We have a family group trip of 11 with a cruise stop in La Havre end of this July…2026. My husband and I have done a full day tour with Overlord before and were very pleased. We have tried booking with them again as they do trips from La Havre. We are having some issues booking with them. Saying they cant guarantee the date. We may be too early 7 mths out for the mini bus tour we prefer? But we like to book early and be organized. Does anyone know of or can recommend another tour company for Normandy D-day sites that works with cruise shore excursions out of La Havre port?
Posted by
Somewhere out there
191 posts
You might search here as I’ve seen others with the same desires. With 11 people you should contact the large tour companies for custom arrangements. Overlord Tours comes to mind. My personal favorite is Gold Beach Tours. In any event if you’re limited to one day much of your time will be spent in transit and it’s an unalterable fact that you’ll see a lot of Normandie from the window of a bus or large van and small bites of the all encompassing history of D-Day.
If this is the once in a lifetime visit splurge on the best arrangements possible. Tour companies in Normandie are easy to do in search mode. Don’t ask for “best” as everyone will tell you their own memorable story and swear that their tour was the best.
Posted by
Long Beach, Ca, usa
2884 posts
all2alb,
Veteran traveler is correct that a day trip from Le Havre (note spelling) would entail a good amount of bus time with a relatively short time at the DDay beach sights. If you do arrange this, go for as early a departure as possible. And if you need to return to the ship by a certain time, I would be very nervous about that as you could run into traffic difficulties. Allow extra time for return.
Posted by
OP
562 posts
Thank you…ooops Le Havre. And I try not to make those errors. Embarrassing! Anyway we are very aware we have limited time to see the sites. Its a very long day that our ship is docked at port as some shore excursions go to Paris for the day. That we know not to do!! We only need to see a few sites as this time as we’ll have 5 grandkids with us. They are perfect ages for this now. Most tour companies are very good about times allowed by ships. We both loved our Overlord years ago…but right now they cant confirm if our day works for them. Just looking for other similar good tour companies people have used that might work for us that day. Thank you.
Posted by
Lake District, England
11167 posts
There is a company called shore excursions group who do D Day tours from Le Havre- https://www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com/port/le-havre-shore-excursions
They do shore excursions worldwide, and quite a few of the American cruise you tubers swear by them.
They guarantee to get you back to the ship on time. Or, if they really can't then they will pay your hotel costs and transport costs to your next port + US$1,000 in compensation. No you tuber I am aware of has actually experienced them fail to get you back, so I'm not sure how often that promise is ever put to the test.
Posted by
Washington DC
30104 posts
I wonder whether the issue with Overlord is that the company hasn't set its pricing for 2026 yet.
A search of this forum will turn up names of other companies folks here have used and been happy with. (It's very unusual to see a negative comment about a D-Day tour.) I used Overlord myself, so I have no personal experience to share.
I'd tend to prefer a company that specializes in D-Day tours. I really valued the background information our driver/guide shared as we drove from point to point. I wouldn't be as confident about a company (especially a third-party company) that sells a variety of cruise-port tours. However, I've never taken a cruise, so perhaps I'm being unreasonable.