cherbourg

[newyorkjameson]

Looking to see what tours are offered from Cherbourg. When I went to the Celebrity site it stated that there was no port/tour information at this time. Any help would be appreciated.

[FLACRUISER99]

Looking to see what tours are offered from Cherbourg. When I went to the Celebrity site it stated that there was no port/tour information at this time. Any help would be appreciated.

I took a private tour of the WW II Beaches with Overland tours. It was fantastic. Right next to the dock is the Titanic museum & French Nuclear sub. Check out the port of call boards & your roll call.

[Xport]

Looking to see what tours are offered from Cherbourg. When I went to the Celebrity site it stated that there was no port/tour information at this time. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Celebrity doesn't post tour offerings for a specific sailing until six to nine months prior to departure date... The earlier that one's trip is after first seasonally arriving within a region, the later it tends to be...

 

If you go to Celebrity's homepage [drill down using the Explore tab, then the Destinations tab, and finally choose the area in which you are cruising], you should be able to find a representative sampling [not exhaustive and not final] of the tours offered at the ports you will be visiting...

[sddsddean]

As long as you are not there on a Sunday, it is easy to hire a car from National. They will pick you up and drop you back at the terminal. I assume you want to do the US beaches etc. Very easy. There is one spine road runs east from Cherbourg to Bayeaux. Basically you can always find your way back to this by heading south (so you won't get lost!) and all the beaches and museums etc are very well signposted with loads of car parking.

 

Simon

[ghstudio]

There are two major tour itineraries from Cherbourg.

 

1) Visit the Normandy Beaches, the still in place German artillery bunkers overlooking the beach and the American Cemetary.

 

2) Visit Mt Ste Michelle and one of the smaller American Cemetaries.

 

Both are interesting....and you have to read a little about both to see which you'd prefer to do. I do recommend a private guide, but you can drive yourselves although you will most likely not learn as much as you would with a private guide.

 

It's likely that others on your cruise will want to set up small group private guides and you'll find them by following the "roll call" for your cruise....see the upper right corner of this page to get to the roll calls.

[CathyCruises]

We just got back, spent a week in Normandy and Brittany. The D-Day sites were amazing and the cemetery was particularly striking. Their small museum really pulls everthing together. There are many small and picturesque villages on the route and everything is beautiful. Wr spent three days meandering from Le Havre to St. Mere Eglise, where the paratrooper was caught on the spire of the church. Highly recommend this idea.

 

I was really looking forward to Mont St. Michel. It is of course spectacular from a distance, such an iconic image. BUT. . .it is visitor un-friendly! One has to park SO far away, and then walk to the shuttle, which is just a joke. You have to walk 4 times farther to catch the shuttle, than the whole distance the shuttle takes you--so be prepared. Such bad management. Why not have the shuttles leave from the parking los? But the worst part was when we finally got onto the island. Who knew that it was blocks and blocks of schlock!! Every type of junky tourist store one right on top of the other--SO disappointing!!! Finally if you climb high enough you get out of the junk shop part. So up and up we went, higher and higher; then we finally reached the entrance to the cathedral--you have to pay to go in, can't remember but in the 10 euro/pp range, and THEN it's another 200 steps climb. After the walk from the car and all the climbing we had already done, we were just not in the mood, and we have seen a LOT of churches already! So down and down and down and then the long hike back to the car--I think it was 45 minutes from the base of the island until we got to our car--so if you opt for this, be prepared!

[Desertbelle]

We prefer booking private tours finding they have so much more to offer at better prices, but when our port stop to LaHarve was cancelled at the last minute (strikes in Paris, go figure :rolleyes:) we quickly booked one of the Cherbourg excursions the ship offered and it was one of the best excursions we have EVER taken.

 

I think it was called something like Normandy Beaches and French Countryside or something similar. It took us to Omaha Beach, The American Memorial Cemetery, we went to Bayeux, a lovely little town with an outstanding Cathedral and the Bayeux Tapestry, and had lunch at a French Farm house (fabulous food). It was an amazing excursion....loved every bit of it. And because everyone on our excursion showed up on time at each stop, we had time left over so the tour operator took us to a couple of other Normandy invasion beaches, I think one of them was Ohio beach where we got to see the artillery bunkers.

 

We had friends who took other excursions, but no one seemed to have a better time than we did. I would take the same excursion over again if I get to Cherbourg again.

 

Have a wonderful cruise.

[2theship]

Two years ago I tried to arrange a private tour from Cherbourg to Mont Saint Michel. Even if I had managed to assemble a group from our roll call the cost was prohibitively expensive. It was the rare occasion when the ship's tour was a better option. The tour buses parked as close to the base as possible but you do need to make a very long climb to the top in order to see the church and it's well worth the effort, provided you are able. After the tour, we had about an hour to stroll down and meet our bus. It's about a two hour drive between the port and Mont Saint Michel through mostly farmland. It was attractive enough but I would not have wanted to be stuck behind the wheel for four hours going to and from. Dozing on the bus was a much better option.

[ghstudio]

Two years ago I tried to arrange a private tour from Cherbourg to Mont Saint Michel. Even if I had managed to assemble a group from our roll call the cost was prohibitively expensive. It was the rare occasion when the ship's tour was a better option. The tour buses parked as close to the base as possible but you do need to make a very long climb to the top in order to see the church and it's well worth the effort, provided you are able. After the tour, we had about an hour to stroll down and meet our bus. It's about a two hour drive between the port and Mont Saint Michel through mostly farmland. It was attractive enough but I would not have wanted to be stuck behind the wheel for four hours going to and from. Dozing on the bus was a much better option.

 

Private van tours also park right at the entrance with the busses.

[CathyCruises]

I guess that's what we get for going in a car!

[newyorkjameson]

Thanks everyone we appreciate the feedback and will wait till the ship posts it tours and see what our options are. This forum is great and we always know that we can count on the experience of others in helping us make our decisions.