EASY SCHEDULES FOR THREE DAYS WITH TWO OVERNIGHTS SKY TOURS

Extending your sky tour of the Normandy Liberation Coast allows you to see much more than during a single day, however well planned. Spreading your tour over three days and two nights in France allows a far more ambitious aerial tour. We alter the flight plan and follow the route taken by the US 82 and 101 Airborne Divisions on the night of D Day. We fly over the American drop zones first before dropping down and flying along Utah Beach, Pointe du Hoc and Omaha Beach.

After continuing along the coast and the British Beaches, circling the famous Pegasus Bridge and Merville Battery and the British Drop Zones, we turn inland. This leg of your flying tour shows you the battlefields where the break-out from Normandy took place. Hitler's armies suffered three great defeats before their ultimate destruction became certain - Stalingrad, Tunisia and Normandy. We show you places such as Falaise Gap, Mortain and Saint Lo, all household words during summer 1944, while explaining what happened and why. Afterwards we land at Cherbourg and begin the ground tour.

The costs of touring for three days and staying two overnights are much less than you might imagine and a bargain compared with staying in Central London for the same number of days and nights. Because you are spending more than a day with us, both aircraft flights and the touring in Normandy are offered at a discount price.

 Some families/groups of friends wish to travel by ferry as well as by aircraft and we can arrange this providing you give us enough notice - we have control over booking our aircraft but not the ferries which become quite busy in summer! The same goes for the Channel Tunnel. We are always happy to provide quotes. When you compare our quote with the price of hotel rooms in Central London during summer and then add on the cost of eating out - just once a day properly - we offer a bargain.

Normally we make provisional reservations at hotels in France and then ask our clients to confirm directly with the hotel. This avoids our having to ask for a deposit. We can tell you how much to allow for your room, dinner and breakfast. We find that clients prefer to keep control of their own hotel bills. If you would like us to help confirm your hotel reservations, we will do so with pleasure, but all the hotels we recommend have reservations staff who speak and write English, so no communication problems. A deposit for your rooms is customary in France. Your guide stays in the same hotel and will help with French conversations.

Visiting Normandy with our sky tour is one of those trips of a lifetime. We strongly urge that you plan to stay in Britain for at least a week to allow for catching good weather for a one day tour. Spending an overnight or two in France allows us more flexibility over when we take the aerial part of the tour. Remember that D Day was cancelled twice because of storms after a scorching May. 

As with the single day tour, we arrange the programme to suit the visitors, and given below is the most popular three day/two overnights programme with American visitors.

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 The Longest Day - Overlord and Normandy Tour

Chauffer pick up with comfortable car at your Central London hotel - time arranged with you but we recommend starting just after the rush hour, around 9am.

We fly from Biggin Hill and Fairoaks near London and Hurn Airport near Bournemouth. The last one is a new schedule which allows a drive through some of the most beautiful countryside in Southern England. From Hurn to Normandy is a much shorter crossing than from the two airfields just outside London. This means that for similar cost we can offer you a flying tour where most of the time in the air is spent over the beaches, drop zones and old battlefields of Normandy.

Arrive at the airport, welcomed by your captain and guide, board our comfortable aircraft. Take off around noon. 

We brief on D Day and the liberation of Europe during the flight. We also serve coffee plus soft drinks and snacks.

Approximately 12.30 pm we reach the Channel Islands and turn east towards Normandy. Following the route taken by the American paratroops and glider troops on D Day we cross the Cotentin Peninsular and over-fly the small town of Saint Mere Eglise before passing above Utah Beach and crossing the mouths of the Rivers Douve and Vire. We make landfall over the Pointe du Hoc where the US rangers climbed the cliffs.

We then fly alongside Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery before continuing beside Gold Beach and the surviving caissons of the Mulberry Harbour, Juno Beach where the Canadians landed, followed by Sword Beach and the mouth of the River Orne.

After circling over the Merville Battery and Pegasus Bridge among the British and Canadian parachute and glider landing grounds, we turn inland, before flying westwards. We trace the line inland that the Allies hoped to reach on D Day and the actual front line. We point out villages and towns made famous during the several weeks long Battle of Normandy such as Falaise, Saint Lo and Mortain. After turning north and passing over Cotentin, Saint Mere Eglise and Valognes, we land at Cherbourg Airport. The time in France by now is mid-afternoon.

We meet our French colleague and set off by road through the very pretty bocage countryside for Saint Mere Eglise. On arrival we visit the American Airborne Museum and also visit the famous church which still has a replica paratrooper dangling from its tower. Depending on the time and the groups' consensus we either take a snack in the town or later beside Utah Beach.

South from the town we drive over the drop zones, fields and rivers where the 82nd and 101st US Airborne Divisions landed during the night of D Day and fought throughout several weeks. We leave the main road and head towards the coast and the pretty village of Mont Saint Marie du Mont. Beyond, across the fields, lies Utah Beach.

There is an excellent museum and all around lies debris from Hitler's Atlantic Wall.

The drive from Utah Beach to the ancient city of Bayeux takes just over an hour. We arrive with enough time to take a stroll around the beautiful old city before dinner. We spend the night at one of the fine hotels in the heart of the small city or else at a small chateau in the surrounding countryside. Miraculously the city  survived virtually intact. Despite fierce battles following D Day, Bayeux was taken so quickly that almost no fighting took place within its environs and the Germans retreated inland swiftly, leaving the city beyond range for their artillery; moreover to keep military traffic away from the old houses the Royal Engineers built a dirt by-pass around the town which serves as its ring road to this very day.

Bayeux Cathedral and the River Aure flowing through the city centre.

Next morning from Bayeux we drive north to see the big gun battery at Longues-sur-Mer where there is one of the finest views along the Normandy Coast. From Longues it's possible eastwards to see all the British and Canadian Beaches, most of the Mulberry Harbour wrecks, and westwards all the American Beaches. This gives our visitors a ground perspective of the size of whole D Day invasion and the vast effort involved to gain a foothold on the hostile coast to begin the liberation of occupied Europe.

Afterwards we arrive at the American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach. On the 6 June 2007 the new American Normandy Visitor Center opened alongside the cemetery. The design is very modern and striking with imaginative audio-visual displays including a wonderful interview with Ike when President, recalling D Day.

After visiting the cemetery and visitor center we drive down one of the draws leading onto the beach where old pill boxes still menace the shore.

We walk over the same sands where thousands of young men struggled ashore, climb the same bluffs overlooking the beach. Your guide explains not only what took place but why particular crises happened, why decisions were made on both sides, right and wrong, thereby giving deeper understanding of the countless heroic acts on that fateful morning, how the appalling situation was turned around.

We take a late lunch at a very welcoming restaurant with very good food. Afterwards we visit the Pointe du Hoc where the Rangers climbed the cliffs and captured a vital heavy gun battery. Around 5pm, having explored the deeply cratered point and discussed the crucial role of the Rangers, we return to Bayeux for the evening.

The Bayeux Tapestry depicting William the Conqueror's invasion and victory in 1066.

Next morning we will visit the Museum and see the 70 metre long tapestry that is now nearly 1000 years old. We'll also take a look at the Cathedral which is Gothic on the outside but has the most splendid Norman nave in the Romanesque style. There are countless wonderful old houses and during summer a market along the main street.

 Normandy's apple juice, cider, calvados and other apple based drinks are famous throughout France and Continental Europe. Because we have more time, depending on the group's wishes, we can also visit one of the finest orchards and taste the local specialities.

 Afterwards we travel by road along the coast past the Mulberry Harbour off Arromanches, beside Juno Beach where the Canadians landed - against the toughest opposition save Omaha Beach - and finally Sword Beach. We head inland to the famous Pegasus Bridge and the River Orne Bridge captured by British glider troops on the night of D Day. There is an excellent new museum and lunch follows at the famous Pegasus Cafe - the first house liberated in Europe and still owned by the same family.

Meanwhile the aircraft has arrived at Caen Airport. We take off during the afternoon and land at Hurn after less than an hour. However, in England it's an hour earlier, thus our chauffeur returns you to the front step of your London hotel in plenty of time for cocktails and dinner.

For an idea of the cost please feel welcome to email :

post@britishskytours.com

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For more ideas about taking time with overnights in Normandy click here

For our D Day virtual tour click here.

A VERY SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY

We can now combine our Normandy Tours with a further day in Cambridge.

Churchill College is home to the Archives of Sir Winston Churchill and Baroness Margaret Thatcher. We can make an appointment for you to have a tour, guided by one of the senior staff who will show you the actual archives - normally researchers work from micro-film - these include all Sir Winston's famous speeches with his own last minute edits. We would also have a walk around the charming old university city of Cambridge. 

Not far from the college is Madingley American Cemetery and only a few miles south is the magnificent collection of aircraft - from SE5s to the ultrasonic Blackbird - at the Imperial War Museum Duxford.   

The journey is made by road but the Mayfair Dove is available if any party would like to see - from the air - the legendary flat fields of Eastern England, once home to the 8th USAAF. Many old airfields are clearly visible.

This offers something rather special as a third day for visitors going to Normandy. There is no need to make the trips back-to-back. You can visit Cambridge before or after your two days in Normandy. However, we do need to give enough advance warning to the senior staff at the Archives, whose diaries fill rather fast.

Below is a link to a page about the college.

For more information it's worth browsing - Stop Press, Churchill College Cambridge, the Special Relationship, Operation Overlord,

Twelve o' Clock High and Our Finest Hour

We also offer a two day and overnight tour of Switzerland's fairy tale capital with a dream flight alongside the Swiss Alps.

Just click the photo..

You can make enquiries and arrange a trip by e-mail, fax or telephone to our representative – Air & Marine Travel Limited of Brewster, New York or to our UK Operations Desk.

Easy Sky Guide

Easy One Day Schedule

PLEASE MAKE BOOKINGS AND ENQUIRIES HERE