Jersey Hotels with Pools: Swimming At The Somerville
Not every hotel pool is the same. In a city spa, it is about the therapy. On a London rooftop, it’s about the view. In Jersey, particularly in the long, warm evenings of a Channel Islands summer, a pool done properly is something else entirely: the centrepiece of a holiday that moves at exactly the pace you want it to.
Which is to say, before booking a Jersey hotel with a pool, it’s worth thinking about what kind of pool experience you are actually after.
Why Having a Pool Can Make a Jersey Holiday
Jersey enjoys more sunshine hours per year than anywhere else in the British Isles roughly 1,915 on average and summer temperatures that regularly sit in the low-to-mid twenties. It is, in other words, exactly the sort of place where a properly positioned outdoor pool stops being a nice-to-have and starts becoming the main event.
There is something particular about swimming outdoors in the Channel Islands. The light takes on a softer, more golden hue, with the sea always visible in the mid distance, which no indoor pool can replicate.
When the weather is kind (and in Jersey, between May and September, it usually is), a sun-warmed afternoon by the pool is simply one of the better ways to spend a holiday.
The Somerville Pool: Warm, Unhurried, Properly Jersey
The Somerville Hotel’s heated outdoor pool sits within the hotel’s gardens, looking out across St
Aubin’s Bay. It is not a destination in itself; it is part of a setting that happens to be rather lovely.
The pool is heated to up to 24 degrees and is open from May through to September, weather
permitting.
It reaches 2 metres at the deep end, which makes it suitable for proper swimming rather
than a paddle.
● Heated up to 24°C, for comfortable swimming.
● Open May – September, weather permitting.
● A 2-metre depth, ideal for full-length swimming
● Garden setting with views over St Aubin’s Bay.
A View Worth Looking Up For
The pace around it, however, tends toward the unhurried: a few lengths, a good book, a glass of something cold. Jersey time, properly observed.
What distinguishes the Somerville pool from a hotel pool you could find anywhere is the particularity of where it is.
Perched above the village of St Aubin on the island’s south-west coast, the hotel commands what might fairly be called one of the finest aspects in Jersey.
The bay stretches below you. Yachts move slowly through the harbour. If you happen to look up from your book at the right moment, it’s quite a view.
Outdoor vs Indoor: What to Consider for Jersey
Hotels in Jersey offer both indoor and outdoor pools, and the right choice depends on when you are
travelling and what you are after.
Indoor pools are available year-round, regardless of what the morning brings. If you are visiting in
early spring or late autumn, or simply prefer the certainty of a swim come what may, an indoor pool
is the reliable choice.
Outdoor heated pools, when the season is right, offer something an indoor pool simply cannot: open
sky, the smell of a garden in bloom, the feel of the sun on your shoulders between lengths and a
stunning ocean view. For a summer visit, particularly with family, an outdoor pool in a well-chosen
setting will consistently be where the afternoon disappears to. The important word, of course, is heated.
Jersey’s outdoor pools are not like throwing yourself into the English Channel, which is bracing at the best of times. A properly maintained heated pool warmed to 24 degrees or above extends the pleasure well into the evening and takes the temperature lottery out of the equation entirely.
Beyond the Pool: What Makes the Somerville Different
The Somerville’s Tides Restaurant serves fresh local seafood alongside British classics, with views
across St Aubin’s Bay that tend to make meals last longer than intended.
The Voyager Curiosity Lounge Bar, the hotel’s most recent addition, offers what may be the finest view of any cocktail bar in St Aubin, along with a menu that approaches the classics of mixology with a certain quiet enthusiasm. The village of St Aubin itself rewards an afternoon’s wandering. The walkway leads past some of the island’s better independent restaurants.
The harbour is genuinely pretty.
Beyond the secluded bay and nearby harbour, if the mood takes you further afield, St Helier is just twenty minutes by bus, with the rest of the island easily accessible by bicycle, taxi, or on foot.
The Somerville sits above all of this, literally, on the hillside, and has done so since the days of its Victorian founder.
Some positions, it turns out, are worth keeping.
