London to Isle of Jersey (and back)

Taking a ferry will be fairly slow. You have to travel from London to the ferry port, build in a buffer in case of some sort of transportation delay, then you have to sit on the ferry for quite some time (or have you found an overnight ferry)? And you have to do the same thing on the way back unless your next stop is Normandy or Brittany. My bad luck with ferries was unusual, but I think you'll save some time by flying, at least on the way to Jersey. My recent trip to Jersey was for 4 or 5 nights, and it was part of a 4-1/2 month trip, so I was able to shrug off the wasted time due to the ferry cancelation. I was glad that at least it happened on the way off the island.

I don't like mid-trip visits to airports, either, and will do some rather odd, time-consuming things to avoid them. On a short trip, though, I'd be more cautious about depending on ferries if I didn't have to.

Although it seems Jersey is a relatively short distance, the logistics of traveling to Jersey is going to eat the better part of a day. Condor ferries leave from Portsmouth and the average time from Portsmouth to Jersey is around 8 hours or more. For only two days you need to fly. It takes about 1 hour from London. There are several airlines that offer routes to Jersey. Non-stop flights offered by British Airways or Easyjet from LGW (London-Gatwick) for very reasonable prices. If you decide to fly - make sure you are not leaving from some of the other area airports such as STN (Stansted) or SEN (London-Southend) - they are out of your way.

I have just booked flights today to go to Guernsey from LGW. I checked the ferries, not much cheaper, long ferry ride, and I am not taking a car to the Islands, so flying makes better sense.

Margaret

I haven't taken the trip yet but I have a trip planned that involves this route. After researching and seeing how long it would take from London to Jersey by train and ferry, I definitely decided to fly from Gatwick. Fares for the flights I researched were quite a bit less than the train/ferry combo and took about 1/3 the time.

I've flown from LGW to Jersey on Easyjet. Very easy. About an hour.

The train/ferry will take all day.

One thing to note....occassionally, if the weather is bad, planes don't land at Jersey.

There is a bus that goes from Jersey Airport to Saint Helier with stops along the way.

Flying makes more sense for a short stay. The boat would make more sense if you had a week.

FYO - The Isles of Scilly are called the Isles of Scilly. The island of Jersey is just called Jersey, not the Isle of Jersey in common parlance.

I agree with flying. Despite living in Portsmouth where the ferry to Jersey sails from we took the option to fly from Southampton. For a short visit the long sailing doesn't make sense.

Thank you, everyone! You have convinced me that flying is best. We're going to Jersey (thanks for the correction regarding name) because my grandmother's family lived there for several generations--it's a family history thing that I want to include as part of our trip.