A Day In St Peter Port

We were lucky to spend a day in St Peter Port recently as one of the stops on a cruise, and I was blown away by this lovely town which is rich in history.

The first thing you notice when you arrive is the warm welcome provided by the local tourist office staff. They are on hand with maps and information about the best places to go and see, and can also answer any questions you have.

When you arrive on the esplanade you are greeted by these vibrant yellow telephone boxes! Not all the phone boxes on the island are this colour but I love how quirky they look.

The town centre is one road back from the harbour, and can be reached by many ‘venelles’ or alleyways. They date back many hundreds of years and were used to bring goods up from ships who traded here.

Although it’s nice to discover places on your own, I do like a guided tour as well and when researching St Peter Port I found that they offer independent local experts who will take you on a walking tour for just £8 per person. Our guide, Mireille, was fantastic and a font of knowledge. We had just seven people in our group so it was very intimate and we learned so much in just a couple of hours

Details about the walks can be found on the Visit Guernsey website and they start at 10.30am each day from the information centre in the town.

We popped into the town church which features some lovely stained glass, including this depiction of St Peter’s upside down crucifixion.

The church features in the Guiness Book of Records as it is the closest church to a pub in the world. The distance from the end of the grotesque’s nose to the Albion Tavern is just 18 inches! You can see the grotesque at the top of the front of the wall in the photo below. (A grotesque is like a gargoyle but without a water spout)

Another quirky colour scheme are these Guernsey Post postboxes which are blue!

Although we didn’t visit Cornet Castle it’s definitely on our list for next time. There is so much to do within walking distance of the port, including an aquarium and a military museum. We did visit the museum which can be found in the old tunnels built by Germans when they occupied the island and features an incredible array of WW1 and WW2 artefacts from both the German and allied forces.

There are a series of Victorian pools along the shore near the museum, in which our tour guide swims most mornings, which must be extremely bracing in all but the height of summer!

After the tour we enjoyed a lovely lunch at Villa, a busy Italian eaterie which offered great pizzas and pastas and our table boasted views across the harbour. The town reminded me of Cornish towns such as St Ives, with a range of quality shops and nice places to eat and drink. As the Channel Islands are tax free, you can grab some bargains particularly when buying alcohol. Mireille recommended the locals gins which include Blue Bottle and Wheadons

Although we could only spend a day in St Peter Port it was enough to get a taste of Guernsey and I can’t wait to return and explore the island in more detail. Mireille recounted some fascinating stories about the occupation during World War II and we would have loved to have gone to the German Occupation Museum which is less than four miles away near the airport, but we were worried about getting back to the ship in time.

So I took some pretty photos instead and look forward to coming back one day!

If you fancy staying in Guernsey then there is a wide range of accommodation to suit all budgets on Booking.com. Check them out here or using the links below.

Booking.com

If you are island hopping and visit Jersey then here are some great restaurants in St Helier.