Guernsey - Highlights
Waves and sand battle for supremacy in bays like huge amphitheatres, while mementoes of Nazi occupation offer a testament to the tides of history. St Peter Port offers modern bustle with fine restaurants, upmarket shops and harbour guarded by the ancient Castle Cornet.
The Guernsey Tapestry Gallery sews up a thousand years of island history. Hauteville House, the former home of French novelist Victor Hugo, displays his idiosyncratic interior tastes. Wander through a hundred sculptures in the gardens at Sausmarez Manor in St Martin parish. Check the programme for the current exhibition at the Guernsey Art Gallery.
Castle Cornet has guarded the entrance to St Peter Port harbour since the 13th century. Visit the shell-adorned Little Chapel in St Andrew parish, and Guernsey‘s grandest house, Sausmarez Manor. Spot cold grey German bunkers on the shoreline – learn more at the German Occupation Museum. La Coupee causeway connects Sark and Little Sark over Atlantic breakers.
Go whale-watching and dolphin-spotting from craggy headlands around Fermain Bay, Fontenelle Bay or St Martin's Point near Jerbourg. Swim, surf and try landyachting on a vast sandy beach, and collect a bucket of sea-jewels on Herm's Shell Beach. Hear chilling tales at the Shipwreck Museum on Rocquaine Bay, or enter the depths of the German Underground Military Hospital.
Don't be too rigid with itineraries. Guernsey's small size makes it perfect for impromptu detours down little side roads – you're never far from anywhere else, and you'll discover enticing spots along the way.
Watching Vazon Bay surfers: Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys; walking amid flowers on a cliff top path: Flowers In The Rain by The Move; on a boat to Sark, Herm or Alderney: Rod Stewart's Sailing.
