D-Day sites - Tour or self guided

I felt like I had a better than the average US citizen knowledge of DDay landings but I really enjoyed the guided tour. I'd recommend you do a private one your first full day so you can go back and explore.

I really enjoyed Dale Booth as a guide. He was able to point out things particular people had mentioned to him as being of interest on our RS tour. I was particularly interested in an ALG where some of my Dad's P-47 Fighter Group landed on DDay + 2 or 3. While we could not stop there, he told me which side of the bus and gave me a warning so I could look out. Of course with a private tour with him you could stop,lol. Another person had an uncle who landed at Utah and Dale was able to point to where he would have come ashore knowing his unit. Dale's knowledge was comprehensive.

You could hire a guide who will ride along in your car. Sean Claxton was our guide in 2010 for a 2-Day "American Experience" tour when he was affiliated with Battlebus. Other people on this forum have had more recent experience with Sean, and apparently he is still a wonderful guide.

https://www.normandyinsight.com/omaha-and-more

I know that there are other "ride along" guides for D-Day sites, I just lack personal knowledge.

You did not give the month of the year, which is important because of crowding in anniversary months, and in peak tourist season. Prowling for a parking space can take some time, with a walk to the actual cliff or beach still required.

I personally did not care for the affect of the highly-skilled paid guides we heard during our independent visit to many D-Day sites. They were loaded with detailed information, binders of photos and enrichement material, and knew the answers to every question. But their intense, Sergeant-Rock delivery was not to my liking. I don't mean to penalize someone for their "passion". But you did ASK for thoughts. I will add that my former Opthalmologist couldn't say enough good things about his (similar) tour, with his family.

We used a couple of books, which worked well for us. I have no idea if it's still possible to make the rather dangerous (but no "equipment" descent of the ranger-ascended bluff, but that was a high-point for us. We are able-bodied, but not hikers or rock-climbers. There were flimsy, damaged aluminum ladders in place some years ago. The sign warning you not to continue was valid and accurate.

I guess you might want to decide on concentrating on the excellent museums, or on the vast number of sites. There's a certain difference between looking out at distant rusting landing craft, and peering directly into rusting gun emplacements.

This is certainly not a complete list, and "old" books have to be regarded with accuracy concerns:
Bolger and Stoller, Fodor's Short Escapes in France, 1966, ISBN 0-679-03071-9
Frommer's Frances Best-Loved Driving Tours, 1997, ISBN 0-02-861569-7
Lonely Planet France, current edition.

I live in the vicinity of the invasion beaches and given the right opportunity would take a tour for aspects of the Normandie Campaign I’m not familiar with. My choice would be to go on tours covering Operation Bluecoat and some of the brutally bloody battles of late June and early July.

My favorite guide to the invasion is “Major & Mrs. Holt’s Guide to D-Day”. It’s comprehensive and pays attention to American, British and Canadian struggles in the summer of ‘44. I also have a dog eared copy of the voluminous Sand & Steel by Peter Caddick-Adams that I take along to provide for local “color” commentary.

My bias is strongly towards striking out on an adventure and teach yourself about the invasion. I often stand in earshot of tour guides and listen to the patter which runs from drab to inspirational. Whatever you do prepare yourself and learn about the battles…don’t count on a tour guide to teach you.

This summer I’m trying to learn about German naval personnel who battled the Brits at Port en Bessin on June 6 and 7.

So pick out what you want to learn and have a good well prepared exploration!

We really enjoyed HQCompany tour with Yannick.as.our guide. I have masters in history and have studied WWII extensively and he really brought this alive much better than my inadequate knowledge could have. It was an all.day private tour just my husband and I with pick up at our B&B and delivered back there. I recommend you watch the Longest Day as a good refresher. At least with going in May you will miss the 80th anniversary crowds. Best of luck.

Since you are a self-described "WWII European theater history buff," and have a car, I truly don't think you need a tour. The area is easy to get around, and if you know the basics of the battle and the lay of the land, you will be able to go to where interests you, and spend as much or as little time as you want. Yes, people who take tours rave about them. So they are probably very good—especially for the uninformed. But I suspect most of those people don't have the knowledge you do, or are uncomfortable driving in other countries. I have personally been to the Normandy battle area nine times—seven of which were during D-day anniversaries. I have never taken a tour and have never felt I missed anything by not taking one. I will say that on anniversaries, sometimes the tourism offices will organize walking tours of very specific areas that I really appreciated. But that is very different from an encompassing tour of the D-day sights, and is usually very targeted to small areas of operation.

We had a car. We took a guided tour of the American beaches and did the British and Canadian beaches ourselves.

Hi Rick, looks like we will be in Bayeux about the same time.

I also tried to decide on whether I should do guided Tours or just Tour on my own.

Do to my Grandfather (he passed when I was in 4th grade) being in Normandy, for the past 40 some years, most of the books I have read and documentary's I've seen have been WWII related, so I know a fair amount more about WWII than what would be considered "the average person". Lets face it, "the average person" that is alive today knows little or nothing about WWII and for the past couple decades many schools in the USA have been teaching that the USA was the "Bad Guy" in WWII, especially in the Pacific Theater of Operations.

After giving much thought on which way to go, I decided to do both. I contacted some Highly Rated Tours and Guides and found that many were already booked up for May.

I have read many good reviews on Overlord Tours, so I contacted them and they did have Tours available. Wanting more than a 1 day guided Tour, but not wanting to see the same sites twice, I decided on doing Overlords Tour #2-Omaha/Utah Beach, Tour #5-101st Airborne and Tour #4-British/Canadian Sectors.

I feel that starting my week with 3 Tours, with guides that know the area and history and then finishing up the week with visiting sites we would have preferred to spend more time at, as well as visiting new sites would give us the chance to not only see as much as possible, but would also give us the lay of the land and make it easier to see more in the 2nd half of our week.

Take care, Ken

My wife and I went to Normandy about 10 years ago. We also drove. I think the guide vs self-guide comes down to what you want to see. I simply wanted to walk the ground. To just stand on the beach, look up at the bluffs and wonder how they did it. Additionally, my wife had no interest in hearing someone drone on with all kinds of D-Day and WWII trivia...she already has me to do that.

My wife was very impressed with the American cemetary. Was shocked by the descrution still visible on Point du Hoc and stunned when she learned the guns weren't there. Since you have a car you can drive to some of the other well know D-Day and post D-Day battle sights. I highly recommend a trip to La Cambe German Cemetary. It is an eye-opeing contrast to the American cemetary.

To see more than WWII please consider a day or overnight trip to Mont St Michel, visit a cidery and Calvados distilery, and of course, see the Bayeux tapestry.

Still one of my favorite trips...have a great time.

I just did my sixth trip to Normandy, one of those trips was a guided tour and I did learn from that individual, but I find it much more satisfying to do the research, and plan out my trip and then experience the sites as I go. For example the American cemetery has a amazing museum that one can visit and will give you a lot of information in fact many of the sites now have a lot of information available for you. You may miss out on some of the little tidbits that I guide would share with you that you will be able to get plenty of information doing it yourself. . If you want to know our plan I’d be happy to share, but six days with a car gives you AMPLE time to experience and enjoy Normandy!

There is no reason with a car that you cannot do your own tour of D-Day sites. I took an Overlord tour because I didn't have time to do the homework, but I did notice there seemed to be pretty good parking at the various sites. My daughter was studying in Belgium and did a tour with classmates and a car. One of the guys was a WWII buff and acted as planner and guide. If you are willing to do the work to plan and read up on the sites then, doing it yourself would have the advantages you note.

Let me also suggest putting Etretat on your list; we did it as a day trip from Honfleur, but it could be done from Bayeux as well.
https://janettravels.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/etretat-the-impressionists-had-an-eye-for-a-beautiful-place/
As with many of my side trips over the years, I spotted a picture in an art gallery of Etretat and was not disappointed in the real deal.

My husband and I did an Overlord tour with Yannick as our guide. We did the Band of Brothers tour. It was so informative and showed us areas we wouldn't have found on our own. Yannick is now one of the owners of the HQ Company tour group. I can't recommend his or his group highly enough. He grew up in the Normany area, has a college degree in tourism and prides himself in relating information to his guests in a comprehensive manner. I would find the area confusing and with less understanding of events had we not taken a tour. Yannick really makes you feel as though you were in that time period with his descriptions and photos.