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Explore unexplored

Narrow and deep: that sums up the travel philosophy of Vivek Pande. As the general manager of Life Style Group of Khimji Ramdas, his work involves a great deal of globe-trotting. But family vacations are a different matter altogether. With both son Varad and daughter Manasi now in different parts of the UK, vacations are also family reunion times. Pande and wife Mridula are just back from one of their off-beat vacations, this time to the Channel Islands, driving, trekking and exploring. But ask him what he likes best about the place, the management professional takes over. "It is such a picture postcard tax haven...perfect in every way. I wish I had millions to park there."

For us as a family, a holiday means quality time spent together, and often our finest bonding moments. So it's not only the holiday destination that we enjoy, but also these nice times together. For now, I'll choose to talk about Jersey, Channel Islands, as it's still very fresh in my mind, since we just returned from a five-day vacation there. Prior to it, we stayed in London for a few days with our son Varad and were joined by our daughter Manasi from Cambridge. We couldn't resist watching the India-England match at the new Rose Bowl stadium in Southampton, a good three-hour drive from London. It was an exhilarating experience to be with the family, sitting in the stadium donned in India's blues, waving the tricolour, cheering our motherland!

Since we like to plan well in advance, invariably each trip is finalised after a lot of deliberation. This itself helps build the excitement months before the actual holiday. Thanks to the Internet, a four-way communication is launched. Discussions and planning goes on for months. We prefer destinations that are off the beaten track. Jersey seemed to fit the bill. As someone rightly said, Jersey is a "small piece of Europe, sprinkled by France, at the bottom of England".

The B&Bs (bed & breakfast accommodation) of Europe are comfortable and we love the personal touch that such places provide. However, for Jersey we made an exception and stayed in a beach resort to be as close to the sea as possible. Both Mridula and I don't fancy the packaged 'See Europe in 21 days' kind of holidays. We much prefer renting a car, driving around, stopping at quaint places that catch our fancy and do things at our own pace – this is what we did in Jersey as well. For example, once while we were driving by, I saw a nondescript seafood takeaway joint, which had something very attractive about it. We stopped by and asked for something that is a Jersey speciality. The restaurateur recommended two items on the menu: whells (which belong to the mollusc family) and crayfish tails (which resemble prawns), served with a delectable cocktail sauce. It was delicious. As far as possible we try to avoid fast food joints and try out the local delicacies.

Jersey is a mesmerisingly beautiful place and often we would stop by just to admire a beautiful garden or park the car in a tree-lined avenue. It is better to go to a place and delve deep into its culture by taking a few days to soak in the experience of the place, talk to the people and try out the local cuisine. The beach near our resort was surrounded by a cliff covered with heavy foliage. There is a beautiful trekking path through which you can walk for hours, stopping to admire different perspectives of the sea down below. It was a memorable experience.

Jersey has several tourist attractions, one of which is the wonderful zoo started by famous conservationist, Gerald Durrell. He is no more, but his legacy lives on. There's also an orchid farm in Jersey, run by the Eric Young Orchid Foundation. As was obvious from the hundreds of varieties being grown there, Young had a passion for this beautiful flower, and the foundation regularly wins awards at many shows, including the Chelsea Flower Show. I've not seen so many different types of orchids even in Singapore and Malaysia.

The exotica do not end at the orchid farm. The island boasts of special agate pottery, which is one of its kind in the world. Agate being a semi-precious stone, the pottery is very expensive, but the pieces are exquisite. Another place we visited (from where I returned with a lighter wallet) was the Jersey Pearl Centre, where you could choose your own oyster and have the pearl taken out and set in jewellery of your choice.

I can simply go on about Jersey, one of the most enchanting locations we've visited. It is a small island, yet so much is packed into this picturesque place. It is as if you are part of a picture postcard, and a perfect one at that. As told to Letha Jose