Just off the coast of France, Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, Herm and Alderney beckon with exquisite coastlines, shaded lanes and old-world charm. Not quite Britain and not quite France, the islands are proudly independent, self-governing British Crown dependencies that straddle the gap between the two. Their citizens owe their allegiance to Her Majesty, but some still speak local dialects that stem from medieval Norman French.
Forget what you may have heard on the mainland: there's nothing odd about the Isle of Man (Ellan Vannin in the local lingo, Manx). The island's reputation for oddity is entirely down to its persistent insistence that it do its own thing, rejecting England's warm embrace in favour of a semiautonomous status (it is home to the world's oldest continuous parliament, the Tynwald).
These are the top experiences and sights in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, according to Lonely Planet.
