Getting Around Jersey

1 more image

The airport and many places you may want to visit are connected to St Helier by public bus. All buses end/finish their journey at the bus station by the waterfront. Across the street from this station you’ll find the Tourist Information Centre “Jersey Tourism” - selling a bus information booklet (50p) which we found very useful: it contains maps and timetables for all public bus routes around the island. We relied on this timetable to plan our walks and were never disappointed, the service was always on time! For more information and timetable please visit Jersey Public Transportation website listed below.

Rockhopper for low cost flights to and from the Channel Islands. Rockhopper has flights from these airports Bournemouth Airport, Brighton City (Shoreham) and St Brieuc - also flights between Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney .

Hiring a scooter is well worth it. For a weekend, it cost me about £ 60 + petrol (which is rather cheap because it is a scooter).
To me, except if you have children, there is no reason to hire a car since the island is so small and since there are so many convenient bike parkings about everywhere on the island.

So for my stay this was the perfect way of getting around!

If you do decide to hire a car whilst in Jersey the rates are fairly competitive, at the airport there is a Europcar & a Hertz both have boards up but bear in mind that they add on the extras like 1/2 tank fuel, insurance levy & mostly there is an additional charge for more then 1 driver.

You must hold a valid licence with no endorsements for dangerous or drumken driving and you must be 21 years of age.

Fuel is much cheaper then in the UK, the speed limit is 40mph / 64km. Be aware that if you drive on one of Jersey's many green lanes (country lanes) the speed limit is 15mph / 24km/h priority is given for walkers and cyclists.

Be warned that until the summer months there is a very restricted bus service but as we did not fancy hiring a car here is a brief outline of how the system works (for the spring timetable at least)

Fare tariffs are zone A GBP1 and zone B GBP1.50 (trip from airport to St Helier GBP1.50)
A weekend card is GBP10 & a 3 day pass is GBP15 5 day GBP22
All buses run into St Helier (Liberation station)
All routes can be used including the Island route buses yellow, green, red & blue routes which go to various tourist destinations but will be happy to drop you off at the nearest bus station to your destination. In spring most buses do not operate a sunday service & bank holidays count as a sunday service. Check if your route runs a late service as you can be stuck if they do not and will need to take cabs. The tourist buses all finish around 6pm & run every hour so plan your journeys carefully bearing this in mind. You need to make 4 trips to make buying a pass ticket worth your while as a 1 day fare is GBP6.

We found the buses to come on time & be reliable with very friendly helpful drivers. A downside to this timetable is that arrival & departure times can be 5 minutes overlapping & cause you to miss your connection especially annoying for those late night buses but if you let your driver know you wish to connect to another late bus he may be able to swing it for you ours did!

Be aware that the buses do not have very much space allocated for luggage so the driver may tell you to use a spare seat for luggage a bit problematic for a busy airport bus route.

The buses are wheelchair accessible

Not all bus stops have a pole in the ground detailing the arrival times of the next bus. The bus stop signs are located on the road and the bus will stop at the closest stop after you push the bell. Also sometimes at the bus stops the only times displayed are those of the explorer buses so make sure you carry a timetable with you at all times.

Easyjet has newly accquired the London Luton to Jersey route, its prices are known for being fairly low depending on when you book, however saying that we were delayed on the way out and the way back. Flight times out are reasonable 11.55am & flight times back are 1.30pm.

The Luton bus that runs between Luton Airport parkway & Luton Airport charges GBP1 for the journey between the 2 although we only paid one way for some reason.

You can go all over the island thanks to the Connex buses, provided you take a few precautions. (As we learned on our expenses...)

Outside of St Helier, bus stops are marked only by a BUS painted on the road - no roadsign, no indication of schedules or the number of the bus that stops there.

So be sure to get the bus routes map that includes schedules in the central bus station just in front of the port.

In western part of the island, the buses usually take one road on their trip there and another one on their trip back. So again, consult the map :-)

In addition to normal buses with numbers, there are four color lines specifically dedicated to tourists, accessible with normal bus passes - they are great to tour all the island sights.