How to get to Honfleur from the ship (LeHavre)

[austenfiend]

$99 for the Princess "excursion" to drop us off in Honfleur?!  My husband doesn't want to spend hours on any buses to take tours, so we'd like to just walk around Honfleur.  Can anyone give us insight as to how to go about this quickly/conveniently/cheaply?

[Turtles06]

If you do a search for Honfleur both in this forum and also in the France forum, you'll find a number of threads discussing this.  Here are two of them: 

 

 

[matamanoa]

We took a taxi that was on the pier when we disembarked the ship.  We were six of us together and we negotiated a price and also a pick up time for the return to the ship.  The taxi driver spoke limited English but my husband was able to converse with him in French and we had no problems with the pick up time and spot.  The cost was about $30 USD  each way and that was split by all of us.

[tartanexile81]

1 hour ago, matamanoa said:

We took a taxi that was on the pier when we disembarked the ship.  We were six of us together and we negotiated a price and also a pick up time for the return to the ship.  The taxi driver spoke limited English but my husband was able to converse with him in French and we had no problems with the pick up time and spot.  The cost was about $30 USD  each way and that was split by all of us.

That's exactly what we did (except there were 4 of us!) and it worked really well. The driver gave us a great tour of the area around Honfleur then dropped us off right in the centre with plenty of time to wander round, have lunch etc. Loved it. 

[austenfiend]

5 hours ago, tartanexile81 said:

That's exactly what we did (except there were 4 of us!) and it worked really well. The driver gave us a great tour of the area around Honfleur then dropped us off right in the centre with plenty of time to wander round, have lunch etc. Loved it. 

Thank you for this information (and matamanoa as well!).  We'll just get a taxi when we get off the ship, now I can work on what we will be doing in other ports!

[bluesea777]

On ‎7‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 8:41 AM, tartanexile81 said:

That's exactly what we did (except there were 4 of us!) and it worked really well. The driver gave us a great tour of the area around Honfleur then dropped us off right in the centre with plenty of time to wander round, have lunch etc. Loved it. 

 

Great to know! We'll be in Le Havre for a day next month.

 

How did you get back to the ship? And how long did you stay in the centre before heading back to the ship? How long is enough time, do you think?

 

Thanks!

 

P.S. it's our plan to go to Honfleur, but we do not want to take the ship's tour because it leaves at 2pm. We want to go mid morning and have a leisurely lunch with wine 🍷🍷

[tartanexile81]

1 hour ago, bluesea777 said:

 

Great to know! We'll be in Le Havre for a day next month.

 

How did you get back to the ship? And how long did you stay in the centre before heading back to the ship? How long is enough time, do you think?

 

Thanks!

 

P.S. it's our plan to go to Honfleur, but we do not want to take the ship's tour because it leaves at 2pm. We want to go mid morning and have a leisurely lunch with wine 🍷🍷

 

We didn't want to do the ship's tour either because of the timing. Our driver took us up  the hill above the town and we went to a very pretty little church. Up there we could see the river, bridge and the town in front of us. He drove round  lots of little country roads around the area before going down into Honfleur where he again give us a tour (as far as is possible in the narrow streets) then dropped us off at the edge of the Vieux Bassin and the pedestrianised area. We wanted to  have lunch there too  so I think we left the ship about 10:30 and he dropped us off around mid-day. We had plenty of time for a relaxing lunch in a picture perfect location overlooking the Basin and a lovely wander round the town visiting the cathedral and side streets. I think he came back and picked us up about 2:30. I'm sorry but I really can't remember how much we paid. There's not many English speaking taxi drivers though but I ws able to do some basic translating for my friends. I've been back several times on holiday since, because I love the area so much.

 

Edited July 5, 2019 by tartanexile81

[bluesea777]

56 minutes ago, tartanexile81 said:

 

We didn't want to do the ship's tour either because of the timing. Our driver took us up  the hill above the town and we went to a very pretty little church. Up there we could see the river, bridge and the town in front of us. He drove round  lots of little country roads around the area before going down into Honfleur where he again give us a tour (as far as is possible in the narrow streets) then dropped us off at the edge of the Vieux Bassin and the pedestrianised area. We wanted to  have lunch there too  so I think we left the ship about 10:30 and he dropped us off around mid-day. We had plenty of time for a relaxing lunch in a picture perfect location overlooking the Basin and a lovely wander round the town visiting the cathedral and side streets. I think he came back and picked us up about 2:30. I'm sorry but I really can't remember how much we paid. There's not many English speaking taxi drivers though but I ws able to do some basic translating for my friends. I've been back several times on holiday since, because I love the area so much.

 

 

Thanks so much for the quick reply. That sounds great, and we'll do that. Can you remember the place where you had lunch?

Google and its street view are my friends 🤪

[tartanexile81]

Sorry can't remember where we ate but because it was so busy I know we just went into a restaurant where we could get a table right by the water. You can check where we got dropped off if you look at La Lieutenance building on Google Street view.   There re tons of restaurants all around there

[matamanoa]

When we went to Honfleur, we left the ship at 9:00 a.m., got our cab on the dock and it took about a half hour to reach Honfleur.  There were six of us and we each went our own way, and then met at a designated spot for the cab driver to come back for us.  The taxi we used was Artisan Taxi, driver Gregoire Panel and you can reach him at gregoire.panel@yahoo.fr.  The museums we went to in Honfleur were Maison Satie about the life of the composer, Maison Eugene Boudin the artist, Musee Maritime, and we tried to get into the Musee D'Ethnographie which was closed that day.  We also saw the carousel and the Lieutenancy, and the Church of St. Catherine (15th Century).  This was not on a tour, I did the research on my own and made a list of places and addresses to visit.  We also had time for a nice lunch waterside at one of the restaurants around the basin but I can't recall the name of it.  We had a great day and it was a fun way to end our cruise.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Barb

[FritzG]

19 hours ago, tartanexile81 said:

 

We didn't want to do the ship's tour either because of the timing. Our driver took us up  the hill above the town and we went to a very pretty little church. Up there we could see the river, bridge and the town in front of us. He drove round  lots of little country roads around the area before going down into Honfleur where he again give us a tour (as far as is possible in the narrow streets) then dropped us off at the edge of the Vieux Bassin and the pedestrianised area. We wanted to  have lunch there too  so I think we left the ship about 10:30 and he dropped us off around mid-day. We had plenty of time for a relaxing lunch in a picture perfect location overlooking the Basin and a lovely wander round the town visiting the cathedral and side streets. I think he came back and picked us up about 2:30. I'm sorry but I really can't remember how much we paid. There's not many English speaking taxi drivers though but I ws able to do some basic translating for my friends. I've been back several times on holiday since, because I love the area so much.

 

We did the same thing in 2018, and since it was a Sunday we also went to mass.  The taxi drivers in Le Havre are used to this route, and most of them have a set rate.  I'm pretty sure we paid 45 euros each way which is less that the ship's tour, and you can decide how long you want to spend in Honfleur.  There are many restaurants along the Vieux Bassin and some great bakeries on the side streets.  

(Hi TartanExile--we were on a TA with you a few years ago!)

[tartanexile81]

33 minutes ago, FritzG said:

We did the same thing in 2018, and since it was a Sunday we also went to mass.  The taxi drivers in Le Havre are used to this route, and most of them have a set rate.  I'm pretty sure we paid 45 euros each way which is less that the ship's tour, and you can decide how long you want to spend in Honfleur.  There are many restaurants along the Vieux Bassin and some great bakeries on the side streets.  

(Hi TartanExile--we were on a TA with you a few years ago!)

 

I remember FritzG! It was a great cruise and my first time in New York. Think it was 2014 as I was celebrating a milestone birthday!