leeg

My cruise ship will be in Lehavre next month for one day. I have about 11 hours. I would like to tour Honfleur and Rouen. It seems I will need to rent a car as there are no trains between Rouen and Honfleur and I don't want to rely on a bus. The travel distances between cities is relatively short.

I would like to hear from anyone who has done this and how you did it. If by car, I would appreciate learning which rental agency that you used. Also, do you know of a rental agency that would meet me at the port in the beginning and at the end of the day? I don't think picking up/returning to the airport is viable? Is the train station close to the port? Taxi ride will do.

Finally, will it be a "If it's Tuesday it must be Belgium" type of a day. If so, which one city would you pick for the day? I realize that these are two very different cities.

jpie

I have done a trip somewhat similar to yours except I did not rent the car in Le Havre-but rather drove from Paris. I personally would spend the day on the coast area. Etretat, which is on;y 17 miles up the coast from Le Havre is a great little place. We had a great lunch there at a restaurant specializing in organic style foods-even organic wines. It is called the Salamandre

http://www.restaurantlasalamandre.co..._normandie.htm

Honfleur is great down the other direction about 30 miles from Etretat. You could also see Trouville and Deauvill which are fun places to visit.

I did visit Rouen and thought I would be more excited about it since my name is Jeanne-with all the Jeanne d'Arc stuff. But with only a short day I would focus on the coastal places.

It is definitely doable to include Rouen since Le Havre, Honfleur and back to Le Havre is only around 150 miles, but between the time required to rent and return a car, I would rather spend my time enjoying the more scenic beach towns.

Gretchen

The museum in Rouen is a lot more interesting than the Joan of Arc connection. The cathedral is interesting because of Monet's fascination with it. The road TO Rouen along the Abbaye Road is very interesting but you won't have time for that. Since you are on a cruise, seeing something inland might be more interesting than Honfleur, although it is charming and very accessible.

jpie

ditto on everything Gretchen said about Rouen. The cathedral is lovely, but with only a short day-still not sure I would make the trip-if I had an overnight for sure I would visit though.

StCirq

Rouen has so much to offer that I think I would find it frustrating to be on such a mad dash. Save it for another time and visit Honfleur and Deauville and Trouville and Etretat.

leeg

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Much appreciated.

seafox

You need to ask yourself the question around when will you be back or have the opportunity again. If it is not likely than I would do it. But do it with FOCUS. Decide up front what you must see/do and stick to the plan - if time allows going off plan is fine.

dcdee

We did something similar in Sept. 2008 when on an Oceania cruise. The ship docked at the Quai Roger Meunier on the south side of the port basin. We rented a car, arranged in advance, from National Car Rental, whose office was on the Quai de Southampton, directly across the port basin from our ship. It was a fairly long walk around the port basin for my DW's knees so we took a taxi (8E)to the car rental office.

The cost of the rental for the day, including super CDW with $0 deductible, was $130. National provided a decent map of LeHavre and the tourist info desk at the port near the ship gangway had a map of Rouen's central area. We drove to Rouen on A expressways. I don't recall specific details but we had no trouble finding our way or getting to central Rouen where we parked in an underground garage a block from the cathedral.

We had originally planned to go to Honfleur also but it was close to 4 p.m. by the time we got back to the LeHavre area, the weather had turned gloomy and late afternoon traffic had picked up,so we just went back to the port area. The National agent drove us back to the ship.

We probably did not leave the ship before 9:45 or 10, so I'm sure with 11 hours in port you could easily see both Rouen and Honfleur if you get an earlier start than we did and you watch your time in Rouen.