My husband and I are planning a trip with three friends, (5 people) in London on May 16, 2020. We are going on a tour from there.
We want to tour Normandy first, and wind up in London on the May 15th. We are thinking that we will fly from Miami to Paris, take a 3 or 4 day tour of Normandy, and then take a train or ferry from Normandy or Paris to London. We're thinking of a private tour with a driver and guide, or a small organized tour.
Do you have any Normandy tours or guides that you can recommend? Also, any recommended travel from Normandy to London? Special hotels in Normandy area?
Posted by
3256 posts
We were very happy with Overlord Tours this past September.
We have stayed at the Hotel d'Argouges and the Churchill Hotel in Bayeux. Both of them are excellent, IMHO.
You can take the train from Bayeux to Gare St. Lazare in Paris, take a cab to Gare du Nord, and then take Eurostar back to London. We have done this in reverse. You just need to allow enough time for the fairly short trip from Gare St. Lazare to Gare du Nord.
Posted by
Davis CA
759 posts
Estimated Prophet just outlined your trip - tour group and hotels. Overlord has a very nice 2 day tour. But you may have to move your schedule a day or two to match up with them. They do get booked up. Contact them now. Great folks to work with.
Posted by
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
4053 posts
This site is useful for short-hop flights in Europe. It shows an early-afternoon flight from Caen to London on Flybe. Fairly cheap, even with a taxi to Caen airport (or there is a new light-rail shuttle, the airport website says.) The London airport is Southend, somewhat outside the city itself but train service takes less than an hour to Liverpool London station. This route should be faster and cheaper than the train via Paris.
Posted by
3256 posts
I hope I'm not "hijacking", but has anybody actually taken that flight between Caen and London? It sure looks good on paper.
Posted by
Mayberry on the Willamette
323 posts
Several years ago we used a private guide in Normandy. It was fantastic. He drove us around in his small van. Picked us up & dropped us off at the train station. He grew up in Normandy. His grandparents lived there during the occupation. I highly recommend Mathias. If you have any connection to D Day he will research & do the trip with that in mind. We saw several sites that the bigger tours don't go to
Posted by
Rockville, MD, USA
598 posts
We found Dale Booth to be an excellent guide of the D-Day sights (we took the two-day American Beaches tour), but his private tours book up quickly. He has one day available in May 2020, it's the 4th. https://dboothnormandytours.com/
We stayed at the Reine Mathilde and took the train to/from Paris and the Eurostar from there as described by others.
Posted by
Grand Rapids, MI
768 posts
We were Very pleased with Allan Bryson of http://firstnormandybattlefieldtours.com/
He drove us around in his van and had an amazing knowledge of what happened where and why.