The Channel Islands Tips & articles

Jul 30, 2009 6:37:39 AM

The top 10 travel secrets: #2

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Traditional transport, a horse and trap on Sark Island, probably best known as Europe's only feudal state

• Veronica Garbutt
• Lonely Planet Photographer

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Coming in at #2 in Lonely Planet Magazine’s best-kept travel secrets is Sark and Alderney in the Channel Islands, as recommended by Miranda Krestovnikoff, presenter of BBC Two’s Coast:

‘Some of the most beautiful places you will ever see in Britain are those that are a bit of a challenge to get to, the far-flung islands on which you might get stranded if the weather kicks off. We all live very busy lives, and if you only have a week’s holiday, the prospect of taking an extra day to get somewhere remote might not be appealing. But it really is worth the effort. Even the journey itself can be a great adventure, because you often need to use odd modes of transport, like old ferries or tiny bi-planes, and you are bound to see wonderful things on the way.

I first heard about the island of Sark when I was doing some filming in the Channel Islands a few years ago. Sark is a bit like England might have been 50 or 100 years ago. It is a tiny island lost in time. There aren’t any cars allowed, so the main mode of public transport is a tractor. Otherwise you have to go about on a bike or ride in a horse and carriage, which makes you feel like royalty.

The lack of traffic means it’s a wonderfully quiet place, where everybody knows everyone else and people leave their doors unlocked. Life is incredibly slow. The horses plod along the road pulling their carriages, and at first you think, ‘I could walk faster than this’, but once you’ve got into Sark mode, that stillness becomes one of the island’s best qualities.

Alderney itself has quite a history. The Channel Islands were the only parts of the British Isles that Hitler conquered, although most of the population had been evacuated beforehand. The Nazis kept prisoners of war and built military fortresses on Alderney, and even today every headland seems to have a fort on top of it. I think it was quite shocking for the residents when they returned after the war to see how much had changed.

The atmosphere on the island today is what I imagine it was like in post-war Britain. There’s a great sense of community and common generosity, where everyone helps each other out. I love the flavour of France that comes through too - all the place names have French spellings but are said with English pronunciation, so you often feel like you are in an alternative France were everyone speaks English. You can even see over to Normandy on a clear day. Like Sark, it is a quiet, peaceful place where, even at the height of the season, you can find yourself alone on an absolutely beautiful beach. There are not many places in the British Isles today about which you can say that.’

Want to know what came in at #3? If you love cafe culture, you will.

So who took the crown at #1? Think a hidden Hollywood history…

Read up on more travel secrets in the Lonely Planet Magazine

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