Hello! I’m taking my first trip to France in late June. I’ll be staying in Deauville for a few days and would like to take a day trip to MSM as the rest of my travels will be in Paris and Nice. If possible, I’d like to avoid renting a car and driving myself, although I’m open to this if necessary. What is the best transportation option for a day trip to MSM from Deauville? Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6790 posts
You will have a far, far better experience at MSM if you get there late in the afternoon, and spend the night in one of the small hotels on the Mont itself. That way, you can enjoy it relatively crowd-free for a few hours late in the day, wake up early and enjoy it for a little longer, before the crush of humanity rolls up and fills the streets with tightly-packed day-trippers. If you do MSM during mid-day, as a day trip, you ensure the worst possible experience.
In June, it is going to be completely swamped with day-trippers during the day (I mean literally, shoulder-to-shoulder in the one small, short street). If you overnight on MSM itself, you get it at it's best and most magical, free of large crowds.
It's worth the small extra expense and logistical challenges to make this work. A rental car is ideal in this area; driving is easy. But book that night fast, there's a limited number of rooms available on the Mont, and June is coming up quickly.
Posted by
Queens, NYC
571 posts
The only realistic way to do this via a day trip is to drive, as the rail connections from Deauville to Pontorson or Rennes will take at least 5 hours each way, which doesn't even include the bus shuttle time from either (Pontorson is the closest railway station to the Mont, Rennes is the closest big city, though Rennes is much farther).
Deauville to Mt-St-Michel is roughly 200 km (125 mi), but if you need an automatic rental car you will probably have to head to a larger city first to pick up the car, Caen probably being the best bet since it's on the way.