le Havre

[Lisah101]

We will be in Le Havre for a day in early May and are trying to decide what to do. I don't want to do Paris or D-Day. We would love to hire a taxi but need suggestions on destinations.

 

My perfect tour is usually a small town or two, love walking through stalls on market day! Then a long lunch and just generally soaking up the atmosphere. This is the last stop on a 3 week vacation including a cruise so just some culture and food - any ideas?

[dogs4fun]

We will be in Le Havre for a day in early May and are trying to decide what to do. I don't want to do Paris or D-Day. We would love to hire a taxi but need suggestions on destinations.

 

My perfect tour is usually a small town or two, love walking through stalls on market day! Then a long lunch and just generally soaking up the atmosphere. This is the last stop on a 3 week vacation including a cruise so just some culture and food - any ideas?

 

Have you considered Rouen? Easily reached by train (1 hour). Giverny?

How about Honfleur?

I've enjoyed visiting all of the above from Le Havre (but not all in the same day).

Edited December 27, 2014 by dogs4fun

[suspaul]

Honfleur would get my vote. We took ahalf-day tour offered by the cruise line to Honfleur but loved it so much we opted to not return with the tour but hired a taxi (Van) and spent the rest of the day there. Very picturesque harbor and many restaurants along the water, it was a very enjoyable day. One note, we were a group of 8 and when we walked back to the bus to inform them we would not be returning back to the ship at that time we were told it would cost approximately 200€ for a van to get back to LeHavre however we found a van driver (before dismissing the return bus ride) who was willing to wait until 4 pm and charged us 70€ total.

 

Also, we just returned from a river cruise two weeks ago with a 2 night stop in Rouen. Maybe it was the cold, rainy weather but we weren't impressed, only my opinion.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[John Bull]

Honfleur would get my vote. We took ahalf-day tour offered by the cruise line to Honfleur but loved it so much we opted to not return with the tour but hired a taxi (Van) and spent the rest of the day there. Very picturesque harbor and many restaurants along the water, it was a very enjoyable day. One note, we were a group of 8 and when we walked back to the bus to inform them we would not be returning back to the ship at that time we were told it would cost approximately 200€ for a van to get back to LeHavre however we found a van driver (before dismissing the return bus ride) who was willing to wait until 4 pm and charged us 70€ total.

 

Also, we just returned from a river cruise two weeks ago with a 2 night stop in Rouen. Maybe it was the cold, rainy weather but we weren't impressed, only my opinion.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

Yep, reading the question my immediate reaction too was that Honfleur fits the bill.

Rather touristy but very laid-back. Bars & restaurants & shops around the attractive little harbour, more shops & stalls in the surrounding streets.

It's about 12 miles / 25 miles from your ship via the Pont Normandie over the Seine estuary.

 

And the twin-towns of Trouville & Deauville a further 10 miles along the coast if you want to dig deeper into your pockets for the extra taxi fare, or mebbe rent a car for the day.

 

 

JB :)

Edited December 27, 2014 by John Bull

[2irisheyes]

We will also be there in early May. We have docked in Le Havre before and on that occasion we took the local bus to Honfleur. There were only a few buses and from memory I think we got on the bus at the railway station. I wish I had kept the notes from that trip. I will have to have a hunt. I thought about Rouen for this time but it depends on the logistics. We don't tend to do ship's tours if we can do them ourselves.

[LondonTowner]

My vote would also go to Honfleur, Trouville, Douville or Etretat, where Monet did a lot of his painting.

[wally_bushy]

Honfleur is a great choice.

It is close and one of the prettiest towns.

The food is good and the streets are full of interesting shops

[John Bull]

We will also be there in early May. We have docked in Le Havre before and on that occasion we took the local bus to Honfleur. There were only a few buses and from memory I think we got on the bus at the railway station. I wish I had kept the notes from that trip. I will have to have a hunt. I thought about Rouen for this time but it depends on the logistics. We don't tend to do ship's tours if we can do them ourselves.

 

Bus to Honfleur is operated by Bus Verts

http://www.busverts.fr/281-Horaires-Bus-Verts-du-21-dec-2014-au-04-juil-2015.html

 

Route (ligne) 20 and 50 and Prestobus 39.

It starts at Gare Routiere (yep, near the rail station),

Frequency is awful, especially on a sunday.

 

JB :)

Edited December 28, 2014 by John Bull

[2irisheyes]

John Bull - thanks. I looked up the bus times yesterday. They are still as infrequent as they were a few years ago. I am also looking at Rouen by train. It seems about £40 - £50 return for two oldies. Plenty of time yet to decide.

[Lisah101]

Honfleur sounds exactly like what wee would like to do. I wonder how much a taxi service would cost? Wonder if there is any water taxi or ferry service?

 

Last year we had a port in Marseille and took a cab to Aix en Provence to spend the day strolling around. It was a great stop and I was hoping this would be a simliar experience.

Edited December 29, 2014 by Lisah101

[Hlitner]

Our normal procedure, when in Le Havre, is to simply rent a car for the day. This gives us the freedom to drive over to Honfleur, Deauville, or perhaps even head the other way to Fecamp and Etretat. On our last driving trip we stumbled on another cute village called Beuvron-en-Auge which is a picture postcard tiny village considered one of the prettiest villages in France. We love driving and exploring in France (recently returned from a month long driving trip in Eastern France) and are always finding cute little places.

 

As to rental cars in Le Havre, there is one company (Rentacar.fr) that has a location right in the port. But we find this company too expensive and prefer to walk out of the port to one of the nearby agencies (we generally go to Europcar). But be forewarned that this is a good hike of about a mile.

Hank

Edited December 29, 2014 by Hlitner

[lamchops]

Honfleur is a great choice.

It is close and one of the prettiest towns.

The food is good and the streets are full of interesting shops

 

Honfleur is great, but Etretat is breath taking!:)

[dogs4fun]

John Bull - thanks. I looked up the bus times yesterday. They are still as infrequent as they were a few years ago. I am also looking at Rouen by train. It seems about £40 - £50 return for two oldies. Plenty of time yet to decide.

 

£40 - £50 return seems quite high. Our r/t tickets from Le Havre to Rouen were very inexpensive in 2013 (we really enjoyed Rouen).

You are eligible for the senior discount if you are 60+. I have checked the prices on the sncf site (3 months from today but price should remain stable in May) and it looks like senior fare is £20 return. You can easily purchase your tickets at the train station. :)

http://uk.voyages-sncf.com/en/

[2irisheyes]

dogs4fun - the £40+ is for two seniors so £20+ per person. It seemed quite pricey to me when we can get a return to Paris St Lazare from Le Havre for £25 per person if bought a couple of weeks in advance and it would be non-flexible. Buying non-flexible tickets is a bit of a risk when relying on the ship docking there and the fact that the cruiseline is quite vague about arrival time in port. I assume tickets bought at the station on the day would be at a higher "normal" price.

[dogs4fun]

dogs4fun - the £40+ is for two seniors so £20+ per person. It seemed quite pricey to me when we can get a return to Paris St Lazare from Le Havre for £25 per person if bought a couple of weeks in advance and it would be non-flexible. Buying non-flexible tickets is a bit of a risk when relying on the ship docking there and the fact that the cruiseline is quite vague about arrival time in port. I assume tickets bought at the station on the day would be at a higher "normal" price.

Oh, sorry - I thought the price was per person - didn't read carefully. Actually, we bought our tickets at the station and they were not higher than normal.

Edited December 31, 2014 by dogs4fun

[Deely]

Our normal procedure, when in Le Havre, is to simply rent a car for the day. This gives us the freedom to drive over to Honfleur, Deauville, or perhaps even head the other way to Fecamp and Etretat. On our last driving trip we stumbled on another cute village called Beuvron-en-Auge which is a picture postcard tiny village considered one of the prettiest villages in France. We love driving and exploring in France (recently returned from a month long driving trip in Eastern France) and are always finding cute little places.

 

As to rental cars in Le Havre, there is one company (Rentacar.fr) that has a location right in the port. But we find this company too expensive and prefer to walk out of the port to one of the nearby agencies (we generally go to Europcar). But be forewarned that this is a good hike of about a mile.

Hank

 

Do you recall any rough prices for car hire, please as this sounds a great way to spend a day

[Hlitner]

Do you recall any rough prices for car hire, please as this sounds a great way to spend a day

 

Am not currently home where I have the exact info, but can give you some approximate numbers (which you can readily check online). The one rental car agency located inside the port (Rent a Car France) is quite expensive and I recall their cars cost about 100 Euros with a lousy excess insurance level.

 

Once you leave the port it is more of a buyers market. Europcar will often have rates of about 50-60 Euros for small cars (with manual shift) and they also offer various insurance options (for those that need it). I always like to emphasize that nearly all lower priced rental cars in France, Italy and Spain are manual shift. The availability of low cost automatic transmission cars is extremely rare and in many cases there are no auto transmission cars at any price. Fortunately, both DW and I love driving stick shift cars but we do know that many fellow Americans/Canadians do not have a clue how to drive these things. Our best advice is to find somebody who owns a stick shift and learn! Once you master the skill, you will never forget...and it will be a huge benefit whenever you want to drive in Europe or Asia. The reality is that Europeans love their stick shift cars, and there seems to be no trend to move towards the automatics we find in many other countries.

 

Hank

[lamchops]

Do you recall any rough prices for car hire, please as this sounds a great way to spend a day

 

We rented from Rent a car dockside on a Tuesday this past September for $100 euros to visit Etretat, Fecamp, and Honfleur. (Fiat Panda)

 

In 2012 we rented from Europcar in Le havre on a Sunday in November for $95 euros which included the $40 euro Sunday fee to visit Bayeaux, Juno Beach, Beny-sur-mer, and the Pegasus bridge. (Peugeot 208 VTI) Watch out for the speed cameras or you'll get a fine in the mail. :eek:

 

Unless you want to walk 20 minutes each way, you must factor in the $10 euro cabfare each way. Whichever you choose, it's still cheaper than a 4 hour ships excursion for 2 which were aprox. $70us per person.

 

For D-day beaches, I would use Rent a car so that I could be on the road asap for the 90+ minute drive each way. The ships excursion to the beaches were about $185us per person in 2012 so the savings were still substantial.

 

FYI, make sure you pre-book an english gps as they have a limited supply. We managed with our limited Cdn high school french but it is another headache one doesn't need.

[Hlitner]

Lamchops is correct in that it is about a 20 minute walk from the ship to a few of the local rental car offices outside the port. On the other hand, we enjoy walks after being cooped up on a ship, and saving about 50+ Euros is good incentive. We also had some issues with the Rent-A-Car insurance excess (which we previously mentioned) which may no longer be an issue or might not matter to some.

 

Hank

[Deely]

Thanks for the info.

Think we'll look at the ones further out for the price. We'll start walking and no doubt DH will then run ahead - " why walk when you can run?" Seems to be his motto, NOT mine tho' :eek:

[wally_bushy]

Honfleur is great, but Etretat is breath taking!:)

 

We did not head that way but I just looked at on the internet.

Looks good. Next trip:D

Thanks for the tip

[paddingtonbear]

Hi

 

We have hired a car. I'd like to go to Giverny. Has anyone been on a bus tour and can give me an idea of their schedule?

 

I was wondering if it would be a good idea to get there as early as we can to avoid the crowds or later in the day? Or is leaving it till later in the day too risky I case something happens to the car?

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[Tiggertastic]

We are struggling with options as we are there in May but it's a bank holiday in France. The car rental places are all closed, the bus service timetable means we would only get minimal time in hornfleur and the trains are also limited.

 

Looking for a car with a driver now

[Lisah101]

we are going to rent a car and just explore. I often use Enterprise Rent a Car here in the US, so tried their US site and they have a place right on the port. 50 Euros for the day doesn't seem too bad. I will bring a GPS with Europe maps and other than that, we have no plan!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Hlitner]

we are going to rent a car and just explore. I often use Enterprise Rent a Car here in the US, so tried their US site and they have a place right on the port. 50 Euros for the day doesn't seem too bad. I will bring a GPS with Europe maps and other than that, we have no plan!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

It is not quite at the port but pretty close. We can walk there from the ship in about 20-25 min. Not sure if they will do a pick-up at the port like they do in the USA.

 

Hank