Day trip to D-day beaches from Paris

too far for a day trip

I see a private group day trip from Paris for $827 listed on Viator.

Check this out. Overlord is a great company.

https://www.overlordtour.com/product/tour-2fs-omaha-utah-full-day-tour-week-days-only/

I think that Overlord tour is the best you can do from Paris in one day. You're responsible for taking the early train up to Bayeux (and returning later the same way). That's faster transportation from Paris to Normandy than a tour bus can manage. The tour departs right from the RR station in Bayeux, saving you the time required to get to the regular tour pick-up point in the center of town. In the end, you have almost as much time to tour the D-Day sites as folks staying overnight in Bayeux.

What you miss out on by just making a day trip from Paris is the stuff you could see in Bayeux itself: the Bayeux Tapestry, the Cathedral, the very good invasion museum, the pretty historic center. Bayeux wasn't bombed to the ground during the war and retains a lot of its historic architecture. As of 2017 the local tourist office ran a walking tour of the historic center that I enjoyed.

I agree with estimated prophet and acraven that if you insist on just going there for the day, the Overlord tour is the way to go.

The key is, as they said, that the train gets you to Normandy (and back) far faster than a vehicle on the road can, and Overlord is a superb company that knows what it is doing.

Plus, you are NOT having to pay for a guide 's and two drivers' time to drive you back and forth between Paris and Normandy - their time is expensive as labor rates in France are high.

So the Overlord tour has the benefit of being far superior and costing less.

Yes, we might all wish to spend more time at the D-Day beaches, but I argue that it's better to go once for a short view than to end up never going there at all.

Just to let you know, I had contacted them about doing that exact tour in July. They said they needed at least 4 people on it, so we could be put on a wait list if we wanted (we are 2). I emailed them and we decided to just do the afternoon tour (still taking that early train) while visiting the town, tapestry museum, as well as the battle of Normandy museum before the afternoon tour. We are still on the waitlist for the all day tour, but a good consolation is the afternoon one. Crossing fingers though!

That's a good back-up plan, Kathleen, but the driving time from Bayeux to the D-Day sites is considerable, so the time actually spent at the places you want to see will be considerably less than half the time you'd get on a full-day tour. Having time to see some sights in Bayeux is nice compensation, though.

I should have mentioned in my earlier post that Overlord uses vans rather than big buses for its tours. That's very helpful, because it takes less time to load or unload a van at each stop than a full-size bus.

That is the only option we have really, so that's the best we can do. We will have the early train tickets anyway, just in case.

Thanks for that important information Katherine.

Katherine - (and Nancy) - I guess the other option might be to pay for the other two tour slots ? It obviously makes it more expensive, but may be well worth the money (of course we all have our different calculations for value for money, so I am not suggesting it's automatically a solution). And you could at least save the money you were going to use to buy back-up train tickets (although that is probably negligible). Just something to think about.

Check.with HQCompany tours we chose a private tour with them and it was best money we ever spent. Owned by four men who had worked for another tour company and their reviews are great rightfully so. Our tour was from our B&B in Bayeau but I know they pick up in Caen and also train station in Bayeau.

This looks promising:

https://www.bluefox.travel/paris/d-day-beaches-trip

Kim, that was an option they gave me, paying for them and getting a refund if someone else signed up. We really won't have any backup train tickets thank goodness, as we are taking the train that would get us there in time for the tour anyway. I am pondering paying for the extra two people to see if anyone else joins, but that's more than double.....so we shall see....you would think in the height of tourist season that two people visiting Paris would have an inkling to do this!

I don't know how many people are aware of the tour Overlord runs for people arriving from Paris. It's on the company's website, and I've mentioned it here often, but a lot of folks are like me and do not plan day trips like that so far in advance. I'd think there'd be a good chance others would sign up over the next 4 months.

Is the company able to say how often that tour ends up running on a weekday in July? I was staying in Bayeux and was able to take the regular US tour, which I assume gets more participants. Even so, I emailed the company ahead of time to ask what day within my 3-day window would work best. But I only did that one or two weeks in advance. I might not get away with that today, because there seem to be a lot more people traveling now than in 2017.

I would think to too, acraven, fingers crossed!

I definitely should ask them how often it runs on weekdays, but that will probably give me one more thing to stress about "ooo are we going to be in the ___% that ends up going or not?" HAHAH

thanks for the encouragement :) we have a LONG time to wait on pins and needles :)

We did this trip last summer. Booked via Tiqets which is European and offers refunds. They pick you up from your hotel and take you to the beaches up in Normday which is a nice scenic ride + cemeteries and Dday museum. They provide lunch and even stop at a cider farm (best cider I've ever had).

http://tinyurl.com/4z8zsyk7

Otherwise just rent a car and head up there a few days. THere are loads of nice towns and can even taste cheese and fresh butter as well as calvados apply brand and see the Bayeux tapestry which shows French invasion of England.

Thanks to you all. I have just booked the tour recommended by Pirate Laffitte and expect it will work well for our family group.

I just booked the City Wonders day trip from Paris directly from City Wonders and seems like a good trip. Picks up by the Hyatt at 0700, we did not want to deal with getting to Normandy via train so chose this one and it has good reviews.

https://citywonders.com/paris-tours/normandy-tour-from-paris