After sharing part one of our break to Jersey this week, I couldn’t wait to share the rest of the amazing things we did during our stay! I’ll be honest with you, I had no idea that there was so much to do on Jersey, especially for families such as ours, but it turns out that, despite cramming as much as we could into our stay, there are countless attractions and we still only experienced a fraction!

St Brelade

When it comes to beaches, they don’t get much better than on Jersey. We received so much advice about things to see and do on Jersey and visiting the beach at St Brelade was definitely right up there at the top! St Brelade’s Bay is one of the island’s most popular beaches, with golden sand, clear blue seas, and a whole host of activities, places to eat, drink, or scenic spots to simply sit and enjoy the view.

I was so surprised that, despite visiting Jersey in mid August over the weekend, the beach was still so quiet. Having spent countless sunny days on English beaches practically on top of the person next to us, I couldn’t get over the fact that we could walk just a few minutes away from the main seafront and have the entire beach to ourselves!

St Brelade also has some fantastic rock pools for the children to explore, all set within huge rocks at the far end of the beach in a more secluded bay. My three were so excited to discover several crabs and lots of shells to add to their collections!

I can imagine if we visited Jersey for again we would return right back to St Brelade to enjoy the Summer and had Lewis been with us I know he would have enjoyed taking part in some of the water sports activities you can do direct from the bay.

Tamba Park

Next on our list of must-do activities was a visit to Tamba Park which, having looked at the website prior to our trip, looked pretty impressive. With a huge indoor and outdoor play area, a boating lake, restaurant, dino-walk, and countless games and activities, it’s easy to see why it is one of Jersey’s most popular attractions!

The Rainforest Play Area is amazing, with zip lines, slides, a giant ball pit, sensory room, and more. And even better, it’s all indoors which means that whatever the weather, there is always something to occupy the children!

Outdoors there are a whole host of games and activities, all included within the entry fee, and an adventure golf course at an added cost. For those who live local you can buy annual membership, something we would definitely do if we lived on Jersey. The kids absolutely loved it!

The lake at Tamba Park is lovely, with fish feeding and little boats to sail around the lake on. If we’d had more time we could have spent the entire day there, although it’s a great excuse to return in the future…

With Harry being such a huge dinosaur fan I knew that when he saw the Dino-trail he would go crazy, and he really did. I have honestly never seen such a fantastic dinosaur display in a park before and the amount of time and effort that had gone into creating such realistic and impressive dinosaurs was amazing, if not a little scary!

La Corbière lighthouse

La Corbière lighthouse is such an iconic landmark in Jersey, and I can completely understand why. Set on a tidal island out at sea, surrounded by dark rocks, you can walk the causeway right out to the lighthouse at low tide, although it was unfortunate that we timed our visit at high tide.

Despite the fact that we couldn’t walk over to the lighthouse, it was the perfect location to enjoy an ice cream (Jersey ice cream is the best!) and take in the view. And what an amazing view it is!

One of the things I love the most about Jersey is the sense of history, with so many original, historical features to visit, especially here at La Corbiere. Although at four, five and six, the children aren’t yet familiar with the World War, they found it fascinating to explore the original bunkers and re-create their own version of events between the ‘good guys’ and the ‘bad guys’.

For Gaz and I, it was so interesting to learn more about the German invasion of Jersey. I’ll be honest, I didn’t pay attention in history lessons at school and had no idea that Jersey was occupied by the Germans in the second World War. It was actually quite emotional to think about what had taken place where we stood and how fortunate we are that England defeated the Germans all of those years ago.

Amaizin! Adventure Park

Our next visit was to Amaizin! Adventure Park which, if you’ll excuse the pun, really was amazing! The largest farm park in Jersey, it offers indoor and outdoor fun with animals, tractor rides, a maize maze, fun family activities, and all included within the entry price. As a larger family I love when there are no hidden costs, it makes budgeting for a day out way easier!

On a rainy day there is an indoor play area but for us, visiting on a dry day, we headed straight to the outdoor area and the children were in their element! With bouncy castles, trampolines, playground equipment and ride-ons, it was great for us to be able to sit back and just watch them play all within an enclosed area.

At £10.80 for adults and children, I was amazed by just how much is included for the price. Any parent who has taken their children to a fairground will understand when I say that it can often bankrupt me just for the children to have a turn on a bouncy castle, so the fact that they could go on these activities over and over again was fantastic!

One of the most popular attractions at Amaizin! Adventure Park is the tractor ride, and my advice would be to do this activity earlier on in the day. We made the mistake of waiting until the end of the day which resulted in queuing for an hour. Thankfully there are animals along the queue so the children were more than happy to pet the ponies as we waited.

By the time we got to the front of the queue I was hoping it would be worth the wait, after all, how exciting can a tractor ride be? It turns out that it was the absolute highlight of our day with hysterical laughter from the children as we drove back and forth through the sprinklers, squeals of delights as the driver span us around the yard over and over, and pleas of “Can we do it again?!” as we bumped along the fields and back round to the start.

The children love any kind of farm environment and the fact that they could milk a cow, albeit it a pretend one, was so exciting for them! I love that there are so many fun little interactive activities for them to take part in.

Our last stop of the day was the Maize maze which was the best we have ever seen. With two to choose from, a smaller maze and a bigger one for the more adventurous, we decided to try the smaller one and it’s a good job we did as we got lost pretty much at the first turn! Each year there is a different theme for the maze and this years is “Ancient Jungle Explorers.” The children loved finding the clues to find the codeword which after completing won each of them a lollipop.

Elizabeth Castle

For our final day we drove just five minutes to St Aubins Bay, where we were so exciting to be visiting Elizabeth Castle. I love that you never have to travel far to visit any of these attractions due to the island being so small, and parking is so cheap in Jersey too. I couldn’t get over the fact that we could park for an entire day for less than £1!

Built on a rocky islet in St Aubin’s Bay, Elizabeth Castle has defended Jersey for over 300 years, and visiting is a real must. At low tide you can walk out across the causeway to access the castle by foot, or at high tide take the pirate-themed Castle Ferry which my children were ecstatic about!

As excited as I was to see the castle, I honestly think that the children’s favourite part was the ferry. If ever there was a perfect way to get a view of the castle, it is undoubtedly by the water!

As the ferry pulls up at the castle a member of staff is on hand to instruct visitors of the best way to see the castle, things to see and do, and timings of any special parades and the firing of the cannon.

The castle itself is incredible with battlements dating back to the 1590’s, when Sir Walter Raleigh was Governor of Jersey from 1600 until 1603.  You can explore the grounds which gave refuge to King Charles II during the English Civil War and uncover the bunkers which were re-fortified to command the sea approaches to Jersey during the German Occupation in World War II. In terms of history, Elizabeth Castle is just fascinating!

The great thing about Elizabeth Castle is that despite being so rich in history, it is still so family friendly for all ages. The courtyard parade is so much fun, with a whole scene acted out which is great for adults to learn more about the history of Elizabeth castle, but great for kids who want to see their parents having to get in line for the march!

My three loved climbing to the top of the castle towers to take in the view, which is the perfect way to see the whole of the castle and across the sea back to St Aubins Bay.

They also loved looking around the old bunkers and exploring some of the machinery left behind, whilst Gaz and I were fascinated to read some of the original newspaper cuttings from the second World War when Germany occupied Jersey.

As you can imagine, their favourite part was the firing of the cannon which is so much fun, if not incredibly loud! It’s definitely worth hanging around for and the children are still talking about it even now!

With return ferries every 15 minutes we didn’t have to hang around until our return trip and as we were leaving I knew that it certainly would not be our last. I definitely recommend a visit to Elizabeth Castle for everyone staying in Jersey.

After the most amazing and jam packed few days on Jersey, it was time for us to leave, and I have to say that we were all of us so sad to be going home. I’ll be honest with you though, I wasn’t looking forward to getting back on that ferry and yet thankfully, with seasickness bands in place, the children were absolutely fine! We really enjoyed the sailing home and it was lovely to have that time together to talk about our favourite moments from our break. If only we had thought of seasickness bands on the way there!

We had the most amazing, fun-filled, memorable few days together and I can’t wait to return to see more of The Channel Islands. It’s hard to explain to those who have never visited Jersey, and there is only so much that I can show through photographs, but it has an almost magical quality, something that I can’t quite put my finger on, and for that reason our little island break will always have a special place in my heart.

 

** We were invited to Jersey as guests and given complimentary passes to all of these attractions. All words and opinions are my own unless otherwise stated **