Normandy Beaches guide

The following is a cut/paste from a post of ours on this topic earlier in the year. Using the Search field, above, will produce plenty of responses to similar inquiries.

"You'll get many others, all with countless positive reviews. Regardless of the guide, a tour is a good idea...you won't get lost; no parking hassles; and you'll likely learn and see far more than you would on your own. (A tour that ends with the flag lowering/taps ceremony at the American Cemetery will be memorable.)

"The Forum has several threads with recommendations/comments accessible thru the Search field above. We used [in 2016] Bertrand Saudrais (Executive D-Day Tours): excellent all-day tour, customized to your particular interests; picks you up/delivers you back to your hotel; running commentary supplemented with photos, maps, anecdotes; charming, humorous and thoughtful (suggested a carry-out lunch from cafe in Sainte-Mère-Église that we enjoyed while riding to the next stop -- not a wasted moment, all day). His website: http://www.executived-daytours.com/ (includes a button/link to TripAdvisor reviews.)"

We booked through Viator - but they are a consolidator and they hooked us up with Overlord ( many people on these forums have used Overlord)
We had a wonderful guide - a young man (Adrian) who was a expert in the history of the area. Perfect English speaker - he went to high school in the US.)
We took a 1 day tour to the beaches and the tour also took us to the cemeteries and some of the small towns with significant history of D-day.
Try to be at the American Cemetery at 4:00pm when they lower the flags and play taps. It is a very moving experience.
We got to walk on Utah, Omaha, and another small beach area too.
It was perfect.

We were staying in Bayeux for 3 nights and so the next full day we used the same guide (and Overland (Adrian)) for a full day tour of Mont St. Michel - it was also
wonderful.
We had a modern 10 passenger van both days (there were 8 of us traveling together) They probably use a smaller vehicle for smaller groups.

My husband and I did a private tour with Dale Booth in 2005 and we still talk about that travel day twelve years later. Not cheap, but worth every penny to us. He was able to combine a Band of Brothers & full day American tour to hit all of our "must-see's" in one day. The B & B run by Dale and his wife Debbie was excellent as well
http://dboothnormandytours.com/

ellen,

There are lots of English-speaking Normandy tour guides, especially as some of them are originally from the U.K. Some of the things you'll have to consider are.....

• do you want a half day, full day or longer tour?
• your profile doesn't indicate your location, but I assume you're mainly interested in the U.S. sites?
• do you want a "shared" tour that provides transportation as well?
• what price range are you comfortable with?

Some of the usual favourites here are.....

• https://www.overlordtour.com/
• http://dboothnormandytours.com/
• https://www.ddayhistorian.com/
• http://www.visitdday.com/ (if you have your own transportation)

You'll have to contact them for prices and availability. Once you've decided on a tour, I'd highly recommend reserving a spot, as they can book up quickly at some times of the year.

Tours catering to the British Commonwealth campaign will vary somewhat. Canadians particularly may be interested in the tank battles outside Caen. There is a Canadian war museum on the seafront, mildly controversial for its political motivation when it opened something like a decade ago. It tries to cover military history beyond D-Day, superficially in my opinion, but make up your own mind.