Best shore excursion La Havre France

[MReindeer]

We plan our first transatlantic cruise in late April and will ultimately end up in Amsterdam. I was wondering if anyone had taken any excursions that were not Paris .. from the port at LaHavre France. My husband is interested in Normandy Beach. There are several Normandy excursions and wondered if anyone had comments or advice?

[paul929207]

We did not take an excursion, but instead we rented a car with another couple. Caen, Bayeux and the Normandy Beaches made a great day

[TheOldBear]

We plan our first transatlantic cruise in late April and will ultimately end up in Amsterdam. I was wondering if anyone had taken any excursions that were not Paris .. from the port at LaHavre France. My husband is interested in Normandy Beach. There are several Normandy excursions and wondered if anyone had comments or advice?

 

 

I did some poking around over in the France section of the "Ports of Call" forum - Normandy is a fairly popular topic. One third party company we are considering is 'Overlord Tours' - they have van and bus tour options. With the van option, the cost is to rent the van, and it is common to use the 'roll call' for your cruise to find other folks to share the expense.

 

I am waiting for Cunard to post excursion prices and other details, but we may decide to book directly with Overlord.

[luvscruising2007]

We took the ship (Jewel of the Seas) excursion in 2009 to the Normandy Beaches. We really enjoyed the tour. It was a long day but well worth it.

[Bizmark'sMom]

Mt. St. Michele! I did this as an excursion through Celebrity, because it's a ways away. It's fantastic!

I need to go back and spend a few days there.

[Kartgv]

Most people do the Normandy tours, but we went another direction. In early September from the Caribbean Princess we did the tour that went to Monet's Garden, lunch in a beautiful inn on the Seine River, then to the city of Rouen to see the cathedral and the old village. It was a very long but spectacular day - one of our best tours of the long B2B cruise. DH wasn't too excited about going to Monet's Garden, but once there he thought it was gorgeous and was very happy with our choice. The only 'mishap' of the day, which was a Sunday, was that we arrived in Rouen at about 2:30pm and our tour guide announced that unfortunately he had just been informed that all the public restrooms closed at 2:00 on Sundays. Never figured out the logic of that one!

 

We often don't do ship's tours, but when the places we want to go are so far from port, we'd rather not worry about getting back to the ship on time.

[capriccio]

I highly recommend Overlord Tours (http://www.overlordtour.com). They offer tours via van or bus (http://www.overlordtour.com/overlordtour-from-ports.html). We chose the van option and were so impressed with the driver/guide. She was extremely well prepared and wherever we stopped she showed us pictures from the battle so you could compare then and now. It is a thought provoking excursion through a beautiful part of France and it is interesting to see how the locals have not forgotten (American, British and Canadian flags fly in the yards of private homes, etc.)

[WatchHill]

Two years ago we did a British isles cruise, with a port day at La Havre. We joined a cruise critic small group tour through Overlord - it had to be the high light of the entire cruise. Sophie, our van driver was excellent. If I ever do the cruise again, I would repeat this particular tour.

 

Darcy

[cheeseclan]

Several years ago we went on a Princess cruise and did the shore excursion thru them. It was a great tour of Normandy, the cemetery, beach and the museum. We had 2 gentleman on the tour who were there during the war. It was amazing to talk to them and go with them to the beach. Will never forget it.