences one of the world’s most dramatic transformations as it doubles in size, revealing an intertidal seabed where the ocean disappears to the horizon.

You’ll explore rock pools, cross sand bars and gullies, as well as the nearby oyster beds in the Royal Bay of Grouville, followed by the opportunity to sample delicious fresh Jersey oysters. Take a chance to ask your guide about another renowned local shellfish known as ormer – prized as far away as Japan, and wrapped in local lore.

Travel the short distance to Jersey airport by coach in time to catch your flight back to the UK mainland. We’ll be delighted to tailor-make the journey to suit your specific plans.