Normandy Globus D Day Tours

I haven't taken the tour you are interested in but I have been on a couple of Globus tours in Europe. (Don't smirk, boys and girls.). They are adequate ... you get what you pay for but I advise you to think of going on your own to that part of Normandy (some people on this board forget or do not know that Normandy is large and that inland from the Landing Beaches there is lots of interest and a lot of connections to WWII.). It is easily done from Paris and there are several tour companies offering comprehensive day tours. We did our own tour in a rental car years ago, with a map and information from town tourist offices.

I see from the Globus website that you have only 4 days in Normandy, not 5, and even the first day will end up being half a day only, since the bus leaves Paris at 8:00am, and when you arrive in Normandy there are the hotel check-in procedures, lunch etc. I see no mention on the website of accommodation but it will no doubt be adequate.

All this to say, think about it before you commit.

I've not taken this particular tour but, like Norma, I have taken Globus tours and they are fine - I enjoyed them a lot. One of the tours I took with them did spend time in Normandy and we saw enough of the D-Day sights to satisfy me and this one goes more in depth so, in that respect, I'm sure it's a fine tour with good guides and very informative. I took tours in my early days of traveling in Europe, now I do it mostly independently.

I looked at the tour info on Globus' website and it looks like it's basically: 1 night in Paris, transportation from Paris to Caen, 3 nights in Caen (hotel: Mercure Caen Centre Port de Plaisance), and day trips to the sights. This would be entirely possible to do on your own and, if you did, you could stay in Bayeux rather than Caen. Caen is good to visit but, in my mind, Bayeux would be a nicer place to spend 3 nights. Then you would just have to set up one, or more, day trips to the places you want to see. There are plenty of different full-day and 1/2 day tours with different itineraries for you to choose from.

If you prefer a tour to independent travel (lots of people do for various reasons) then I think this looks like a pretty good tour of the area covering most of the important sights and it's reasonably priced for what you get.

Thank you both for you're replies.
I found them very helpful.