Honfleur optional to Normandy Beaches?

[cbb]

We are on "Artistic Sojourn" cruise next Sept. One of the ports is Honfleur and my husband and I really, really want to see the DDay sites. Oceania has not listed their optionals yet and apparently this is a new port for them so my research hasn't turned up many answers. When do they publish the excursion choices or should I begin to research private tours? Any help you can give us would be greatly appreciated. (If it is a choice between the sights of Honfleur and the beaches we will, of course, choose the beaches.)

[nparmelee]

Usually the ship excursions come out 3-4 months ahead of the cruise. If there are other cruises with that port before yours, you can keep an eye on those. It might be worth looking for private tours from the port as well, at least to see what might be available and what might be possible.

[Gail in California]

I am booked with Overlord Tours from LeHavre in Sept. They are highly regarded & will pick up at that port, but tour departs from Bayeux.

Send them an email & ask directly if it's doable from Honfleur.

[marne-c]

Last June, my wife and I "jumped ship" at our port-stop of LeHavre, and stayed in Honfleur for four nights at a delightful B&B. Then, during the five days surrounding those four nights, we toured the D-Day Beaches and a few other places in Normandy. If I leave out all of our non-WWII activities, we spent easily four full 10-hour days on Beach-related tours and travel.

 

Honfleur itself is a gorgeous little town, and well worth several hours. But the Beaches are wonderful, and well worth the trip. (Granted, we were there over the 64th anniversary weekend of D-Day, which meant that the entire area was bursting with special events, historical vehicles and wide-spread enthusiasm.)

 

For you, there are two issues, and both concern available time. The first is the time necessary to get to and from the Beaches. The drive from Honfleur, even to the nearest beach, is not short. You'd have to allow 2+ hours each way to, say, the Normandy American Cemetery at Omaha beach. It's not just the distance that eats the time -- it's the roads. Major freeway-style roads don't go directly to the beaches; most of the access is through minor roads, which often serve as the 'main street' of small villages. Speeds are slow. Traffic is thick. Of course, in September you won't have to deal with ancient jeeps, tanks, lorries and such. (Or maybe you will!)

 

The second issue is the time you'll want to spend at the Beaches. Once you've arrived at a beach area, there is plenty to see and do -- museums, memorials, cemeteries, the beach geography itself. My wife and I are not serious history buffs, but we easily spent 4-5 hours (often 6 or 7) at and around each Beach. And don't forget there are towns to visit. (Even if all you know about D-Day is seeing The Longest Day, you'd want to visit St. Mere Eglise.)

 

So it will come down to how long your port-stop in Honfleur is. Will you be able to visit a D-Day beach? Almost certainly? Will you be able to visit all, or even most of them? No way. But will you be able to achieve your own goals? I don't know.

 

In any event, there are many tour operators in Normandy. A web search will reveal them, and tell you about theirt expertise. Look in the Northern Europe forums in Cruise Critic's Ports-of-Call section for specific recommendations. Find a personal guide who can pick you up at the dock, and give you the tour that you want. And book that guide as soon as you can.

 

--Marne

 

P.S. If you've got gobs of time, browse to our vacation photo page and click the link for European Cruise June 2008. The Normandy pics will be at the end of the show.

[cbb]

These are all wonderful suggestions and I am glad to know the approx time the optionals will published. I knew about the difficulty with time and driving the French roads to the beaches which is why I thought perhaps the ship's excursion was the way to go. If we took Oceania's tour there would be no way for us to miss the ship! We really want to take one of the WWII tours that are available and spend a couple of weeks;the Normandy beaches, Marketgarden area plus the Bulge are all areas of interest. We were hopeful that perhaps from Honfleur we could get at least a day at the beaches. St Mere A is of huge interest as well. Thanks for the Overlord Tour idea; looks wonderful. Thanks everyone!

[Ken A Hora]

It sounds like you're just going to be there one day which is a shame. We were on a Radisson cruise of the Baltics a few years ago and the cruise ended in Honfleur. What a beautiful village. It's about a half hour ride to the D Day beaches. We stayed there for 3 days and loved every minute of it. Be sure to eat at one of their sidewalk cafes down by where all the boats are. Mussells and frites, fantastic.

We are on "Artistic Sojourn" cruise next Sept. One of the ports is Honfleur and my husband and I really, really want to see the DDay sites. Oceania has not listed their optionals yet and apparently this is a new port for them so my research hasn't turned up many answers. When do they publish the excursion choices or should I begin to research private tours? Any help you can give us would be greatly appreciated. (If it is a choice between the sights of Honfleur and the beaches we will, of course, choose the beaches.)

[Mimi21]

We are with you on that cruise, and are definitely interested in a tour to Normandy. I am looking into private tours, and would love to have you join with us. I know another group has already made arrangements, and I am trying to get info. Go to roll call. We are interested in other tours also:)

[Mimi21]

oops, just realized you are cruising in Sept. We are cruising in June

[2travelers]

We are on "Artistic Sojourn" cruise next Sept. One of the ports is Honfleur and my husband and I really, really want to see the DDay sites. Oceania has not listed their optionals yet and apparently this is a new port for them so my research hasn't turned up many answers. When do they publish the excursion choices or should I begin to research private tours? Any help you can give us would be greatly appreciated. (If it is a choice between the sights of Honfleur and the beaches we will, of course, choose the beaches.)

 

Hi: We are traveling on Oceania in July and are stopping from 8am - 8pm in Le Havre. I have contacted a ton of private guides to take us for a D-Day tour in Normandy. Many will not travel to Le Havre. Several will travel at an additional price. I have contacted one company hoping to book with them and of course add an additonal 4 people to join us. I recently checked our itinerary and the optional excursions in Le Havre were listed. A full day in Normandy doing a D-Day tour is $239pp. Hiring a private guide and sharing the cost with 4-6 others is certainly cheaper and gives you the flexibility of doing the tour as you want, at your own pace. Just wanted to give you a heads-up regarding the prices. It is one of the few that O has listed for our cruise.

Ronnie

[Redtravel]

It is a charming place for a one day visit. I spent a lovely afternoon in Honfluer. Book yourself on a land tour for at least 3 days to see the rest of Normandy. There is so much to see...one day is not enough.

[Mura]

We had a port of call with Renaissance in May 2001 and after research concluded to spend the day in Honfleur and then do a separate land trip to the Beaches. We just felt that there weren't enough hours in the day to justify the time to and from the Beaches to see all we wanted to see.

 

Our land trip was about two weeks -- picked up a car in Paris, spent the next night in Vernon/Giverny, then a couple of nights in Rouen and on to the Beaches for three nights in a lovely B&B right by Gold Beach. Returned to Paris via Mont St Michel, Angers/Saumur and Fontainebleau. A great trip.

 

And our day in Honfleur was very special as well.