Getting around

Guernsey is around 25 square miles. The speed limit is 35mph island-wide, 25mph in town, and some lanes are 15mph. You drive on the left.

Nothing is far. Almost any journey is under half an hour, and most are well under it. The roads are narrow and lined with granite walls, which takes a fortnight to get used to and then stops being remarkable.

Parking in many places uses a timed clock disc displayed in the windscreen rather than a meter or an app, which surprises new arrivals more than it should.

There is a comprehensive bus network. Timetables and routes are at buses.gg.

By air, Gatwick is around 45 minutes. Aurigny is the States-owned airline and there are other carriers serving a range of UK and European destinations.

By sea, there are routes to Poole, Portsmouth, St Malo and Jersey. Note that Condor Ferries, the name most people know, was absorbed into Brittany Ferries in 2025, so the operator may not be the one you remember.

Routes, operators and schedules change frequently here, more than on the mainland. Check current services directly rather than relying on anything written more than a few months ago, including this page.

This is the part that matters.

On the mainland, travel is inconvenient when it goes wrong. Here it is impossible. Fog closes the airport. Weather cancels sailings. A missed connection is not a later train, it is tomorrow.

The practical consequence is that anything which genuinely matters needs slack built in: a wedding, a funeral, a hospital appointment off-island, a connecting flight, a child's university interview. Islanders travel a day early as a matter of habit, and newcomers learn to within the first year, usually the hard way.

The emotional consequence is subtler. If your parents are ageing on the mainland, or a sibling has small children you want to see, the island's distance is not measured in miles. Think about that properly before you move rather than in the middle of a crisis.

You can bring a vehicle by ferry. Given the size of the island and the speed limits, plenty of people downsize when they arrive, and some manage without a second car entirely. What that does to a household budget is covered on the cost of living page.