Le Havre

[Slyfox16]

Would appreciate recommendations for a tour company of Le Havre.

[John Bull]

That depends very much on what you want to do.

 

Le Havre itself isn't particularly interesting. Others can make suggestions for in the city, but I'd rate city sights as a DIY project rather than a tour.

 

D-Day beaches & sights are popular. Can't be done by public transport, best-known tour operator is https://www.overlordtour.com/product-category/tour-from-ports/

Most (all ?) of their tours are in vans. can be done by booking seats-in-van (Group Tours) or by booking a van & finding sharers (or check your cruise RollCall pages for fellow-passengers seeking sharers). Excellent tours highly-praised by CC members who've used them. Expensive but rated as good value.

Ships offer D-Day tours (probably large coaches) and there are other small private D-Day specialists. ALL tour options book out early, so don't delay

Alternatively rent a car (or book a taxi plus English-speaking driver). Roads are easy - a mix of highways & coastal lanes with no city driving, navigation is easy with GPS, parking is plentiful & free at most sights. Needs a bit of boning-up in advance, but good signage & knowledgeable staff at most sights. 

 

For a lazy day - 30 minutes from your ship, using the Pont de Normandie across the Seine estuary, is the attractive fishing / tourist port of Honfleur with harbourside bars & cafes, and interesting shops in the side-streets. By pre-booked or on-spec. shared taxi. There are buses but a little awkward and a mazy timetable - hopefully others can be more specific.

 

By direct train to the ancient city of Rouen (about an hour), or  closer to Monet's Garden at Givency (train to Vernon, then about 2 - 3 miles on Monet shuttlebus)

 

Paris is about two & a half hours. Ships usually sail away mid-evening to allow time, altho Paris deserves a lot more than one foreshortened day.

If you've not been to Paris & don't expect  to ever get the chance in the future, go for it.

But if you have a lot of your life yet to go. put Paris on the back-burner for a future "proper" visit.

 

Rent a car & meander down country & coastal lanes to fishing villages - Honfleur to Ouistreham (the easternmost of the British D-Day beaches & sights, but still 45 minutes from the first American beach (Omaha & the American cemetery).

Or to historic Bayeux

Or the opposite direction, to Etretat and Fecamp.

Or make it a food-and-drink day visiting small local farms & distilleries that make Camembert cheese  or rough cider / Pommeau / Calvados.

 

Sorry, I've not answered your question - tour operators.🙄

We visit in our own car, never had the need.

 

JB 🙂

[edinburgher]

11 hours ago, Slyfox16 said:

Would appreciate recommendations for a tour company of Le Havre.

le Havre is what I would describe as a "gateway" port rather than a "destination" port as the city itself  has very little to offer, having been more or less flattened during WW11 then rebuilt.  Staying in town for the day would be a wasted day IMHO when there are so many other more interesting and/or attractive options, most of which John Bull has described in his post above.   As a location for exploring areas of Normany, le Havre is excellent, as a place to spend the day, it really isn't.

 

Depends on your personal  interests.  Suggest you make google your best friend and spend some time researching the different options and looking at images. Tripadvisor could be a good starting point, and include Tripadvisor le Havre in your research for comparison.  There should also be lots of info if you google something like "le Havre or Honfleur or Rouen or Overlord tours tourist info(or reviews)". 

 

Should you decide on pretty Honfleur, no tour is necessary and it is easy enough to make the journeys there and back, which is one reason for its popularity with cruise pax.  You could actually spend most of your day there, and use any spare time at the end to walk around some of le Havre.  Most of JB's suggestions we have explored independently using public transport and taxis without feeling the need for an actual tour, but for the D day beaches, a tour is definitely recommended.

 

To help you with your research, for best results, JB made one little slip.  He mentioned Monet's Garden at Givency when it is actually Monet's Garden at Giverny.

[John Bull]

2 hours ago, edinburgher said:

 

To help you with your research, for best results, JB made one little slip.  He mentioned Monet's Garden at Givency when it is actually Monet's Garden at Giverny.

 

Doh, brainfade 🙄🙄🙄

Thanks for the correction, my Scottish friend.

 

JB 🙂

[edinburgher]

18 hours ago, John Bull said:

Thanks for the correction, my Scottish friend.

Thank you English friend!  It did seem to me to be a wee bitty petty to mention iit when your post was so otherwise excellent , but for searching and results, better the OP is aware.

[Hlitner]

3 minutes ago, Northofu1 said:

Already done sir. Just looking fir others that might see it here. I'm not a tour operator, just a person that can't find a tour from Le Havre fir less than $800 / person

Thank you

 

Le Havre has never been a center of tour companies.  Heading to the D-Day beaches (and some other regional places) is going to generally be a full-day tour.  If you are unable to find some others to join you, and split the cost, then it is likely to be a very expensive proposition but all is not lost.  Much awaits those who help themselves.

 

We would simply suggest you head to the beaches on your own with a rental car.  The car will cost you approximately $100 and the drive is really not very difficult (especially with a working smart phone to use as a GPS device).  All 5 beaches are accessible. although I would think your main interest would be Juno.  I would also suggest visiting Omaha Beach since that is where there is still much left to see (including German bunkers).  

 

There is one rental car company that used to rent cars right at the port (rentacar.fr) and several others within a few minutes' drive (or a long walk) from the port.  

[realtyone]

On 1/4/2024 at 8:49 PM, Slyfox16 said:

Would appreciate recommendations for a tour company of Le Havre.

"Bee Le Havre" is the tour company you should check out. You can visit Honfleur for $30.

[bedfordmom]

I cannot say enough great things about Overlord to visit Normandy. We picked the tour that visited  the beaches/ cemetery, Beaux (sp?) and Honfleur. Those that went on the ships version that just focused just on Normandy all appeared satisfied with their tour. 

[ferretktf]

We are in Le Havre on Thursday Feb 8th. … 9am - 9pm so a long day.

 

we are probably going to spend a couple of hours in Le Havre and then head to Honfleur.
 

We typically embrace public transport but am finding it difficult to get a grasp of the bus routes and timetables. 
 

any help from someone who knows their way around the bus system in Normandy would be greatly appreciated.
 

Thanks

[saltshell]

Try SNCF. Train and perhaps bus info.

[Hlitner]

On 1/31/2024 at 2:42 PM, saltshell said:

Try SNCF. Train and perhaps bus info.

You do realize that there are no trains to Honfleur (or anywhere close) and the SNCF has nothing to do with buses in Normandy?  As to the regional buses, I cannot find the future schedules but here is last year's schedule which can give folks some idea of the frequency (not nearly often enough).  Of course one would need to get from the port to the bus station in Le Havre.

Liaison-LeHavre-Honfleur.pdf (ville-honfleur.com)

Hank

[ferretktf]

12 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

You do realize that there are no trains to Honfleur (or anywhere close) and the SNCF has nothing to do with buses in Normandy?  As to the regional buses, I cannot find the future schedules but here is last year's schedule which can give folks some idea of the frequency (no nearly often enough).  Of course one would need to get from the port to the bus station in Le Havre.

Liaison-LeHavre-Honfleur.pdf (ville-honfleur.com)

Hank

Perfect ..thank you so much

[saltshell]

Hlitner, if I google SNCF bus, the site shows me train, bus and shared ride.

[John Bull]

5 hours ago, saltshell said:

Hlitner, if I google SNCF bus, the site shows me train, bus and shared ride.

 

@Hlitner knows his stuff about Normandy

 

 SNCF -  Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer (Chemin de Fer = Road of Iron) is a train operator

 

Like many transport operators it partners with major operators of other forms of transport.

So for instance you can buy some bus tickets from the SNCF website - but not for Le Havre to Honfleur, because it does not partner with small local operators Flixbus or Bus Verts, the only operators of buses on that route.

 

Flixbus operate two buses per week 🙄

 

Bus Vert's website was always pretty incomprehensible even to those with a reasonable command of the French language. Just a few awkwardly-timed buses during the week depending on school term-time, and no suitable buses on a sunday.

Now I can't even get past irrelevant stuff on their home page 🙄  https://busverts.fr/category/maison/

 

And the bus station (Gare Routiere)is a half-hour walk from the cruise pier.

 

Certainly a few cruisers have used local buses in the past, but I wouldn't recommend it. And you can't buy tickets from SNCF.

 

JB 🙂

[Hlitner]

Good to hear from my ole friend (very old) JB,

I have been intrigued by Flixbus and their amazing pricing, but have yet to be in a situation where we can try that company.  

 

For decades, we have been unimpressed with the frequency and schedule of the regional bus service between Le Havre and Honfleur.  It is a shame, but an unfortunate truth.  One can certainly try to work with the bus schedule, but our preference has usually been to just rent a car.  This gives us flexibility to visit Honfleur and other places in the region for a less money than a structured large group tour.

 

Hank

[edinburgher]

On 1/30/2024 at 11:28 PM, ferretktf said:

 

we are probably going to spend a couple of hours in Le Havre and then head to Honfleur.
 

We typically embrace public transport but am finding it difficult to get a grasp of the bus routes and timetables. 

You might want to consider reversing your plans, as a taxi share is probably the most convenient way to travel to/from Honfleur, and there will most likely be fellow pax at the port who would be willing to share with you, or possibly fellow pax to be found on your Roll Call..  Leaving it until later in the day would possibly reduce the chances of you finding others.

 

For bus routes, have you thought about contacting  the Tourist Info office in  le Havre or the one in Honfleur and ask them to send you a link to the timetable?

Edited February 4 by edinburgher

[John Bull]

I'm with Hank on renting a car and  spreading beyond Honfleur, perhaps  to the fishing village of Trouville and adjacent resort of Deauville, perhaps beyond to Ouistrehamo, the eastern end of the 1944 liberation.

Or even the whole hog to Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery, 90 miles from Le Havre.

 

But for just a lazy day in Honfleur  IMHO it's simpler & cheaper to share a taxi 

 

JB 🙂

[Jaymuxman]

On 1/4/2024 at 8:49 PM, Slyfox16 said:

Would appreciate recommendations for a tour company of Le Havre.

If you will send me an email at jaymuxman at aol dot come I would be happy to give you the name of the person we used. He was absolutely incredible. 

[Me from ME]

It has been quite a while since my former husband and I spent the day in LeHavre. He was feeling quite poorly but we were able to walk around a bit. One of the highlights was discovering the alleyways and steps leading up the bluff. Memorable because it was only a pedestrian way and there were doors leading to people's houses and gardens along the way. Next time I am in port I look forward to showing them to my b.f. My search of GoogleMaps isn't helping. Thanks for any elucidation you can offer.

[D&N]

I wouldn't say that the bus services between Le Havre and Honfleur are very good, and I have no experience of them whatsoever. I did however spend 90% of my working life in all sorts of public transport rolls and I have lots of experience navigating French transport websites.

The best resource you are likely to find is that of the Normandy Regional Council:

https://nomad.normandie.fr/lignes-de-cars

It appears you want to look at lines: 111, 122 & 123

Line 123 only seems to have one trip a day around lunchtime in each direction that extends to/from Le Havre.

Line 111 is a bit confusing as it's shown as 111A from Le Havre and 111R to Le Havre.

The timetables aren't the easiest to navigate because they tend to cover a variety of routes.

Be careful that journeys operate on the day you need them. There may be trips that only operate on market days or vary from day to day because schools finish at different times.