gpearce

Anyone have a web site for IG tours?

We just returned from a cruise that stopped in LeHavre. There were six of us and we had arranged for a full day tour with Patrick Spiess (spiess.patrick@orange.fr). We wanted see some of the historic sites from WWII Normandy landing. He picked us right on time at 8:30 and we started on our journey. He had sent us an agenda which was great but he would have gone wherever we wanted to go. We started at the Memorial in Caen where we spent about 1 1/2 hours. It was the perfect place to start and a must see. From there we traveled to Arromanches to have a look on what remains from Mulberry artificial harbor. He suggested we have lunch here so he left us to spend a little time in the town. From there it was off to Longues sur mer where we saw the German gun battery (guns being still inside pillboxes). Next on the agenda was the American cemetery at Omaha Beach. Last stop was in the beautiful town of Honfleur. The trip cost 550 Euros and was well worth it. Patrick explained in his email that he was a taxi driver and not a tour guide, but he was very knowledgeable about all the places we went. He would stop whenever we wanted to take pictures and left the timing of our visits up to us. He made some suggestions as to the best timing which we followed and they were perfect.

His taxi was very clean and comfortable and he was very easy to understand. We would definitely recommend him to anyone and will use him again if we get back to LeHavre.

We took the advise of a previous poster and contacted Eleuterio Valido. His email address is eleuteriovalido@hotmail.com. He was amazing. First of all he responded very quickly to all of my emails. We set up an all day tour for 6 people for 45 Euros a person.

The night before we got to the Azores the captain came on the air and told us that we would only be staying a half day in the Azores. He felt it would be best to leave early to skirt a storm.

We met with Eleuterio and he totally understood that we would like to see as much as possible in the time we had which was about 4 1/2 hours. He had checked the web cams and said that the lakes were not visible so we headed towards the hots springs. (The people who took the ship's tour to the lakes were not able to see anything). On the way to the hot springs we stopped at a number of lookouts for pictures. Along the way we told us all about the island and its history. He was extremely knowledgeable and very easy to understand.

He reduced the fare to 30 Euros a person even though we had booked the whole day. Beside being more reasonable than the ship's tour to the hot springs we went to a couple of areas where a bus could not go.

His van was very clean and very comfortable for the 6 of us. If we make it back to the Azores we will definitely contact him again.

We are arriving by cruise ship in Sorrento on Oct 31. Can anyone recommend a tour company that goes to Herculaneum? Any help would be appreciated.

Warm Breezes,

What car rental company did you use?