Sailing toLe Havre, Holyhead, St. Peter Port and need suggestions.

[Amlee]

Ok, I'm looking for some help. I will be sailing solo on Sept 3rd. This won't be my first time in this area of the world by myself. I'm not worried about Amsterdam, Dublin, Cork, Belfast, or Dover. I have plans for all of those cities. But I'm needing suggestions for Le Havre, Holyhead and St. Peters Port.

 

Just to give you an idea of what I'm looking for, this is what I have planned in the other cities:

 

Dublin: I plan to do a day trip to the County Meath area to see Tara and Newgrange.

 

Cork: I plan to just wonder the streets of Cobh or I might hit the Waterford factory.

 

Belfast: I have a friend in Belfast who is going to meet me and spend the day taking me around.

 

Dover: I plan to take the bus into London and spending the day seeing the sites.

 

Le Havre, I'm not going to say I won't get back to Paris. So I can stay in this area if it's better. I don't know much about the area other than the WW2 beaches. Is there anything of great interest in this area. I love history, the older the better. But if it's just as easy to take the train and go to Paris for the day, I'm all up for that. I'm not crazy about the distance between the port and Paris. I'll do the hop on/hop off with the buses and I'm not worried about doing the city with out a guide. Any suggestions of websites to get some ideas?

 

Holyhead/St. Peters Port: I have done some research and can't seem to find anything of interest here. So any suggestions would be great.

 

 

Thanks!!

[amc2276]

Hi, we kinda feel the same way about holyhead/st. peter. I haven't found any other info.

 

Originally I was thinking of going into Paris, but I am now considering going to Versailles instead. I am juggling between going into London or doing Canterbury/Leeds Castle.

 

If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? I"m 27 and my husband is 32. We are trying to find some 30somethings to hang out with on the ship and on excursions.

[paul929207]

In LeHarve, I would suggest the Bayeau Tapestry. It is in the Cathedral in Bayeau. It was made to record the Norman Conquest and the Battle of Hastings. It was done in 1068. It is about 225 feet long and has 55 or so scenes on it.

 

Bayeau is an hour or two from LeHarve. We rented a car to get there. Along the way we also stopped in Honfleur and Caen.

 

Paul

[Amlee]

Hi, we kinda feel the same way about holyhead/st. peter. I haven't found any other info.

 

Originally I was thinking of going into Paris, but I am now considering going to Versailles instead. I am juggling between going into London or doing Canterbury/Leeds Castle.

 

If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? I"m 27 and my husband is 32. We are trying to find some 30somethings to hang out with on the ship and on excursions.

 

I still haven't found anything of interest in Wales or St. Peter. But I have a friend from Wales, whom I'm waiting to hear back from. I'm hoping he has some ideas. I also thought about Versailles and Disneyland Paris. But I've done some reading on the Normandy area and I'm leaning more toward staying in that area. Between Scotland last year and Ireland this year. I think I'll be castled out. That is why I'm leading toward taking the bus or train into London.

 

By they time the cruise gets here, I'll be 32. I'm so glad to see someone close to my age. Usually, I'm the youngest one. But I have an old soul, so I fit in just about any age group.

[Amlee]

In LeHarve, I would suggest the Bayeau Tapestry. It is in the Cathedral in Bayeau. It was made to record the Norman Conquest and the Battle of Hastings. It was done in 1068. It is about 225 feet long and has 55 or so scenes on it.

 

Bayeau is an hour or two from LeHarve. We rented a car to get there. Along the way we also stopped in Honfleur and Caen.

 

Paul

 

Honfleur and Caen, are both growing on my list. I'm still checking into Bayeau. I think, I would really like to spend the day just walking the streets doing a little shopping and not in a hurry.

[togger]

Hi there

 

I hope I can give you a few ideas for st peter port.

 

The main town itself (where the tenders arrive) is very picturesque with plenty of bars, restaurants and cafes. You could also walk to Castle Cornet which is at the end of one of the town piers.

 

Another option would be to take a bus or taxi to the south coast and do a short cliff walk. Or the number 7 bus will take you on a full circuit of the island.

 

If you fancy going to an even smaller island then there are frequent ferries to the neighbouring island of Herm - the ferries leave from the same pier as the ship's tenders. The journey takes about 20 mins.

 

I would suggest you take a look at the guernsey tourist information website (www.visitguernsey.com) and maybe contact them for some further suggestions.

 

There should certainly be enough for you to do here for the day.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions. I hope you have a good time!

[dbh62ark]

The Normandy beaches tour is great for those who love history, so I highly recommend that. On another cruise that stopped in LeHavre, we hired a taxi driver to go to Honfleur, Deauville & Treauville (sp?), and that was a fabulous day. We were in a private tour group from Holyhead, Wales that went to the medieval Caerrnarfon castle that was the site of the investiture of Prince Charles as the Prince of Wales and to the Snowden Mountains. It was a very nice tour if you like wonderful scenery.

 

Have a great trip,

Donna

[luvnorway]

St. Peter Port

- beg to differ with previous posters - guess it just depends on what interests you. We found St. Peter Port to be an interesting old town to explore and Guernsey is a great place for walking. One of the most interesting museums I've ever visited is here - The German Occupation Museum.

If you have any interest in World War II, this is special because the Channel Islands are English speaking, so all official notices issued by the Germans are in English - it's great to be able to read them for yourself - whereas, at every other Resistance or Occupation Museum we've been to (Oslo, Trondheim, Stavanger, Copenhagen etc) you have to rely on translations. It's very easy to get to the Occupation Museum on the local bus.

 

http://www.occupied.guernsey.net/occ_museum.htm

 

 

Le Havre

- we walk to the bus terminal and take the local bus to Honfleur or Etretat(trip is through beautiful Normandy farmland and the town of Etretat has incredible cliffs and is a great place to walk). On our next visit we are planning to walk to the station and take the train to Rouen

 

http://www.etretat.net/

 

 

Holyhead

- definitely second the recommendation of another poster that you go to Caernarfon Castle - or Conwy - or, if you aren't interested in castles (I'm assuming you might not be since you said you had done research and couldn't find anything of interest in Wales!!) - then take a tour to get out into Snowdonia and see the scenery - we really enjoyed a day tour a few years ago that included a tour down a slate mine.

 

http://www.castlewales.com/caernarf.html

H

[Lady Jane]

Le Havre

- we walk to the bus terminal and take the local bus to Honfleur or Etretat

 

Can you tell me how far the bus terminal is from the cruise dock, and how long it took to get to Honfleur? Are there frequent buses both going and returning? My husband has some leg problems, so he's a slow walker and we like to tour by ourselves if his walking is going to hold up the group!

 

Thanks!

[luvnorway]

Time to walk to bus terminal can vary a bit depending on where in the port your ship docks. It is not a scenic walk at all - just throught a working commercial port to to main road entering the port and then across a swing bridge (IIRC) into the South part of Le Havre. We choose to walk for exercise to burn up all those extra calories consumed on cruise ships and because we like to walk. We walk quite quickly and it takes us about 30-40min to the station, most of which is spent getting out of the port.

The bus station is right beside the train station. The bus takes about 30-45min to Honfleur, depending on whether you get a more 'Express' bus or one that makes more stops. You need to make sure the schedule fits the time you have in port and still allows enough time in Honfleur.

 

If you have walking limitiations, I wouldn't put my energy into walking to the bus terminal or station; I'd save it for exploring one of the towns - either Le Havre itself (most of which was destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II, so there aren't a lot of historic buildings, but it's interesting to experience French daily life and it has some nice parks, blvds and promenades), or Honfleur, Etretat or Rouen.

 

The website below may be of interest. It describes all the taxi tours offered from Le Havre - itineraries, prices etc.

 

http://www.taxis-le-havre.com/