Normandy road trip recommendations please!

[AdventureerutnevdA]

Hi everyone

Please could I ask for your recommendations for where to stay in Normandy?

Family of 5, travelling Poole-Cherbourg with the car.

We would like to visit:
Bayeux,
Honfleur,
Giverny,
Etretat,
Pont l'Eveque,
Mont St Michel,
some of the D-Day landing beaches and cemeteries.

Anywhere else you might suggest which is of particular interest? Or even - is there anything in my list which really isn't worth it?

Ideally (pipe dream?) we envisage staying in two places over 10 days with some time for R&R in between.

Villa / gite / inexpensive hotel with facilities / centre parcs equivalent - anything, really, is this feasible? It would be wonderful to think we wouldn't have to use the car on some days, and just amble to a cafe / bar and watch the world go by.

#roadtrip

Thank you ☺️

We rented an apartment in Cabourg and covered most of the places you mention. Lovely sandy beach and lots of restaurants, mini golf, tourist train etc. William the Conquerer's castle at Falaise was good. We spent the other week in Dinard in Brittany and visited Dinant, St Malo etc. Pierre et Vacances have a few places in Normandy with pools. www.pierreetvacances.com/gb-en/fp_BRL_self-catering-branville-holiday-village?currency=GBP

@MissAmbrosia thank you so much for your response - that's great to know! Do you by any chance remember roughly how long it took to drive to Mont St Michel if you visited there?

Love Dinard. Love nothing more than the butter with such large flakes of salt in it, spread on a fresh baguette. Yum!

I was going to post a similar thread today asking for ideas when Normandy, so will follow this thread!

We've just got to the point where we feel the five of us in a car is going to be easier and more financially viable for us this year.

It doesn't seem like many have done it! Though I'm holding out hope for further recommendations!

I have a army/war obsessed 9 year old so we thought we'd drive over too, go to Dunkirk, then Normandy and then Spain. Dh loves driving and I'm not a massive fan of flying, plus we can wait we want without worrying about weight limits etc. I have been to the Normandy when I was in primary school, when it was 50 years since the D-day landings- so a while ago 😳.

Barneville has a really lovely beach where you can swim, sunbathe ,have an ice cream and fly kites. The flying kites was a massive plus for for DS3 who was about 11 when we went, and the beach was wide enough for games of cricket in the evening. It's quite small but there are a few shops and restaurant/cafes and a supermarket nearby so you can self cater very easily.
I think it was about an hour or so to Bayeux for the tapestry ( teens loved this) and not too long a drive from Cherbourg ( maybe an hour?).

I've done a couole of holidays in Normandy. The distances are quite far apart. I would do a few days around Bayeux (lovely) for all the D-Day beaches etc and a few days near Honfleur (Deauville and Trouville also both worth visiting and you could get to Etretat). You would be looking at around an hour and a half for day trips to Mont St Michel and Giverny from those locations though.

I stayed in Honfleur a good few years back. It was nice as a couple, but I’d locate myself somewhere beachier now with a DC and visit as a day trip. I have a soft spot for Deauville which has a wide sandy beach and a town that gives off strong Poirot vibes

Given your list, I’d split the holiday between a ‘beach base’ and a ‘country base’ and then do day trips accordingly. Lots of the driving is down lanes so it takes longer.

Have you considered a mobile home (or two) on a nice site with pool etc? Great for downtime with DC.

Also the overnight ferry is fun with DC if you get a cabin. Depends on their ages but we would to book a cabin plus a reclining seat then 2 smallest DC would top and tail in a bunk. Very exciting boarding at 11pm in their pyjamas then waking up in France for a croissant breakfast.

Wow this is fab - thank you so much! Very useful to know about the distances - perhaps next year we should do Poole-Cherbourg, then drive down direct to Mont St Michel and cover northern Brittany.... thank you for clarifying.

We can't decide whether to try and stay in Honfleur (and day trip to Etretat / Giverny / Deauville) and then stay in Bayeux (and day trip to the beaches and cemeteries).

Or - whether we should stay beachside (the recommendations of Deauville sound wonderful, wide sandy beach and cricket in the early evening sounds lovely!) - and do our adventuring from one base.

Perhaps it would work to have two bases over the ten day period: one Bayeux side, and one Deauville side...

Any recommendations for actual places to stay would be hugely appreciated. Thank you.

We stayed at the p et v at Dives https://www.pierreetvacances.com/gb-en/fpDMLL_self-catering-cabourg-port which felt more part of a community rather than a holiday village. Deauville/Trouville is nice to wander around, the Pegasus bridge museum and Beaches are quite emotional.

Thank you - can you walk to the beach / cafes / restaurants from here? Is Dives a pleasant town to stay in for a week or so? Is there a large supermarket nearby for grocery shopping? Thank you!

Cancel (in Brittany but about 50km from Mont St Michele) is a great place for lunch - renowned for oysters.

Le Touquet has a good market on a Saturday morning.

First world war - the Newfoundland memorial at Beaumont Hamel.

Cancale, not cancel!

It was about ten years ago but it was set on a pleasant residential area, easy walk to the beach and fresh fish market. Small town square a bit further away (think we drove) and supermarkets a short drive away. We did the DDay beaches, Bayeux, Falaise castle, Deauville etc.

Bayeux is great as a base for a few days, inc for some of the D Day beaches.
Trouville is a lovely old-fashioned seaside town, with a gorgeous beach.
Deauville takes itself a bit too seriously, and is expensive, so I wouldn't spend more than a couple of hours there.

The Memorial (peace museum) in Caen is good.

Are you going in the summer? Giverny is heaving in the holidays. Try to get there early, as you have to queue and it can be for ages. Mont St Michel is also extremely busy. Are you planning to go over the causeway or do the guided walk out? The walk is great, we take our year 7s every year. They love creating quicksand.

Falaise is also great. Honfleur is very pretty but the restaurants are generally overpriced for the quality. Make sure you get your tide timing right for Étretat.

Oh and do visit the wooden church in Honfleur. It’s lovely.

Port en Bessin near Bayeux was nice years ago. Bayeux could be good. The site www.amivac.com is good for gîtes and cheaper than gîtes de France. Bayeux should have tourist info on their website.

Possibly not that much help accommodation wise as I know you want to walk to places but we went in May last year and stayed deep in the countryside in the most amazing place for a ridiculously reasonable price

lesforieres.fr/

We drove for day trips to Honfleur, Bayeux and the landing beaches (the Normandy American cemetery is a must), Rouen which is gorgeous on the drive down from Calais and even took the train to Paris for the day. But the thing my boys absolutely adored was the incredible Acroforest climbing forest (think GoApe but ten times better)

Love Normandy

Pictures of the gite are here but cheaper to book with the gorgeous owners direct

abnb.me/WZfucwRDAwb

We stayed in Caen and went to places such as Bayeux and Normandy beaches from there as a base. In Caen we could get a tram to the centre too.

Mont St Michel you can actually stay on. Pricey but fab as you arrive in the afternoon and leave in the morning so get it when it is less busy. We were 2 adults 2 children and went all in one room to save money. It was a bit like staying in a fairy tale.

We also went to St Malo and stayed there, then came back via a week in Jersey.

We have had many family holidays in Normandy but further round the coast where we have friends near Dieppe. So for that area we would visit St Valery en Caux,site of a huge ww2 battle resulting in the capture of the 51st Highland Division. Lots of cemeteries and memorials. Etretat and Deauville are nice,the village of Veules les Roses ridiculously picturesque and a day in Rouen is worth it.