This tour is available as a half day or a full day tour. Like all my tours, it is private to you, and you are not joining a larger group.
The emphasis of this tour is simply “Jersey”. It is Jersey’s scenery, its history, its laws, customs and traditions which make Jersey what it is today.
We will talk about our huge tides which can rise and fall up to 12 metres twice a day and nearly tripling the size of Jersey and its offshore reefs at low tide.
We will also touch upon its geology, the rocks which form the dramatic northern coastal cliffs, the beaches of golden quartz sand, and which have provided the building material of mainly pink / red granite with which many local houses are built, as well as the ancient Neolithic structures which are older than the pyramids and that great pre-historic Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England.
Neanderthal people were visiting here during a period of two hundred thousand years before the last ice age which started about forty thousand years ago. During that ice age, the Channel Islands were not islands but hill tops in a vast plain which stretched all the way out to beyond the west coast of France and the English Channel was dry! After that ice age, Mesolithic (middle stone age) people came to the islands and by the late stone age and sea-level has risen so that we were islands again, the Neolithic people were settled here. As the first farmers, they cleared the islands of trees to grow crops and for domestic animal pasture and built their megalithic structures.
Every single later era through the metal ages is represented by archaeological finds and sites, we have the influence of the Romans for over four hundred years before the early medieval period, the Vikings and then the Normans who shaped English history, culture, laws and language as we know it today.
For the Channel Islands, the late medieval period brings not only prosperity through trade but also conflict as England and France war on and off for nearly 650 years following King John’s loss of continental Normandy in 1204. The impact of this military history has been a significant factor in shaping the Channel Islands in all ways and ultimately is the reason why we speak English here rather than French – and that change from French to English is not that long ago as you will find out if you come on the tour.
Please see the separate Places section below to see some of the locations which are included in these tours.
You can also Click the Map icon (below main image in grey bar to the right) to view locations and see further information
Our tours are devised in a way to give our guests an overall and enjoyable experience which means that we won’t always follow the same route or stop at all the above locations. This also gives us the ability to make changes either to take advantage of, or to mitigate against, factors such as weather or other delays which might affect timing. On full day tours, we stop at lunch times where refreshments/food can be purchased, and on all tours, we will stop as necessary for refreshments and comfort breaks.
Level of Fitness required for tour Our Tours are a combination of a coach tour and exploring the sites on foot, so please refer to the Level of Fitness required to enjoy these Tours. It should be noted that any tour involving bunker and fortification sites will invariably involve walking over some rough ground, climbing up and down slopes and steps. A moderate level of fitness is therefore required. For that, and for what’s included in these Tours and Prices, as well as Pick-Up points for the Tours, please see Information below.