Ferry from Portsmouth to France for D Day tour

Brittany ferries.

The Brittany Ferries fast catamaran only sails from April to mid September, otherwise you are on a much slower crossing.

Check the rail routing, too. It might not be terribly direct.

I'd be cautious about this, having had two of my five cross-channel ferries canceled--though the more experienced folks here say I have been incredibly unlucky. I didn't miss any pre-purchased activities, but I had to cough up the money for a flight after three days of ferry cancelations in 2017.

https://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/

This is a busy route. The ferries land near Caen and there is transport (bus, taxi) into Caen, about 18 km. Caen is a bigger city than Bayeux so has more choice of hotels, etc. and also some guided tours for the D-Day beaches, such as those operated by the Peace Museum. Otherwise it is an easy commute to Bayeux where other tours originate.. Do put out the extra cash for a guided tour which will supply plenty of information about the events that might not be obvious to an amateur.

Portsmouth to Cherbourg is 3 hours; Caen is 6 hours and Le Havre is 5.5 hours.

Last August, I took the 9am Brittany Ferries high-speed ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg arriving at 1pm. Then the 3:20pm train from Cherbourg to Bayeux arriving at 4:15pm. There was a train scheduled for I believe 1:30pm, but I was in no hurry.

That's great to know! Thank you all!!

Don’t forget local London transport and then train time to Portsmouth. These two locations ( London and Normandy! ) don’t pair well. We put off Normandy to a non-Paris visit to France.

Edit: parenthesis added

Don’t forget local London transport and then train time to Portsmouth. These two locations don’t pair well. We put off Normandy to a non-Paris visit to France.

That all depends where in London and what public transport. London Waterloo and London Victoria both serve Portsmouth well. Both are relatively easy to reach via public transport, particularly the tube. I can get to and around central London from Portsmouth very easily by train and tube so in that respect they pair very well. You can get from Kensington for example to Portsmouth Harbour in around 2.5 hours.

Yes I have checked the rail links from Gatwick to Portsmouth as we will be flying in and doing the trip to Bayeux from there. It looks fairly straightforward. We may schedule our flight in to be able to get down to Portsmouth and overnight there before catching the early express catamaran over to Cherbourg at 0730 on a Friday/Saturday and then train to Bayeux.

Thank you all!

Well, if you're travelling from Gatwick then it's even easier. Direct train to Portsmouth Harbour (or Portsmouth and Southsea if you intend on staying at the new Premier Inn next door and then a five minute taxi ride to the ferry port the following day, it couldn't be any easier.