We will be in Normandy for 3-4 days in September and would love a recommendation for a WWII tour guide for the beaches, museums, etc. I have heard a little about the Overlord tours, but, don't know much about them. We will have 2 couples and are ok with full day tours. Thank you!
Posted by
Downingtown, USA
2582 posts
We are taking our second all day tour with HQCompany tours next week. Highly Recommend. It is $650 for all day pick up and drop off at our bed and breakfast. 9-5PM. Best we ever spent. We are having the same guide as we requested him Yannick. I seem to remember a couple of others on. This site used them and they were pleased as.well.
Posted by
Boston
143 posts
Hi
Here's a link to a report I wrote based upon my November 2023 tour with Overlord. My guide was Antoine Muriel and I would absolutely recommend and use Overlord again.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/over-lord-tours-normandy-review
Good luck
Posted by
Long Beach, Ca, usa
1846 posts
sjdimmick,
There are dozens of comments about tour groups for the D Day beaches on this forum. In the search bar above enter Normandy DDay Tours, filter for "forum" and past one year. You will find tons of comments. In general, both Overlord and HQC have great reviews. You can read the specific comments there. In general, it seems that the cost for an all day tour is about $150-$160 per person for the day.
Bonne chance!
Posted by
Long Beach, Ca, usa
1846 posts
To add...the Normandy Liberation (invasion) area is much too large to cover it all in one full-day tour. You will have to check the tour companies' routes out to decide which one suits your wishes. Also, I would see how long they intend to spend at each of their stops to determine if that meshes with your wishes as well.
Good luck in your planning.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
15406 posts
I've toured with 2 different companies and by far enjoyed Dale Booth who was a step on guide on a Rick Steves tour. He was just awesome!
I'd not think you'd need guides for the museums. I do recommend spending time outside where the invasion happened instead of making your visit museum-heavy. I did not particularly enjoy the Caen Museum which is a Peace Museum but has a section on WWII and the invasion. YMMV
Posted by
Sacramento, California U.S.A.
10866 posts
We did an all day tour with Overlord in 2022 and enjoyed it very much. There were only 5 people on the tour and we used it as a springboard to go to other sites on our own with a car for a few more days.
Posted by
Solana Beach
123 posts
Based on a recommendation from this site we booked HQCompany.
https://hqcompanytour.com/d-day-group-tours/
We had a full day private tour for our group of 5.
Yannick collected us at our hotel in Rouen and dropped us at our hotel in Bayeux after the tour.
Our guide Yannick was knowledgeable, friendly, and went out of his way to make our tour special.
They also offer a Band of Brother's full day tour and a Mont Saint Michel full day tour.
Posted by
New Jersey
101 posts
I can also highly recommend HQ Company Tours! We had an excellent experience with our guide Gwenaël in November. He picked us up from our hotel in Bayeux, and was great with our multi-generational family group. We did the Band of Brothers tour