Bus from Le Havre to Honfleur?

[Brahmama]

Has anyone taken the bus from Le Havre to Honfleur? I have only found a post several years old that said the bus station was easy to get to from the cruise terminal. And that you passed some nice pastry shops!

We are in port from 7 to 2300 - so have plenty of time. Just want a leisurely day - walking, looking, hanging, lunch, etc.

I can find a taxi that will just RT us there - no guide - maybe no English and the price is about $180.

The bus sounds like a much better deal.

Any knowledge? Suggestions? Website for bus that I can actually read?

Thanks!

:D

[psy]

According to the Lonely Planet Normandy book (a few years old, I believe), there are frequent buses to Honfleur for under U.S. $10. Travel time is reported to be one hour.

 

Older threads from last summer have mentioned a tourist info booth at the dock. Hopefully there will be one next month as well.

 

The only difficulty mentioned by others is infrequent Sunday bus service.

 

Reported Websites for local buses from Le Havre are: http://www.bus-oceane.com (I think these run mainly, if not totally, to places N of the Seine eg. Fecamp, Etretat) and http://www.busverts14.fr for buses to areas south (eg Honfleur).

 

I just tried to check a Saturday July 31st schedule and came up with nothing for the morning. It's possible that Saturdays are bad public transit days as well.

 

Good luck

[Aussie Gal]

We were there last year on a Sunday and there were no buses running.

 

I also checked the websites of taxis before we left last year and the prices were ridiculous.

 

We found a taxi as soon as we left the ship and with another couple, we went to Honfleur for the day. He left us there and returned at the time we arranged with him. We had a good look around, a delicious lunch and time to unwind.

 

He returned promptly at the time we had rearranged and we paid him when we returned back to the ship. It cost each couple 55Euros. Just make sure you agree on a price with the driver before you leave the ship.

 

If you are there on a normal weekday, a bus is the way to go and it is fun to use public transport in a different country.

 

Jennie

[dbh62ark]

I had the same experience that Jennie (AussieGirl) had. We hired a taxi in the port for about the same amount with some other passengers on our ship and went to Honfleur, Deauville, and Treauville. We had six in our taxi, so we had a full day driver for that price. It was a wonderful day, and we felt the price of the taxi was a bargain considering what we got.

 

Hope you have a great time,

Donna

[Brahmama]

For me the beauty of these CruiseCritics message board is twofold:

1. First and foremost a way to link with people who will be sharing your cruise.

2. To use the info others have gathered - saving hours and hours of time - which is still the most valuable thing we all possess.

 

So I wanted to save you the time of researching this subject.

 

To begin with, the bus portion of this is a totally messed-up link. I couldn't make it work for me, but asked my friend (a very savvy world traveler deluxe) to get me some info from it.

 

This is part of his reply:

 

Well, I think I will give up. Here is a summary (without the %&*^%^#):

 

1) It is not your menu French that is the problem, it is the web site, which is extremely hard to use and does not work at all properly, either.

 

2) I think it does not have the September schedules. So I worked with 28 July, also a Wednesday. If try for September, it usually offers me 31 December 1899 which, unless there is something about your cruise I do not understand, seems of little use.

 

3) Perhaps ninety percent of the time the web site says there is no service for a route, day and time for which it earlier gave me the schedule.

 

3) I found one bus that left the Gare Maritime in the morning, but at 0700, which clearly will not work.

 

4) There is a bus from the Le Harve bus station (gare routière (15)) to the Honfleur bus station (départ, not arrivée)(gare routière(8)) leaving at 1256 and arriving at 1327. The latest return bus I can find leaves the same Honfleur station at 1449 (or 1450 depending on which time it gives you the schedule) and returns to Le Harve at 1517. That hardly leaves any time to see Honfleur and I do not know if the bus station is in the center of town (at Bursa in Turkey this year, I found the new bus station was a very long way from downtown).

 

In both cases, this is bus 50 (direction S1 to Honfleur and S2 from it).

 

As I understand it, the numbers for the stations allow you to compute the fare: subtract one form the other and add 1, which leaves Zone 8, for which a single ticket is 6.88 Euros. The site says you can buy single tickets on the bus, if I read it correctly. Anyway there is no Bus Vert office in Le Harve. I gather there are lot of independent places to buy tickets, I presume at tobacco shops.

 

The bus takes about half an hour each way, so I suppose you could return later by taxi.

 

One of the problems with using the site is that you have to know which of the stops to ask for (or maybe it is just that the site often says there is no service when I know there is -- they seem to list the available stops on the route, so you would think there would be service at all of them).

 

There are busses from Le Harve at about 1632, but that does not seem useful unless you want to go into Honfleur just for dinner and take a taxi back.

 

I would be very interested to know if you got any useful (or different) information from your posting -- I do not see replies on the newsgroups.

[Aussie Gal]

I also had trouble with that bus timetable last year and could not work it out at all even though I can understand French a little. That is the reason the four of us decided to catch a taxi. Also, there were no buses on Sunday.

 

If you are there during the week, the bus would be a good way to get there and you could always try to catch a taxi home. We did not see any spare taxis around Honfleur on our Sunday there as it is family day in France. We were glad we had organized for our taxi to return and take us back to the ship.

 

Jennie

[babylene]

Thank you for the information. This is very upsetting as we wanted to take the bus to Honfleur, spend the morning there and then go to Deauville to relax on the beach, weather permitting. Taxis are going to be a fortune. The trick is to find others to share.

 

What was open in Honfleur? Were the art galeries and shops open on Sunday? What did you do there?

[Aussie Gal]

There were quite a few art galleries open, as I think Sunday is a very busy day for them. The shops were open in the morning but closed by about 1pm. We bought my husband some wonderful silk ties at a lovely menswear shop and the people were so friendly and welcoming. There was market - mainly second hand bits and pieces - and of course the merry go round or carousel was working.

 

All the restaurants were open as it is a very busy day for them. The timber church was also open. This is very old and well worth going in and having a look around. I just loved walking around the streets. We did find some wonderful old roman baths just around the corner from the church.

 

We arrived about 10am and the town was really just waking up. When we left at 3.30pm it was very busy and there were masses of people. Go early as you get a different feel for the town.

 

Jennie

[babylene]

Thanks Jennie. I am happy to be reassured that galeries and shops will be open. We will get there by 10am. How we will get there is another story. Was it you who said there were no taxis to be found in Honfleur? I guess if the shops are open, we can always call a cab from one of them. I dread to think how much these taxis will cost? The $55 U.S. won't work if we want to continue to Deauville in the afternoon. My husband refuses to rent a car...I wrote the Busvert to reaffirm that there are no busses on Sunday. I am waiting for a reply. Why wouldn't they have any. There must be some locals who don't have a car...and they must leave their homes on Sunday!!!!

[samscruiser]

Babylene-

don't get on DH too much for not being willing to rent a car. All of the car rental places in LeHavre are closed on Sunday.

[babylene]

Thanks, Sam! Sunday is not a good day for Le Havre!

[Aussie Gal]

Babylene,

 

We had no trouble getting a taxi. They were waiting as we walked off the ship. I don't think the fare on to Deauville would be a lot more as Honfleur and Deauville are not that far apart. We were thinking of going there as well but ran out of time. It gives us an excuse to return some day.

 

Jennie

[carlmm]

I visited Honfleur last year by cruise and have printed bus schedules. There were valid September, 2nd (line 50) or November, 10th 2003 (line 20) until June 30th 2004. Still they might give an indication for the actual schedule.

For Sundays there was only one bus in the morning: Ligne 20 at 9.50 from Le Havre, hôtel de ville, 9.57 gare routière, arriving at Honfleur 10.25.

Examples from Honfleur to Deauville are 1.30 pm arriving at 2.00 pm, 1.59 – 2.29 and 4.10 – 4.40 (all ligne 20).

There was no direct bus shown from Deauville to Le Havre but you could go via Honfleur:

Deauville 6.09, Honfleur arriving 6.46, departing 7.55, Le Havre 8.20.

 

Tickets can be bougth in Le Havre at the “La Station Bus Océane, rue Charles Lafitte” and on the bus.

 

The bus station in Honfleur is close to the city center. If you follow the main road you pass by the tourist information where you can pick up a map and information leaflets.

 

In my opinion Honfleur is worth to spend the whole day there yet that is just my opinion. I actually liked it that much that I spend two days there instead of going somewhere else for one day.

Sights include the wooden church St. Catherine and the bell tower, St. Leonard and the small chapelle Notre Dame Du Grace outside the city but worthwhile the walk. The Musée Eugène Boudin is an interesting art museum with a lot of local references, the museum Les Maisons Satie is a very special experience. Musèes du Vieux Honfleur despict as the name says the Norman life style.

And of course the old harbour with the governor’s house and the small streets are just beautiful.

And then there are all the galleries.

Enjoy your trip, try same Calvados and the delicious French food.

[Brahmama]

I visited Honfleur last year by cruise and have printed bus schedules. There were valid September, 2nd (line 50) or November, 10th 2003 (line 20) until June 30th 2004. Still they might give an indication for the actual schedule.

For Sundays there was only one bus in the morning: Ligne 20 at 9.50 from Le Havre, hôtel de ville, 9.57 gare routière, arriving at Honfleur 10.25.

Examples from Honfleur to Deauville are 1.30 pm arriving at 2.00 pm, 1.59 – 2.29 and 4.10 – 4.40 (all ligne 20).

There was no direct bus shown from Deauville to Le Havre but you could go via Honfleur:

Deauville 6.09, Honfleur arriving 6.46, departing 7.55, Le Havre 8.20.

 

Tickets can be bougth in Le Havre at the “La Station Bus Océane, rue Charles Lafitte” and on the bus.

 

The bus station in Honfleur is close to the city center. If you follow the main road you pass by the tourist information where you can pick up a map and information leaflets.

 

In my opinion Honfleur is worth to spend the whole day there yet that is just my opinion. I actually liked it that much that I spend two days there instead of going somewhere else for one day.

Sights include the wooden church St. Catherine and the bell tower, St. Leonard and the small chapelle Notre Dame Du Grace outside the city but worthwhile the walk. The Musée Eugène Boudin is an interesting art museum with a lot of local references, the museum Les Maisons Satie is a very special experience. Musèes du Vieux Honfleur despict as the name says the Norman life style.

And of course the old harbour with the governor’s house and the small streets are just beautiful.

And then there are all the galleries.

Enjoy your trip, try same Calvados and the delicious French food.

 

Carl,

This is wonderful news - a printed bus schedule!

We arrive in Le Havre on Wed, 8 September. Would you please check that schedule for that day? We are hoping to leave in the mid morning and come back in late afternoon.

Carol

[carlmm]

No problem, just please remember my dislaimer: The schedule is outdated since June 30th. Nevertheless it might be an indication.

 

Ligne 20: Le Havre, gare routière, 9.00 am, arriving at Honfleur, gare routière 9.33

 

Back: Honfleur 2.49 pm - Le Havre 3.25, or 5.28 - 6.01 or 7.06 - 7.31 (Express)

 

Enjoy your trip

[babylene]

Thank you, thank you Carl. I have been looking everywhere for a Sunday schedule. Where did you find it? I even wrote to the Busvert. (no answer yet). We will be there on a Sunday, next July!! We would like the freedom of taking busses and "doing our own thing". Many people said that there were no busses on Sundays...but what about the locals who don't have cars? I figured there must be a bus!!!