Am Traveling To Normandy Beaches

I am looking to take my wife on a WWII tour for one week this July/August. Most tour operators only have tours that coincide with the big June 6th D-Day events and we can't travel at that time. Seems like nobody on the search engine we tried (Google) wants our business? If you've been to the French battlefields and were happy with your tour operator, I'd be happy to hear from you.
Thank you,
WWIIHISTORIAN

 

IMO, you should only use a tour if you are really pushed for time. You'll get an hour here, half an hour there and the whole thing will be too rushed unless that is what you're looking for - a quickie.

Personally as my mate Owen said, rent a car, take a guide book (I like the Mr and Mrs Holt guide to Normandy) and plan out before you go the key places you want to see....then leave plenty of time for each. Places like Pegasus Bridge, Point du Hoc, Merville Battery, the cemetaries, the beaches - all the "usual" places need a good few hours each in order to do them properly, see the museums, get a feeling out of them. Then of course there are the hundreds of "other" places where you could spend a year looking round, to be honest.

 

You could try Leger Holidays who have tours going out every weekend and week from the UK:

http://www.leger.co.uk/

However, as others have said it is just as fun to do it on your own. Plenty of guidebooks about and lots of ideas on my websites listed below. There are also tour companies based in Normandy you could use to pick up a day tour here and there if you felt you needed one; eg Battlebus.

 

Callin and see my dear friends Jaques and Coilette Tirard, at the little Hermanville Museum. We opened up the road to Hermanville in 1944.
Sapper

 

I found this site when I searched google. Hope it may be of some use!

http://www.battlebus.fr/tours/

if you got to page 8 they will do a personal tour in your car with one of their guides (but it isnt cheap) depends on what you wish to see

Have a good time

Andy

 

If you can try and do it yourself. Like Max's mate Owen I have done this a few times using the Holts guide. We usually stay in Port en Bessin which is fairly central for both the American and British zones. For the 60th we stayed in Houlgate which was great but quite a drag from Utah beach.

It is very difficult to get lost as most of the main sites from Pegasus bridge to Ste Mere Eglise are literally just off the main coast road.