June 6, 2024 80th anniversary of dday, would you visit then?

You might have a look at this documentary. I saw it on a plane. https://thegirlwhoworefreedom.com/about/ Besides the delightful stories told by people who were children then, it is the story of the director, a contemporary young soldier's mother's visit to the anniversary festivities.

I don't know about crowds, but I wouldn't be surprised if most of the tours are already sold out. If you aren't an expert on the invasion, I think a tour is essential if you care about anything other than museums and ceremonies.

Finding lodging is likely to be an issue as well. Booking.com has a total of two lodgings available for the nights of June 5 and June 6 in Bayeux, the town from which nearly all the D-Day tours originate. The cheapest is about $590 per night; the other one, about $960 per night.

I would enthusiastically visit Normandy, the beaches and other sites from the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

There are so many sites along the invasion route, which stretches approximately 80 miles long, I believed. that crowds will be relatively dilute. Some sites, like the American Cemetery, will be crowded, though it's certain that arrangements will be made to get people in and out with relative ease.

More important, I doubt the crowds will be overwhelming in part because the appreciation of history is fading, unfortunately. Sure, a lot of people will be there, but my prediction is the attendance will not be unpleasant.

I believe the festivities will outweigh crowds.

I'm big on the D-Day sites for a reason: My dad served in the US Navy during World War II. He was in the Pacific, not Europe, but the WWII sites I have seen in Europe and Asia are fascinating. I loved visiting Normandy in 2012. I stayed in Bayeux, toured the D-Day sites (Arromanches, Omaha, Utah and other beaches, Pointe du Hoc, the American and German cemeteries, other sites) and the WWII museum in Caen and other.

One last tidbit: I met a veteran of the US Navy Pacific fleet in Normandy. The gentleman, who was in his 80s, was with his daughter. He had served on a battleship. Given that my dad served on a destroyer in the Pacific, it meant a lot to meet him in Normandy. I was impressed with the man for multiple reasons, not least of which is that he was still traveling overseas in his 80s.

I will respectfully disagree with Craig regarding crowds. Preceeding Normandy landing anniversaries marking the 5's, and especially 10's have had very large crowds. Most have been surviving members and their support people, families, veterans organizations, active military members, international diplomatic representatives, and locals. It's not just US, but also the Brits, Canadians (and other Commonwealth participants), and French ceremonies. We were fortunate to be able to attend on the 60th anniversary. (My husband was a serving member posted in Germany)

A brief survey of tours from Canada specifically aimed at the 2024 D Day ceremonies show that many of them are already full. Add in all of the organized tours by the other involved veterans groups, etc, and I would say that independently booked accommodations will already be hard to find. Parking at the various sites will be very difficult on the day, and likely for a few days on either side of June 6. And I wouldn't exactly describe the scheduled events as festivities. More like ceremonies of respect and celebrations of remembrance.

D-day commemorations are getting bigger year on year. Even 15 years ago it was very difficult to navigate along the coast, taking into account road closures and excess traffic (and seemingly endless lines of jeeps)

Unless you have a particular reason for visiting on the 6th I would choose another date.

I posted last week that Travel & Leisure had a blurb about this, so the word is out. I'm with the crowd saying that you are probably too late to the show.

I am going and go every couple of years. I have also gone during the 70th and 75th anniversaries. Yes there will be crowds in some places at some times, but it is a huge area and plenty of places to go and sights to see that aren't that crowded. As far as "getting where we want to go easily," it depends on where you want to go and when. If you want to go to a major sight on the 6th itself, there will likely be road closures due to heads of state visiting—although those details haven't been announced yet. But the entire week will be full of events, ceremonies and places to go. That being said, if you haven't already booked a place to stay or God forbid a tour, you are definitely too late. Most places booked up last year.

Reservations and planning ahead of time are not the issue for me

I hope you mean because you already made these reservations. It is no longer "ahead of time."

Thx all, this is just the kind of quality feedback I was hoping for to help me plan my trip!

Side remark. Festivities? Pharmerphil, you’ve been to many commémorations. Are these festive? I’ve seen that word used here before and have always found it disconcerting. What is appropriate: commémoration, remembrance, services...festivities?
Oxford dictionary says festivities are the celebration of something in a joyful and exuberant way.

A few minutes spent on those beaches, on the cliffs, in the cemetery learning about the losses and your heart sinks and your throat tightens.

Good post Bets. Rememberance is perfect name for those activities, certainly not festivities.which To me implies gaiety. Just my opinion. To stand there and absorb the atmosphere is truly a sobering experience. How many lives lost.

Unless you like sitting in traffic and being pressed in by very large crowds, or unless the 80th anniversary is somehow special to you (maybe you have a family member who participated who is still alive), then I would not go.

I live on the Cotentin Peninsula and drove over to a few D-Day sites this year on the 6th. They were packed. Roads were full. Crowds were daunting. Sure, you could probably hit the isolated German battery, or, say, the German cemetery at Marigny-le-Lozon that is not particularly crowded, but judging on what the 79th anniversary was like, and reading every week or so in newspapers (Ouest France and La Manche Libre) about the extensive planning underway for the 80th, I can tell it's going to be a big deal and the crowds will be extensive.

Go if it's important to you on that particular day. Go if you're committed to being a part of that spectacle.

But go another day or another year if you'd rather have more freedom of movement, peace, and solitude to reflect on what happened.

Are these (events) festive?

Some are, some are very somber. Remember, while Americans, Brits and Canadians remember the tragedy and certainly the lives lost, for the local French, this is a celebration of liberation. Even though they lost many more lives in their liberation than the Americans did. And yes, many of those events (particularly those hosted by the locals) are indeed festive. The town of Saint-Mère-Église has bands, bar-b-ques and dancing in the streets along with parades and fireworks. And much of the U.S. military presence is indeed festive. The airborne and other soldiers truly know how to party. If you don't believe me, go to the Stop Bar in downtown Sainte-Mère any afternoon or evening that whole week.

Related to the "festive" rather than "somber," terminology remember that to many locals the term D-day "Invasion" sounds very peculiar. to the French, the Allies weren't the invaders, they were the liberators. Before June 6th, they knew all about actual "invasions." Today they celebrate liberation.

Thank you PharmerPhil for this excellent description and explanation. All we see in the news reports are the somber ceremonies.
However, I remember when I first moved to western Europe in the early 1970s, people in the older generation would thank me for what the United States had done to help liberate them. One woman in Amsterdam still had the wrapper pinned on her wall from her first loaf of bread dropped from the sky by the Americans. Up until then, they had been starving. Just my presence, and that of other Americans in Europe, though few in number compared to today, would trigger their memories.

I will be the opposite voice. As much as I appreciate the sacrifice made in June of 1944, and I have visited the area, I would stay away not only this June but any June.

I don't like crowds.

As far as long term planning is concerned, I'll be back in France towards the end of May . Normandy is on my time schedule for ca. a month later, ie towards the end of June, depending on how the other parts of the French trip and Paris work out.

I would not attend during that time period. We visited in Nov 2019 and chatted with our apartment host about the 75th anniversary events. He highly discourages people from attending during that time. Streets are closed, access to certain places is limited due to dignitaries visiting. He said it’s a general mess and a bit of a headache to navigate. It will be more so on the big anniversary years.

I am going to Normandy for the 80th anniversary for 5 days. I booked a tour last year for June 5th but then I found a website online that said the American Cemetery will be CLOSED to the public on the 5th and 6th for ceremonies so I switched my private tour to the 4th. I am expecting it to be very busy but I’m hoping everything is spread out enough to make it bareable.

I won't be at the actual D-Day activities far too crowded but later on in June. With all the special events going on, I expect accommodations in Bayeux and other Normandy towns to be crowded or worse, sold out.

Two places I am staying in Normandy where normally international tourists don't swamp them....Lisieux and Cherbourg, from which day trips nearer to the beaches can be made.

I wouldn't
I am a tour guide and still vividly remember as i was hired to guide on June 6th 2004 (already 20 years ago). I was glad i got lucky to tour veterans who had landed there, BUT so many roads were blocked as so many heads of state are invited for official ceremonies, we were stuck outside of Bayeux and the english police in charge would not let anyone drive, so we were stuck for hours.
Go there before or after 6th June, but not on the very day 6th June in my opinion.

You don't say how many are in your party, but I just looked on Airbnb and there is still plenty of lodging available. For kicks, I chose June 4-8 and 2 people, and many things popped up. As for the crowds, I don't know. We're planning to be there in June, but not on D-Day. As for me, I would think being there on that particular day would be worth it. To me, complaining about the crowds is like going to NYC on NYE and saying there are too many people. Well? Isn't that the point? How many times in your life can you be there on D-Day, and the 80th anniversary, no less. Sure, you could go on a rainy October day next year, but who'd want to do that?

Let’s not get our under garments all bunched-up over the term “festivities” when describing a trip to Normandy. Our ancestors fought and many died there so we could do exactly that, be festive.

That said, near St. Mere-Eglise I met a gentleman named John. When he learned I was from the U.S., he gently grabbed my hand and arm and thanked me for freeing his country. When I said I wasn’t here then, he said, “Your father was, your uncle was, your grandfather and grandmother was.” We both had tears in our eyes. We then had a drink, talked and laughed. And yes, it was festive.

Precious few veterans are left. Their heritage lives on in these ceremonies. Some of the French, and many of the Dutch, use the occasions to help educate the heirs of those who were liberated, with school children taking part in the commemoration. But I'm not sure what that aspect would be obvious to tourists.

My brother was born on D-Day. I was born on his 8th birthday.

My nephew and I have been planning to go for June 6, 2024. It will be crazy (IMO) on the 6th, so we're actually planning to do our tour, etc., before the 6th, stay at a 'beach' house on the west side of the peninsula (north of Granville) the night of the 4th and 5th and leave the morning of the 6th. So technically, we will be in Normady on the 6th, but leaving.

I read that they expect 35 heads of state. I also read that the American Cemetery will be closed on the 5th (fortunately my nephew arrange and all day tour on the 4th that should go there). On the 6th the area near Omaha beach will be closed to cars that don't have a pass.

I'm glad that I booked rooms a while back, prices do look kind of crazy now. Since I have reserved a car I have more flexibility and am able to stay at B&Bs outside Caen and Bayeux prior to the 2 nights in the 'beach house'.

I have visited both the Lorraine and Meuse-Argonne cemeteries in the past month (these are the largest WWII & WWI cemeteries) and talked with a director for the American Battlefields Monument Commission about Memorial Day (when they perform ceremonies at the cemeteries) and D-Day (when all the sites have something planned.) Visiting the cemeteries is best done Memorial Day, and even then will be crowded. France very much remembers those wars. Even the small towns will have ceremonies, and there are not many towns in France without a memorial to one of, if not multiple, the wars.

D-Day anywhere near Normandy is going to be very crowded. They will bus in thousands. There will be representatives from every Government in the EU, GB & USA, and beyond in the area. Military units will send detachments and color guards, security will be very heavy with the ongoing political situation foremost.

Don't forget that France is hosting the Olympics at the same time. They expect over 1 million visitors over last year in France this summer. I won't be one of them.

I’ve been at the beaches on June 6 and the speeches and hoopla really don’t mean much. If you read a little about that day and visit Normandie on most any day you’re emotionally dead if you don’t feel something.

Bottom line it’s not necessary to be there on a 0 or 5 anniversary year. Go there armed with knowledge and it will be fine ……any time. My caveat is I will be in Normandie on June 6 but at a small local cemetery with Frenchmen and mostly the English commemorating the bravery of brave men and women.

Don't forget that France is hosting the Olympics at the same time.

Nope. The Olympics opening ceremony isn't until July 26, seven weeks after D Day.