Trip to Normandy from London

The best two options are to either rent a car or take the train. With the car you can do your own tour, however, with the train you will need an organized tour to visit the beaches (best option from either Caen or Bayeux). Either way, my opinion is that it is not a possible or worthwhile trip for one day.

"The best two options are to either rent a car..."

I just hate that drive across the Channel.

Yes, I was hoping to leave London early in morning, tour the beaches and return to London that night. From what I read, it doesn't seem practical. What is the best way to get from London to the beaches? Train to Calais and then car? Ferry?

Rail only goes to Bayeux or Caen, thus by process of elimination it gets down to renting a car when you get off in France. You won't get back to London that day.

Scott,

That's going to be a very difficult trip to accomplish in one day! Is there any possibility you could make an overnight trip to Normandy? I'm sure it would be a much more interesting and rewarding experience than just stopping for a few hours and having a brief look.

The most direct method would be EuroStar from London St. Pancras to Gare du Nord, transfer to Gare St. Lazare and train to Caen or Bayeux. I haven't checked the timing of the connections, but the trip would probably be 4-6 hours each way! That doesn't leave much time for touring.

It's quite likely that travel by budget airline would be about the same, after allowing time to and from airports (in England probably Luton or Stansted and France probably Orly or Beauvais), waiting, check in, security, etc. Add to that the train time to Normandy.

If you had an unlimited budget, hiring a Helicopter would be the fastest method, but that's not an option for most of us.

If you were able to manage an overnight trip, train to Bayeux and then take a BattleBus tour the following morning (tours depart at 08:00 sharp!) would be the preferred method.

There may be some way to accomplish this? Hopefully someone else here can provide that information.

Good luck and happy travels!

Another way would be by ferry from the South Coast and perhaps a rental car or bus the other side, but still not a comfortable day trip.
This site will show you the routes available to you. I don't know whether booking through them is the cheapest way but you could compare their prices against booking direct with the ferry companies.

http://www.directferries.co.uk/normandy.htm

We had the same question a month or so ago. The best wisdom was that this is not a reasonable day-trip destination from London. It is best to stay overnight in Bayeaux or nearby.

Swan referred to a thread on this subject last month. Here's what I said there:

If you take the first Eurostar from London to Paris and catch a train from there to Caen, the earliest you would arrive is 11:59. That might give you enough time to catch an afternoon tour, most of which end at 17:30. If you can catch the 17:58 train to Paris, you'll arrive in time to catch the last Eurostar to London which departs at 21:13 and arrives at 22:34. Important note: The times I gave you are for weekdays. Service is more limited on weekends.

If you want to take a tour out of Bayeux, the above plan won't work. While you might get to Bayeux in time for an afternoon tour, you won't finish in time to cach the last train you could take to connect with the last Eurostar.

Having spelled out everything above, I strongly encourage you not to attempt this. If you're going to all the effort and expense of getting from London to Normandy and back, don't shortchange yourself. Stay overnight and take an all-day tour.

Well said, Tim.

I just hate that drive across the Channel.

It is possible to get a car across the channel quite rapidly by taking a Le Shuttle train from Folkestone to Calais (http://www.eurotunnel.com). These are car-carrying trains through the Channel Tunnel and are much faster than car ferries. Normandy is still not a practical day trip from London though.

Thanks, everyone. This really helps.