Paris to Normandy D-Day beaches by private car — fixed price

The landing beaches are spread over roughly eighty kilometres of coastline between Sainte-Mère-Église in the west and Ouistreham in the east. There is no train that serves them, no bus that links them sensibly, and the organised coach tours give you twenty minutes at each stop whether you wanted twenty minutes or two hours.

A private car turns that into a day you actually control. You are three hours from Paris on the A13, and once you are on the coast you move between the sites in ten to twenty minutes each, stopping for as long as the place deserves. The fixed price covers the whole vehicle, the tolls, the fuel and every hour your driver spends waiting in car parks while you walk the sand.

Distance

260 km

Drive time

3 h 00 each way

Day length

12–13 h door to door

From

€990

The sites, and how much time each one takes

Most visitors underestimate the distances and overestimate how many sites fit into a day. Four major stops is comfortable. Six is a route march. The pairing that works best for a first visit is the American sector in the morning and Arromanches in the afternoon.

Realistic timings

• Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer — 1 h 15, including the visitor centre
• Omaha Beach and the Les Braves memorial — 45 minutes
• Pointe du Hoc — 1 hour, the craters and the cliff-top battery
• Arromanches and the Mulberry harbour remains — 1 h 15 with the museum
• Utah Beach museum — 1 h 15, adds 45 minutes of driving from Omaha
• Sainte-Mère-Église — 45 minutes, best combined with Utah

American, British or Canadian sector?

If you are travelling from the United Kingdom or Ireland the itinerary often looks different from the standard American one. Gold Beach at Arromanches, Sword at Ouistreham, Juno at Courseulles and the Bayeux War Cemetery — the largest Commonwealth cemetery in France — form a tighter, less crowded circuit than the Omaha–Pointe du Hoc corridor.

Tell us which regiment, ship or relative you are following and we will build the route around it. Drivers who do this run regularly know which cemetery gates close at what hour and which memorials are a five-minute detour rather than a thirty-minute one.

Bayeux, and why it is worth the hour

Bayeux sits in the middle of the whole area and escaped the bombing almost intact. The tapestry takes about an hour with the audio guide, the cathedral another thirty minutes, and the town is the only sensible place on the coast to eat properly at lunchtime. If your day is running well it is the natural last stop before the drive back.

What makes this journey different

• Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc, Utah Beach and Arromanches in one day
• Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer
• British and Commonwealth cemeteries at Bayeux on request
• Time at each site decided by you, not by a coach timetable
• Licensed battlefield guide can be arranged in advance

How the day runs

1. 06:30Pick-up in Paris

   From your hotel, apartment or airport terminal.

2. 09:30Normandy American Cemetery

   Colleville-sur-Mer, with the visitor centre and the overlook onto Omaha.

3. 11:00Omaha Beach and Pointe du Hoc

   The Les Braves memorial, then the cliff-top battery and the craters.

4. 13:00Lunch in Bayeux or Port-en-Bessin

   Your driver will point you at somewhere that is not a tourist trap.

5. 15:00Arromanches

   The remains of the Mulberry harbour, still visible in the bay at low tide.

6. 19:30Back in Paris

   Or dropped at a Normandy hotel if you are staying on.

What the price includes

• The whole vehicle, not a seat: four people pay what one person pays.
• All motorway tolls and fuel, on both legs of the journey.
• Your driver’s waiting time at every stop, with no meter running.
• Parking charges at the sites you visit.
• Baby, child and booster seats, fitted free on request.
• Flight tracking and free waiting time if your plane lands late.
• Bottled water, phone chargers and Wi-Fi on board.
• A written invoice, issued by a licensed French VTC operator.

Frequently asked questions

Other journeys out of Paris