marthag

We will be taking the train to Deauville, then the bus to Honfleur in mid-September. We'll have about four hours in Honfleur. Is this long enough to get a flavor of the town and to justify the travel time? I'm hoping people will say "yes", because I don't know when I'll have another chance to get to Honfleur. On the other hand, if it is too much travel time (3 hours each way) for not enough visiting time, we'll take a different day trip that is closer to Paris, like the Loire Valley.
Thanks for any advice you can give me.

Underhill

Honfleur is fairly compact, and you could certainly get a feel for the town in the time available. With four hours in Honfleur you can visit the harbor, the lovely old wooden church and the old part of the town, and the folk-art museum and/or marine museum. I don't know whether that's enough to balance against 6 hours of travel time; some of that, however, could be fairly scenic. scenic.

GregY2

4 hours would be enough to have a good look at the town which, as Underhill says, is quite small. I do think though that it is a lot of travelling for not a lot of time there and I would certainly vote for seeing something closer to Paris. I don't think that the Loire would be the answer either though as your transport is probably going to take you to Toours and you then need to decide what in the Loire you want to see - Chenonceau, Chambord etc and there would then be travel to get there so you would probably still spend your 6 hours 'on the road'. It may be that you have seen all of the closer places to Paris but, if not you might think about Monet's garden at Giverny, or take the train to Fontainebleau, or even Rouen which is not that close but which you could get to driectly and where you could easily spend a day.

Ronda

I don't know anything about Honfleur but by TGV it only takes an hour to get to Tours. The Loire is very difficult to see by train and thus you will need to either rent a car in Tours or pick up a tour bus. You may be able to pick up a tour bus in Paris that will take you to either the Lorie or Honfleur. Check Rick Steves books for suggestions.

Gretchen

I wouldn't spend that much time to get to and visit Honfleur. It's cute, but not that cute. The idea of Tours and the Loire is reasonable--or go to Lyon and have a memorable meal.
Or Giverney, Auvers sur Oise, Chartres.
Or even Rouen--interesting city, wonderful art museum.

RonZ

The area around Honfleur is a great one to explore, but I wouldn't dream of going there on a day trip. There is also very little to see in Deauville itself. You can earch on this board for daytrips closer to Paris. I also have a file to e mail. Vaux-le-Vicomte and Auvers-sur-Oise [notably the impressionist show at the Auvers Chateau] and Chantilly have been favorites of ours.

Christina

I've been to Honfleur as a day trip and think it was fine for that purpose, as it is really small. I didn't go by public transportation, though, I went with someone who lived in Paris and had a car, so the drive was a little shorter than that. We were music students so wanted to go specifically to see the new Erik Satie museum, though (this was a couple years ago), although we did other things in town that day (as well as having lunch). I don't think I would have gone just for the other reasons, without the Satie agenda, though.

It's still not that bad as you can just relax on the train and see the countryside, if you want. I think four hours in Honfleur is fine (we probably didn't have longer than that, not much, anyway, before we left). I wouldn't put it at top of my list for day trips for someone who hasn't seen a lot of the other usual ones, however.

I don't think the loire valley as a whole is going to be that easy, either, though, for a day trip, not take a lot less time. Yes, you can get to Tours in about 1:15, but then have to do something else to go elsewhere (train or bus or whatever). You could go to one chateau town on the rail line, though, in a day trip (like Blois, but that's not a real typical chateau in many ways--maybe Amboise). YOu aren't really seeing the Loire Valley on trips like that, though.

marthag

Thank you all for your helpful replies. It hadn't occurred to me that maybe Honfleur wasn't "extra special". And I didn't realize that the Loire daytrip would also be so much traveling. I think I'll save both locations for future trips, when I can spend the night nearby and have more time in the area. Maybe I'll take a tour to Fountainbleu or Vaux-le-Vicomte. Thanks for the dose of "reality therapy".