The pink cliffs of Jersey
Okay class, time for a pop quiz! Who remembers what my New Years resolution was for the start of 2025? Anyone? Correct - it was "see more of the UK". At the time, I wrote "in focussing so much on international travel, I've realised that I haven't actually seen lots of places in the UK that I'd like to." I'm someone who believes that resolutions aren't just for new years, they're for life - why swear to a positive habit that you don't intend on keeping? So my mission to continue exploring more of the UK has remained, and this summer, that stretched to the channel islands as well. Okay yes, Jersey is not in the UK but it is part of the Great British Isles and is a possession of the British crown so I think it still counts. Technicalities aside, it was somewhere I'd wanted to travel for ages because it just looked so beautiful and is only a short hop away! Plus, it also tracks with my 2026 resolution to spend more time in nature so it was a fab choice all round.
Like with any short hop flight, it took us considerably longer to get to the airport and to wait for our flight than it did to actually get to Jersey. But we arrived to blue skies and beautiful scenery so there were no complaints there! Mum and Dad had been to Jersey before many years ago and they'd hired and a car and explored the whole island. Their verdict? That St Brelade's bay was the most beautiful spot on the island and it's where they definitely wanted to stay when they returned. So we were booked in at the Biarritz hotel which was lovely and charming with a big gorgeous terrace overlooking the sea. Although, it was constantly boiling and felt like the radiators were turned up! A side effect of a destination with a slightly older population I suspect.
We'd arrived in Jersey for golden hour, which was absolutely perfect for making the most of our big gorgeous terrace. Because you know what other name golden hour goes by in my book? Prosecco o'clock! I was very impressed with the way that the bartender filled mine to the absolute BRIM.
We were keen to try and explore as much of Jersey as we could in a short amount of time (and without a car) so instead of spending both evenings in St Brelade's bay, we ventured into St Aubin for our first evening. It was about a 25 minute walk away and it was a super cute town! Very cutesy and we found a couple of nice pubs to have some drinks in before dinner.
Dinner wise, we take it in turns to choose the restaurant and Aidan and Mia were up first. They chose the Tides restaurant and we had the most incredible meal - Ash and I shared a lobster bisque and salmon fishcakes to start, then a lamb wellington and roast pork for mains. He didn't want to share with me for dessert but that's okay because I was very happy to enjoy this raspberry souffle all to myself!
The Saturday was our big adventure day as we were keen to explore the whole headland that connects St Brelade's and St Aubin. After a hearty breakfast at our hotel, we set off on our travels and joined the coastal path.
Jersey is a really beautiful island and it was evident from the moment we set off, despite the overcast weather. It has really beautiful beaches but with a more rugged vibe and it made for the loveliest view as we worked our round round to the next cove.
I always say that Ash is a labrador boyfriend. He's loyal, he's playful, he's loving. He loves to fetch things for me! It also means he just loves being set free on the beach and always has to gun directly towards the sea to dip his hand in! So while the rest of the family continued walking along the path, we walked along the sand and as predicted, Ash dipped his hand in the water.
It was time for our first pit stop when we reached the Old Smugglers Inn, which was a very cosy pub with a cool nod to priates. It was only 11am so that was slightly early for a pint, even for me, but the lads did have fun playing a few games of darts.
The weather turned against us at this point and we got caught in a torrential rainstorm! Luckily, it changed its mind again pretty quickly and we were blessed with beautiful blue skies for us to continue our walk. The culture, architecture and general vibe in Jersey was actually very British - I was expecting a lot more a blended essence between British and French but it seems that all it borrowed from the French were the names for all the streets, towns and beaches.
My favourite place of the day was Portelet beach. It's a gorgeous beach with bright blue water and stunning pink granite stones. All the cliffs in Jersey are mainly made of pink and brown granite (hence the title of the post), and so all of the stones were super pretty and printed. It was hard to resist taking a few home!
It's no secret that I'm a bit of a sun worshipper but I'm also a c'est la vie person so when the weather forecast for our Jersey trip wasn't looking great, I didn't mind too much. The only thing that made me sad was the prospect of not seeing the amazing scenery in its full potential. Everything comes alive in the sunshine (especially the sea), so I didn't mind too much whether or not the sun was on me, but I really hoped we'd see it on our surroundings. Lucky for us, the clouds completely parted and cleared like something out of the bible while we were exploring the beach and we were able to enojy it in all its glory!
There were about a million steps down to the pub and what goes down, must go back up again (or something like that). So after a steep climb back up the hill, we were rewarded with not only an amazing view, but also with a gorgeous pub. The Portelet Inn had a massive garden and we decided to make the most of the opportunity to sit in the sun. Although the wind was also out in force and not only did I very nearly end up wearing Aidan's pint, but a door actually slammed closed with such force that the window in it smashed!
The wind certainly didn't let up at our next stop! In fact, it was insanely strong and you could literally lean your whole body weight into it and it held you up. Ash basically spent the whole time at Battery Lothringen attempting to protect himself from being whipped round the face by my hair. Aside from being a very beautiful piece of headland, it was also a really interesting place because it's home to loads of old bunkers and lookouts from the war. It was definitely worth the extra walk down to the end.
We finished our big walk back in St Aubin and we were all hungry by this point so we chose The Old Court House for lunch. Of course, fish and chips was the only option as far as I was concerned!
Even though the day had started out a little sketchy weather-wise, we were blessed with an amazing evening. We headed out at that gorgeous inbetween time halfway from golden hour to sunset and we were sticking to St Brelade's bay on this night so we headed out towards the seafront and stopped off for a pre-dinner drink at the beach club.
The walk to the restaurant meant avoiding a pretty serious splash zone as the sea was feeling wild! It was mine and Ash's turn to pick the restaurant and we'd gone for a place called SALT, which had an incredible seafood selection. Ash was back in a sharing mood and let me pick everything we got so we started with scallops and calamari, and then enjoyed halibut with mussels and, (because I'm a seafood lover but Ash is a meat lover) the giant bone-in pork chop.
Something that I think can transform your way of thinking when it comes to travel is thinking of catching a flight the same way you catch a train. It doesn't mean you do nothing with your day, it just measn you allow time to get there (hopefully on time). Our flight home was at 4pm, which basically left a whole day to fill with activities as far as I was concerned! Jersey has a lot of beautiful produce and when I saw lots of luscious green space and rolling hills, I was hopeful there might be a vineyard. I was in luck! La Mare wine estate may have been the opposite side of the island, but Jersey is approximately the size of a postage stamp so it still only took 20 minutes to get there by taxi. Side note though that Jersey isn't super accessible in terms of taxi; there's no Uber or centralised way to order and they're very expensive, so we planned our itinerary carefully to limit our taxi usage to (1).
The vineyard tour and wine tasting experience at La Mare couldn't have been more perfect for our day really. It was a 1 hour experience and while I normally love to sit and leisurely taste different wines, this suited our going-home-day itinerary just right. The place ran like a well-oiled machine and we were given a tour of the vineyard, then an interesting walk through the production rooms where we learned more about how they make their sparkling wines. We then tasted 3 different wines (1 sparkling, 1 white, 1 red) before finishing up with a little look at their distillery process as they also make a number of spirits such as gin and cognac. They even make a liqueur similar to Baileys which we were able to sample out of these fun chocolate shots!
There was just time for one last amazing spot; Devil's Hole. Not a very chic name but after a short walk through the woods, it opened out into this amazingly scenic spot. I just loved the rugged coastlines of Jersey and it was lovely to get one last impressive glimpse before hometime.
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