Battlebus Tours
 

Planning our trip to France in October. We are going to be in Normandy for about four days, and are definitely going to book a tour with Battlebus. SO and I are huge WWII buffs but also don't really like being tied down and committed too much when on vacation. I'd love opinions on whether the one day American tour is enough or if it really is imperative to do the two day tour.

Thanks!

Topping.

I know someone here has an opinion for me!

Please!!!!

I took one-day tour, but not Battlebus. One day was enough for me and I'm a history buff.

I hope you get more responses.

We took the one day tour with Battlebus last summer. Myself, my mother and my 16 yr old daughter. We were kicking ourselves for not taking the 2 day tour, it was that good. We had been to the area once before, but the guide really made it on this trip.

Well, thanks, Gary and mms. Now I have a split decision! Just kidding, I do appreciate the comments. I hope more people will add their opinions. I am really torn on this.

If you are really that torn about it, it would be better to take two days and make sure you're getting enough than regret it later.

I have done the American Battlebus tour and was very satisfied with it. The price was good and most important the guide was truly a D-Day expert. The guides are British and are very well qualified and since they use vans you will be in a small group of 8 or so. I thought the 1 day tour was enough.

Larry J

Heading to Normandy in Sept '09 and staying in Bayeux. I've emailed Battlebus several times but haven't gotten a response or confirmation yet. Any ideas on how else to contact them (and if they are even still in business?)

Ken

They might be quite swamped at the moment with all the D-Day preparations. We also had problems with the email, we were using Yahoo. When we switched to hotmail, they got our emails. I think I called them too.

Just in case you are wondering, we did the 2 day American Experience tour and were absolutely thrilled with it. Most worthwhile thing we have done and we are both history buffs, though I think even non-history buffs enjoy this tour. Would love to go back and do the British Experience and the Canadian Experience too. The guides present everything in such a fascinating manner. There is no way we would have come close to having such an intense visit to this area by just driving around. Hearing the personal stories was such a plus.
Good luck with your trip.

We ended up not doing the tour when we went and I really regret it. I hope you get hold of them, atcken.

I also ended up not doing the tour and regret it. Now I have to go back to Normandy just for the tour!

Have you checked your spam folder? We too had a problem getting email at first, and I don't remember what the solution was. I might have switched to my gmail account or something, but anyway, I called them and we got it straightened out very easily. Definitely follow up on it as it is so worth it!

Has anyone with a significant knowledge of Operation Overlord shelled out for the Battlebus? Was it worth it? It seems to me that those who praise it had no idea what happened on 6/6/44, and they're paying for being spoon-fed history.

To Robespierre,

You can not possibly know that. As for me; I praised the Battle Bus Tour and I know a little about the D-Day Invasion. My cousin died there.

Larry J

Robes, my SO is a huge WWII buff, D-Day in particular. He assured me he would be able to do as well as Battlebus and we would have more fun on our own. We both now wish we had done Battlebus.

My friend and I made a Normandy trip last fall and one of the highlights of the trip was the BattleBus tour. I highly recommend this outfit. We took the two day American Experience tour, which incorporated both major beaches on two separate days as well as numerous other historical stops (St. Mere Eglise, Pont du Hoc, etc.). Our guide was a British citizen living in Normandy who was obviously a real history buff and just did a fantastic job of describing in detail every aspect of the stops on our tour. A real plus was the small size of our tour - we only had 8 people on our tour and were transported around in a passenger van. We often noted how there were very large tour buses stopping at the major sites - with our small group we were able to explore not only the major sites but out of the way historical areas that the "big boys" couldn't get to. Our guide used multiple photos at every stop as well as very interesting anecdotal stories to place each location into a historical perspective. As you can tell, I highly recommend BattleBus tours and if you have the time, I'd recommend the two day tours - the 1 day tours we passed or met up with seemed rushed and weren't lingering to experience each location like we were able to do. By the way, we stayed at Hotel Churchill in Bayeux and this hotel worked out fine and the BattleBus tour picked us up right in front of the hotel.