My wife and I took a full day tour with Overlord Tours from our cruise ship in Cherbourg to Point du Hoc, Omaha and Utah Beaches, the American cemetery, St. Mere Eglise where we also had lunch (not included in tour cost) and the surrounding Normandy countryside. They came highly recommended and did not disappoint in any way. Our guide was Yannik, who truly made this an excellent tour. He was extremely knowledgeable and made the story of D-Day come alive, including stories he and others at Overlord have been told by veterans. The office admin staff were wonderful, too -- excellent service! We could not recommend Overlord highly enough!
Posted by
Louisville, Ky
205 posts
I heartily second this recommendation.
Our guide, for a whole day tour, asked if anybody had early dinner plans. When everybody piped up their reservation times, he said he might just stay out longer than the advertised length of the tour. And we did, seeing more and getting explanation of everything we asked about.
Posted by
PA
2736 posts
We did this tour in 2015, with Yannik. He is fantastic, glad to see he is still at it.
Posted by
1 posts
Hello,
My wife & 2 adult children are traveling to Paris in Early June & wanted to plan a day trip to Normandy, would you suggest taking train to Bayeax and getting a 1/2 day fully guided tour or doing a bus guided tour from Paris to Normandy for the day? Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by
Washington DC
27041 posts
The problem with a half-day tour is that a really significant part of the tour time will be spent in a van or on a bus traveling between Bayeux and the invasion sites. It doesn't leave a lot of time to see what you want to see. Bayeux itself is nice, but it sounds as if your focus is the D-Day tour.
I don't know whether you'll find space available at this point, but Overlord Tours has a full-day tour designed for people staying in Paris who are willing to take the early train up to Bayeux. The tour departs right from the train station a bit later than the mid-town tours leave, but you get pretty much a full-day tour. Overlord uses vans rather than full-size buses. That would be my preference rather than a bus tour all the way from Paris.
Posted by
2 posts
I agree that the half-day tour would probably not be worth it. At the end of our tour I wished we had booked more time in Bayeux and could have done more D-Day sightseeing the next day.
Source: We did an Overlord full-day (private) tour on May 19. Our guide (Thierry) was fantastic. I cannot recommend Overlord enough.
Posted by
1 posts
Our group of four scheduled this day-long private tour for our first day in Normandy (9/14/19). We wanted an overview of the area before visiting specific sites on our own, and with Charles as our guide we got so much more than that.
Charles was an exceptionally competent guide: personally engaging, very knowledgeable, and extremely well-prepared (his tour materials reminded a couple of us of staff rides). He obviously loves his job and the history of D-Day. Our group is a little nuts at times, which Charles recognized immediately. He joined right in and was soon giving as good as he was getting. Best of all, Charles fine-tuned our itinerary to fit the interests and backgrounds of group members, both in advance and on the fly, closing the day with something so wonderful and unexpected that each of us will remember it for the rest of our lives.
Three suggestions. First, make your reservations early. Overlord Tours is very popular and fills up quickly. Second, do the day-long private tour if you can. The personalized attention is worth it, and there is just so much to see and learn. Third, provide Overlord Tours with information about the interests and knowledge level of your group so the guide can plan accordingly.
Bottom line: A great guide makes for a great tour!