Day trips from Normandy to Jersey (UK)

Very easy to do a day trip to Jersey from St Malo and more than enough to do. But please, the Channel Islandsare not in the UK we are in the British Isles. Loyal to the Queen but nothing to do with the Parliament. Each of the main islands has its own Parliment ( States) and that has been the status quo since 1215. Also not in the EU either, never have been. So fascinating history, definitely worth a day trip or longer!

Re: Caro and "Very easy to do a day trip to Jersey from St Malo and more than enough to do. But please, the Channel Islandsare not in the UK we are in the British Isles. Loyal to the Queen but nothing to do with the Parliament. Each of the main islands has its own Parliment ( States) and that has been the status quo since 1215. Also not in the EU either, never have been. So fascinating history, definitely worth a day trip or longer!"

Caro, thanks for your reply and apologies for my ignorance! I did not realize that the islands were more akin to Canada and Australia in terms of their governance, and that their only other tie to the U.K. is geography (i.e., being part of the British Isles). You learn something every day and thanks again!

Its no problem at all!!! We are a fasinating little group of islands ( well i think we are!) And we did invade England with our Duke William in 1066! We still refer to the Queen as the Duke of Normandy when she is in the islands. The islands were also the only part of the British Isles that were occupied by the Natzis in World War 2. And we do have some rather famous cows😀

I spent several days on Jersey last year and visited Guernsey many years ago. There's plenty to do; you'll need to pick and choose.

However, I must warn you about the ferries. I have planned five Channel Island ferry trips over the course of two visits to the area. Two of those five ferries were canceled, one of them for three days in a row (August 2017). In your situation, cancellation of the St. Malo-Jersey ferry would not be disastrous; you'd be disappointed but could spend that day in Dinard or Dinan instead. But what if you get to Jersey and then can't get back to France? I don't know--perhaps that's not how they do cancellations; both of my canceled trips were St. Malo-St. Helier.

My favorite sights in Jersey were the War Tunnels, the orchid foundation, the botanic gardens at Samares Manor, and the zoo. The zoo focuses on endangered species; it takes quite a while to see the whole thing and might not be the best choice on a day-trip. All of those sights are outside St. Helier. Bus service around the island is quite decent, but it takes time, so you'll want to research the details in advance and figure out what it is reasonable to attempt in one day.