Spending a long weekend in Jersey? My 3 day car-free Jersey itinerary is full of tips for things to do, where to eat and how to enjoy the great outdoors!
Jersey is perfect for a long weekend in a sunny part of the British Isles with a strong French influence, yet only a few hours away from the UK mainland. Not only that but Jersey is perfect for a car-free holiday. It is has an excellent bus service, electric bike hire stations and a comprehensive network of cycle routes and walking trails.
This guide on how to make the most of a 3 day car-free itinerary to Jersey will cover:
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Why Jersey is a perfect destination for a long weekend
Clustered in the southernmost reaches of the British Isles with its Channel Island neighbours, Jersey offers both the familiarity of the British Isles with a strong French influence.
Never more than a couple of miles from the sea, the expanses of golden beaches and rocky northern coast, you can enjoy watersports, hiking, beach cafes and marine life on the beautiful coastline and the quiet rural idyll of the inland areas which often feel more French than British reflecting Jersey’s proximity to the French mainland.
This island is rich in local produce – seafood of course, including local oysters, but also the famous Jersey Royal new potatoes perfect smothered in butter made with milk from the ever so pretty Jersey cows. This all contributes to a lively food scene including everything from takeaway oysters you can eat on the beach to high end food from world class eateries.
Jersey’s riches extend to its heritage. As the only part of Britain to be occupied during World War II, Jersey’s history continues to impact on its identity today. The island is peppered with evidence of the German invasion including fortifications established as part of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall defences. There are brilliant museums that immerse you in this terrifying part of the island’s history and Liberation Day continues to be celebrated via a Bank Holiday every year.
How to get to Jersey
All arrival points to Jersey are well-served by bus so leaving the car at home still leaves you plenty of options for travel to Jersey.
Why not make the journey to Jersey part of the holiday and travel as foot passengers on the Condor ferry from Poole or Portsmouth. Ferries take a minimum of 4 hours but you can sit back and relax in comfortable seats and tuck in to a nice meal on board.
Or you can arrive by plane from over 20 UK airports in around an hour.
How to get around Jersey without a car
Buses on Jersey are operated by Liberty Bus (the name a reminder of the importance of freedom after German occupation during WWII). The buses are super punctual and easy to navigate and cover all major points on the island. The main bus station is close to the ferry port and the number 15 bus runs from immediately outside the airport. Liberty Bus have made this handy map that shows how to get to your Jersey accommodation by bus.
The buses run flat fares and you can buy multi-day tickets.
Where to stay in Jersey without a car
The world is your oyster in terms of accommodation that is well served by Liberty Bus.
We stayed at Hotel Cristina, just outside St Helier and close to the beach. The walk up the hill to Hotel Cristina repays you with 180 degree views of St Aubin’s Bay from the restaurant and terrace and the sea view rooms have a balcony to enjoy the evening sun. The hotel’s Indigo Bar and Grill is up-market, friendly and accommodating and is one of the most popular restaurants on the island.
If I were to visit Jersey again, I would stay at one of these seafront hotels which are well-served by bus routes:
3 day Jersey car-free itinerary
Day 1: Elizabeth Castle
Its Atlantic location means that there are hundreds of years of maritime and military history to explore on Jersey and we are only a 30 min walk from one of the richest historic sites on the island. Accessible on foot via a causeway at low tide or via fun amphibious ferries, Elizabeth Castle dates back to the 1500s. Its famous occupants include Sir Walter Raleigh, Charles II and St Helier (whose name was subsequently given to Jersey’s capital) who lived here in a hermitage in 550 AD. The location is perfect for scrambling around the castle’s open spaces, exploring the history of cannons and gunpowder and entering World War II bunkers built like limpets onto the castle structure, all topped off with lunch in a beautiful tropical garden by the small castle cafe.
The culture of self-sufficiency that comes from being a small island, coupled with a vibrant food scene, means that small cafes by day turn into bijou restaurants by night. Back near our hotel the Old Station Café becomes an informal Thai restaurant right on the beach cooking everything from scratch to your taste – from ‘baby mild’ to ‘thai hot’. We enjoyed Pad Thai and Thai Green Curry as we watched the last glow of the evening sun while horse riders enjoyed the waves of the incoming tide.
Day 2: St Brelade’s Bay and oysters on the beach
Wide expanses of golden beaches punctuated by rocky headlands stretch for miles on Jersey. St Brelade’s Bay is walkable (or bus-able) via quaint St Aubin’s which offers small, independent shops and a welcome coffee or ice cream stop. You can easily arrive at St Brelade’s for lunch. The golden beach is surrounded by a warm embrace of cafes and restaurants that spill out onto the narrow promenade. The prize for your journey is to try local oysters, produced by multi-generational family businesses in the seas around the bay. We ate at the Jersey Crab Shack where the meaty molluscs did not disappoint and we washed down the flavour of the sea with a chilled glass of white wine.
Our walk back takes us up steep steps cut into the cliff and onto Portelet Common – a beautiful headland covered in cushions of pink sea thrift, sea campion, and wild daisies – before dropping back down to the sea via quiet lanes home to small farmsteads and roaming, cock-a-doodle-doo-ing chickens.
The green neon outline of a beach hut drew us back towards the beach in the evening – another small foodie business, Pizza Quarter, popular with visitors and locals alike and doing a roaring trade in delicious pizzas. There are seaside benches to sit at but we couldn’t resist the idea of eating pizza on the beach so we took our Spring Tide pizza – prawns, mussels and tuna – down onto the sand and watched a family playing cricket in the last of the sun.
Day 3: German fortifications and puffins along the coast path
The number 22 bus takes us, via what must be one of the most scenic bus rides in the British Isles, to L’Etaq, the northwestern most tip of Jersey and the start of our walk today. The bus service makes one-way walks easy here with plenty of options to get back to your hotel so we plan to walk along the rugged coast path via Plemont Bay to Greve de Lecq. At Plemont we come across a beautiful, large, willow sculpture of two puffins, rubbing beaks as they reunite after months at sea. This is part of a campaign to raise awareness of puffins which have seen a tremendous decline in numbers on Jersey – there are now only four breeding pairs down from over 200 a century ago.
Further along the coast path we get the opportunity to get up close to one of the iconic German watchtowers that encircle the island. The watchtowers formed part of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall which fortified the coast of Europe and Scandinavia as a defence against an anticipated Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. The Channel Islands were some of the most densely fortified areas in Europe and amongst the best preserved as the islands were surrendered peacefully. Tall, concrete, imposing structures built during the worst of times take on a certain elegance today and stand testament to the freedoms we all enjoy.
As it’s our last night we booked a table at the hotel for dinner to savour those views one more time and enjoy the ambience of the terrace with a sundowner. We enjoyed melt in the mouth seared tuna, served pink with buttered Jersey Royals and fresh greens. We top it off with Passionfruit cheesecake and blood orange sorbet – and of course that sundowner.
