Le Havre tour to Normandy

[Grekat]

I am interested in finding a tour to the Normandy beaches from LeHavre. We have already been to the American sector and would like to focus more on the Canadian/British sectors. We aren't interested in renting a car. Our cruise is only a 4 night so probably will not be able to put a larger group together from the roll call so it needs to be affordable for a couple people. There are several great tours out there but they require 8 people to be affordable. I found one recomendation on the boards for taxis-le-havre.com but I'm unable to get that site to come up. Is there any other recommendations of tour providers from Le Havre?

[KirkNC]

You are not going to find a "cheap" tour for only two people. To be economical you will need 6-8. We used Overlord, they did an excellent job.

[John Bull]

Cheapest would be to rent a car. I doubt you'd have difficulty finding just one couple to share from your RollCall or even by asking around when you board. But even if you don't find sharers it's still a cheap option.

You already know the geography & that the UK/Canadian beaches are closer to Le Havre than the US beaches. Driving & navigation to & from Le Havre is easy, and although you might take a wrong turn or two the driving along the coastal lanes etc is slow but easy enough.

Since you don't want to drive, perhaps you could offer on your RollCall to share with someone willing to drive.

 

Best is a professional tour such as Overlord, but as you've found out it's very very expensive unless you can join or put together 8 people. For that money, even if Le Havre were late into a long cruise I'd not book a tour unless/until I had committed sharers.

 

Halfway house is pre-booking a taxi. An English-speaking driver who has a degree of knowledge about D-Day would be a bonus, but with a degree of research you can get by comfortably without a guide - the various places have plenty of signage/literature/knowledgeable staff.

Again, you can seek sharers via your RollCall.

Sorry, can't help with recommendations but a sift through this board & the Britain/Western Europe board by typing "Le Havre taxi" into the "search this forum" facility should come up with some names. Or try your luck with the same on google or TripAdvisor.

I have no idea of the cost of a taxi for the day - mebbe 350 to 450 euros??????? - but you can e-mail for quotes.

 

Good luck

 

JB :)

[Hlitner]

As Kirk said, you will not find an inexpensive tour for 2 persons. Your only other alternatives are to keep trying to find others on your Roll Call board or rent a car. Having driven extensively in France (and Western Europe) I would tell you that renting a car and driving in this part of France is not very difficult...especially with a GPS to guide your way.

 

Hank

[LondonTowner]

I would definitely rent a car. Juno Beach is the furthest distance away from Le Havre and if you take the coast road you can drive across the Pegasus Bridge. The drive itself is quite pretty and the roads are well signposted and not too busy.

 

If you have time you may also want to visit Deauville, Trouville or Honfleur. The Memorial Museum in Caen is also interesting, but we were in there for 3 hours and still didn't see everything, so maybe save that for another time.

[JanetAlice]

You are not going to find a "cheap" tour for only two people. To be economical you will need 6-8. We used Overlord, they did an excellent job.

Ditto, they were wonderful. I will be easy to fill those space. I was able to do it in a couple of days after posting it on my roll call.

[Grekat]

Thanks for all of the suggestions! We are rethinking the rental car possibility. We have driven in Spain but never France but it seems to be the most reasonable for this time. Thanks John Bull and Hlitner for your detailed descriptions in past post regarding driving routes. I have copied many of those suggestions given to other travelers that are renting. Londontowner we definately want Pegasus Bridge on the tour as well as at least a break stop at Honfleur but plan to skip Caen on this trip.

 

I was able to find a private tour that was listed on Trip Advisor that will charge 150E per person with the two minimum and no maximum and will pick up and deliver to the port so it's also a possibility. It's actually about the same price as the ship is charging for one of it's full day tours to the American sector.

 

JanetAlice thanks for your advice but since it is only a 4N cruise many do not even check CC since there is no Meet & Mingle so it is likely our thread group will stay small. There is a thread started but those not going to Paris want to do the American sector which we have done. On an earlier cruise I set up a private tour from Cherbourg for the American sector so am familiar with Overlord and other tours available. There are several great private tours available for groups of 8-- it just appears unlikely we may get that number that are interested in the British/Candian sectors at this time. But you never know and it would be great if we could have that many interested as it would certainly open up the options more.

[John Bull]

Thanks for all of the suggestions! We are rethinking the rental car possibility. We have driven in Spain but never France but it seems to be the most reasonable for this time. Thanks John Bull and Hlitner for your detailed descriptions in past post regarding driving routes. I have copied many of those suggestions given to other travelers that are renting. Londontowner we definately want Pegasus Bridge on the tour as well as at least a break stop at Honfleur but plan to skip Caen on this trip.

 

I was able to find a private tour that was listed on Trip Advisor that will charge 150E per person with the two minimum and no maximum and will pick up and deliver to the port so it's also a possibility. It's actually about the same price as the ship is charging for one of it's full day tours to the American sector.

 

JanetAlice thanks for your advice but since it is only a 4N cruise many do not even check CC since there is no Meet & Mingle so it is likely our thread group will stay small. There is a thread started but those not going to Paris want to do the American sector which we have done. On an earlier cruise I set up a private tour from Cherbourg for the American sector so am familiar with Overlord and other tours available. There are several great private tours available for groups of 8-- it just appears unlikely we may get that number that are interested in the British/Candian sectors at this time. But you never know and it would be great if we could have that many interested as it would certainly open up the options more.

 

Yes, give Caen a miss -though at some point you'll probably drive the ring road, which is part of the main A16 road to Cherbourg.

 

Yes, Pegasus Bridge / museum is on your route if you take the coast road, but also very convenient if you prefer to blast along the A16 & cut down to it from the Caen ring road, in the direction of Ouistreham.

 

From Juno (Courseulles-sur-mer) you'll probably have time to continue 8 miles / 15 mins along the coast to Arromanches, with its viewpoint/360deg cinema, its seafront museum, its Mulberry Harbour remains, and its shops & bars. Even if just for the drive-by & photostops.

 

Heading back to Le Havre you'll want to give yourselves plenty of wiggle-room for any delays, so can I suggest you call in at Honfleur on your way back.

It's under 30 mins from the ship, on the coastal road or just five minutes off the main road. So if you've kept to timetable you'll be able to wander the harbour & down a beer or two, if you're running late you can foreshorten your time there or skip it entirely.

 

JB :)

[jwds]

I am interested in finding a tour to the Normandy beaches from LeHavre. We have already been to the American sector and would like to focus more on the Canadian/British sectors. We aren't interested in renting a car. Our cruise is only a 4 night so probably will not be able to put a larger group together from the roll call so it needs to be affordable for a couple people. There are several great tours out there but they require 8 people to be affordable. I found one recomendation on the boards for taxis-le-havre.com but I'm unable to get that site to come up. Is there any other recommendations of tour providers from Le Havre?

 

try this

 

http://www.radiotaxi-lehavre.com/circuits_touristiques-radiotaxi_lehavre-76.aspx

 

You probably do need 4 people to bring the price down.

[Grekat]

try this

 

http://www.radiotaxi-lehavre.com/circuits_touristiques-radiotaxi_lehavre-76.aspx

 

You probably do need 4 people to bring the price down.

 

Thanks. Do you know if there is an English version somewhere or just to translate it?

 

OOOppps just saw that it has both French and English. Thanks again.

[Grekat]

Yes, give Caen a miss -though at some point you'll probably drive the ring road, which is part of the main A16 road to Cherbourg.

 

Yes, Pegasus Bridge / museum is on your route if you take the coast road, but also very convenient if you prefer to blast along the A16 & cut down to it from the Caen ring road, in the direction of Ouistreham.

 

From Juno (Courseulles-sur-mer) you'll probably have time to continue 8 miles / 15 mins along the coast to Arromanches, with its viewpoint/360deg cinema, its seafront museum, its Mulberry Harbour remains, and its shops & bars. Even if just for the drive-by & photostops.

 

Heading back to Le Havre you'll want to give yourselves plenty of wiggle-room for any delays, so can I suggest you call in at Honfleur on your way back.

It's under 30 mins from the ship, on the coastal road or just five minutes off the main road. So if you've kept to timetable you'll be able to wander the harbour & down a beer or two, if you're running late you can foreshorten your time there or skip it entirely.

 

JB :)

 

JB thanks for the additional advice. We are in Le Havre from 7a-9p. Do you think we could squeeze a stop at Bayeux in or it wouldn't be worth it? Not really interested in the Tapestry but read that it was a lovely town to see.

[John Bull]

JB thanks for the additional advice. We are in Le Havre from 7a-9p. Do you think we could squeeze a stop at Bayeux in or it wouldn't be worth it? Not really interested in the Tapestry but read that it was a lovely town to see.

 

It's close by.

And both opposing forces avoided dragging it into the war so it was untouched - unlike Caen.

 

Bayeux, Juno & Arromanches are all around 90 minutes from Le Havre (main road, not coast road), give yourselves at least another hour for delays and/or a visit to Honfleur, so you'd need to leave Bayeux or wherever 2.5 hrs before returning the car.

 

Total driving to visit all the places mentioned on this thread is about 140 miles. Four hours total driving time if you return along the attractive coast road, half an hour quicker if you go out & back on the main A13 divided highway.

(BTW, my error in my previous post - I called it the A16 :o. Which will take you to Belgium. :D)

 

A suggested route, if you have googlemaps on your computer:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=Unknown+road&daddr=49.2757961,-0.6978074+to:49.3386239,-0.617273+to:49.3347591,-0.4656245+to:49.3309008,-0.3963738+to:49.2805208,-0.2524656+to:49.2421435,-0.2735072+to:49.3006164,-0.0753712+to:49.360382,0.084743+to:49.3957353,0.1233677+to:49.4210233,0.2339544+to:Av.+Amiral+du+Chillou&hl=en&ll=49.287515,-0.078278&spn=0.614484,1.772919&sll=49.420354,0.234146&sspn=0.153206,0.44323&geocode=FYwM8wIdwYMCAA%3BFZTj7wIdMVr1_ylv_iKmU1MKSDEL4j4BfLLY-Q%3BFf_Y8AIdx5T2_ykbAkr921UKSDFji8v43ZVnAA%3BFefJ8AIdKOX4_ynte7dx71gKSDEX1zJfFq22tQ%3BFdS68AIdq_P5_ynL1NmRBl8KSDGZddZbeQywPg%3BFQj27wIdzyX8_ym79Rf6BmQKSDG0xrZ-ii3VMg%3BFR9g7wIdndP7_yml8wJiYmYKSDFDOqlvMGoqGw%3BFYhE8AIdldn-_ynLLabKvH4KSDGBEHgPjZp58A%3BFf4t8QIdB0sBACkzE2YpqtThRzGMOSURytj__g%3BFRe48QId5-EBACnVhw7U5CzgRzEk53CQ96vPUA%3BFd8a8gId4pEDAClLgTtZuTPgRzE-TaXawXdlzA%3BFfoB8wIdRJECAA&oq=Arromanches&doflg=ptm&mra=dme&mrsp=11&sz=12&via=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10&t=m&z=10

 

Although your back-on-board time is likely to be 8.30pm, you may be constrained by a much earlier time to return a rented car (the French don't like to work late). The deadline for returning the car, and how long you stop at the various places, will affect whether whether you can fit them all in.

Best to always know how far you are from Le Havre, and adjust your plans as you go.

 

JB :)

[Grekat]

It's close by.

And both opposing forces avoided dragging it into the war so it was untouched - unlike Caen.

 

Bayeux, Juno & Arromanches are all around 90 minutes from Le Havre (main road, not coast road), give yourselves at least another hour for delays and/or a visit to Honfleur, so you'd need to leave Bayeux or wherever 2.5 hrs before returning the car.

 

Total driving to visit all the places mentioned on this thread is about 140 miles. Four hours total driving time if you return along the attractive coast road, half an hour quicker if you go out & back on the main A13 divided highway.

(BTW, my error in my previous post - I called it the A16 :o. Which will take you to Belgium. :D) The cruise ship will be coming from Belgium so don't want to do that:)

 

A suggested route, if you have googlemaps on your computer:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=Unknown+road&daddr=49.2757961,-0.6978074+to:49.3386239,-0.617273+to:49.3347591,-0.4656245+to:49.3309008,-0.3963738+to:49.2805208,-0.2524656+to:49.2421435,-0.2735072+to:49.3006164,-0.0753712+to:49.360382,0.084743+to:49.3957353,0.1233677+to:49.4210233,0.2339544+to:Av.+Amiral+du+Chillou&hl=en&ll=49.287515,-0.078278&spn=0.614484,1.772919&sll=49.420354,0.234146&sspn=0.153206,0.44323&geocode=FYwM8wIdwYMCAA%3BFZTj7wIdMVr1_ylv_iKmU1MKSDEL4j4BfLLY-Q%3BFf_Y8AIdx5T2_ykbAkr921UKSDFji8v43ZVnAA%3BFefJ8AIdKOX4_ynte7dx71gKSDEX1zJfFq22tQ%3BFdS68AIdq_P5_ynL1NmRBl8KSDGZddZbeQywPg%3BFQj27wIdzyX8_ym79Rf6BmQKSDG0xrZ-ii3VMg%3BFR9g7wIdndP7_yml8wJiYmYKSDFDOqlvMGoqGw%3BFYhE8AIdldn-_ynLLabKvH4KSDGBEHgPjZp58A%3BFf4t8QIdB0sBACkzE2YpqtThRzGMOSURytj__g%3BFRe48QId5-EBACnVhw7U5CzgRzEk53CQ96vPUA%3BFd8a8gId4pEDAClLgTtZuTPgRzE-TaXawXdlzA%3BFfoB8wIdRJECAA&oq=Arromanches&doflg=ptm&mra=dme&mrsp=11&sz=12&via=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10&t=m&z=10

 

Although your back-on-board time is likely to be 8.30pm, you may be constrained by a much earlier time to return a rented car (the French don't like to work late). The deadline for returning the car, and how long you stop at the various places, will affect whether whether you can fit them all in.

Best to always know how far you are from Le Havre, and adjust your plans as you go.

 

JB :)

 

Thanks very much for all the helpful tips. I wondered about the car return time later after I posted that but glad your reminded me. I've copied off all the great information :D