The D-Day beaches are the 80 km of Normandy coast where the Allies landed on 6 June 1944, still known by their code names from west to east: Utah and Omaha for the Americans, Gold and Sword for the British, Juno for the Canadians. Behind them lie the airborne drop zones, Sainte-Mère-Église in the west and the bridges near Caen in the east, and along the whole coast a chain of cemeteries, gun batteries and museums. Omaha Beach with the American cemetery and the Juno Beach Centre are on the France page.
Plan by sector rather than trying to see everything in a day. Two days cover the American side and the British and Canadian side at a sensible pace, with Bayeux or Caen as a base. Late 2026 has two gaps to plan around: the Bayeux Tapestry is in London until July 2027, and Memorial Pegasus is closed until May 2027.
US Rangers scaled 30-metre cliffs to take this headland on 6 June 1944, and its bomb craters have barely changed since.
What it is
Between Omaha and Utah, the Germans fortified the headland of Pointe du Hoc with artillery that could fire on both beaches. On the morning of 6 June 1944 the US 2nd Ranger Battalion, under Lt. Col. James Rudder, scaled the 30-metre cliffs to take it. The ground has barely changed since: bomb craters, wrecked casemates and an observation bunker, now topped by the granite pylon of the Ranger Monument.
How to do it
Entry is free and needs no booking; the visitor centre opens 09:00 to 17:00 from April to September, with a lunch break from October to March, and admissions end 30 minutes before closing.
Good to know
Stay on the marked path, because the ground is broken and the cliff edge is unstable. The American Battle Monuments Commission is restoring the site until mid-2027 and parts are closed during the works, so check its latest notice before you go.
See the Mulberry harbour at Arromanches from the cliff and the museum
Arromanches-les-Bains
Half a dayNo booking needed
Concrete caissons off the beach are what remains of a harbour the Allies built in Britain and towed across the Channel.
What it is
The concrete blocks off Arromanches are the remains of Port Winston, the Mulberry B harbour that the Allies built in Britain, towed across the Channel in sections and assembled in front of the town after D-Day, so they could land supplies before they held a working port.
How to do it
Start on the cliff top, where Arromanches 360 screens a 20-minute circular film on the landings every 30 minutes from 10:00 (€7) and the view takes in the whole line of caissons. Then walk down to the D-Day Museum on Place du 6 Juin, facing the harbour, which shows how it was built with models, archive film and a large projection; allow 90 minutes. Tickets cost €13, with an audioguide in 10 languages.
Good to know
In summer the museum opens 09:00 to 19:00, and both sites close for most of January.
Walk among the guns of the Longues-sur-Mer battery
Longues-sur-Mer
About 30 minutesFree
Four casemates still hold the naval guns that exchanged fire with HMS Ajax on the morning of 6 June 1944.
What it is
Between Omaha and Gold, the Longues-sur-Mer battery still has its guns in place. Four casemates, with concrete walls and roofs more than 2 metres thick, each held a 15 cm naval gun with a range of about 20 km. On the morning of 6 June 1944 the battery exchanged fire with the cruiser HMS Ajax and targeted HMS Bulolo, the headquarters ship for Gold Beach, which pulled out of range.
How to do it
You can walk around the casemates and look in at the guns. Entry is free all year and half an hour is enough. A 1 km heritage trail with eight panels starts at the small tourist office on the site, and a map is available there.
Good to know
The fire-control post at the cliff edge is closed for safety. Arromanches is just along the coast to the east, so the two fit into one morning.
Follow the paratroopers at Sainte-Mère-Église and the Airborne Museum
Sainte-Mère-Église
About 2 hoursNo booking needed
A dummy paratrooper hangs from the church tower where John Steele's parachute caught, in one of the first towns liberated.
What it is
Inland from Utah Beach, Sainte-Mère-Église was one of the first towns liberated. Men of the US 82nd and 101st Airborne began dropping on it at about 01:40 on 6 June 1944, and a burning house lit up the sky, making easy targets of them. A dummy paratrooper hangs from the church tower for John Steele, whose parachute caught there and left him hanging for two hours.
How to do it
A few steps away, the Airborne Museum puts you aboard a C-47 transport plane, drops you into the fight for the square and ends with a glider landing. Allow two hours. Adults pay €11.50, children from 6 to 16 pay €7.50, and a family ticket is €33.
Good to know
It opens 09:00 to 19:00 from May to August, with shorter hours from February to April and in autumn, and closes in January and most of December.
Visit the Utah Beach Landing Museum on the sand where it happened
Sainte-Marie-du-Mont
About 90 minutesNo booking needed
A museum on the very spot where American troops came ashore at Utah, the quietest beach, holds an original B-26 bomber.
What it is
Utah, the westernmost of the five beaches, is also the quietest: a long stretch of sand and dunes, a few monuments, and the Utah Beach Landing Museum, built on the very spot where American troops came ashore on 6 June 1944. The museum tells the day in ten sequences, from planning to outcome, and its collection includes an original B-26 bomber and a real landing craft.
How to do it
Allow 90 minutes. Adults pay €10 and children aged 6 to 15 pay €6.50; a guided tour of the museum adds €2.50, and one that also takes in the beach adds €5.
Good to know
It opens 09:30 to 19:00 from May to September and 10:00 to 18:00 from October to April, with winter dates to confirm with the museum. Pair it with Sainte-Mère-Église, a short drive inland, for the airborne side of the same morning.
Trace the British airborne landings at Pegasus Bridge and Merville
Bénouville, Ranville and Merville-Franceville
Half a dayNo booking needed
The first Allied troops in Normandy landed by glider beside the Bénouville bridge and took it intact.
What it is
The first Allied troops in Normandy came by glider. In the opening minutes of 6 June 1944, D Company of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, under Major John Howard, landed beside the bridge over the Caen Canal at Bénouville and took it intact. Today's bridge is a 1994 replacement; the original stands in the grounds of Memorial Pegasus at Ranville, the museum of the British 6th Airborne Division.
How to do it
Near the coast, the Merville Battery is open until 15 November and again from 15 March: walk through the casemates, step aboard a C-47 Dakota, and stand in the largest bunker for a show of sound, light and smoke that recreates the assault. Tickets cost €9.50 for adults. Sword Beach at Ouistreham is close by to round off the day.
Good to know
Memorial Pegasus is closed for extension work from October 2026 until May 2027.
Time needed
Half a day
Best time
Mid-March to mid-November, when the Merville Battery is open
Start with the Mémorial de Caen to understand the whole war
Caen
3 to 4 hoursNo booking needed
Before you stand on the beaches, one of Europe's largest history museums sets D-Day inside the whole Second World War.
What it is
To make sense of the beaches before you stand on them, start at the Mémorial de Caen, opened on 6 June 1988 and now one of Europe's largest museums of 20th-century history. It sets D-Day inside the whole Second World War and carries the story on into the Cold War.
How to do it
The tourist office puts a full visit at four hours. Tickets cost €20.80 for adults and €18.50 for ages 10 to 18 and over-65s, and under-10s go free. From Caen station take the Ellipse 6a or 6b bus, or bus 2 from the centre towards Caen Mémorial; parking is free.
Good to know
From April to September it opens 09:00 to 19:00, with shorter hours in winter; it closes most of January and on Wednesdays in November and December, and ticket sales stop 75 minutes before closing.
Read the names at the British Normandy Memorial above Gold Beach
Ver-sur-Mer
About 1 hourFree
Stone pillars carry the names of more than 22,000 who died under British command, on the slope above Gold Beach.
What it is
On the slope above Gold Beach at Ver-sur-Mer, the British Normandy Memorial was unveiled on 6 June 2021. It carries the names of more than 22,000 servicemen and women from over 30 countries who died under British command on D-Day and in the Battle of Normandy, and it also honours the French civilians who were killed.
How to do it
Walk through the stone pillars of names, then look down to the beach where the 50th Division's 69th Brigade landed in the King sector. Entry to the memorial is free all year, while parking costs €4.50 a car. The Gold Beach tourist office runs guided tours for €5 an adult.
Good to know
The Winston Churchill Centre, opened by King Charles III on 6 June 2024, adds two galleries and a cafeteria and opens daily from late April to early October, 10:00 to 18:00.
Time needed
About 1 hour
Best time
Late April to early October, when the centre is open
Normandy's largest German war cemetery holds 21,222 dead, the sober counterpart to the Allied cemeteries along the coast.
What it is
A few kilometres inland from Omaha Beach, La Cambe is the largest German war cemetery in Normandy, with 21,222 dead: flat stones in the grass, small groups of dark crosses, and a central mound topped by a large cross of basalt lava over a mass grave. It is the sober counterpart to the Allied cemeteries along the coast. The visitor exhibition, renewed in 2019 in French, English and German, deals openly with the soldiers' individual responsibility, war crimes, military burial and what remembrance should mean. Outside, 1,220 maples make up a Garden of Peace.
How to do it
Entry is free all year. It lies on the old RN13 road, so it fits easily between Pointe du Hoc and Bayeux.
Good to know
From April to October it opens 08:00 to 19:00, from 09:00 at weekends, and in winter 08:30 to 17:00; it closes between Christmas and New Year.
Join a guided minibus tour of the beaches from Bayeux
Bayeux
Half a day or a full dayBook ahead
A guided minibus from Bayeux shows the beaches without a car, and a good guide fills in what the monuments leave out.
What it is
Without a car, a guided minibus tour from Bayeux is the practical way to see the beaches, and even with one, a good guide fills in what the monuments leave out.
How to do it
Several small operators run them, and the Bayeux tourist office lists them. As an example of the format, Memory Tracks ran from 1 May to 18 October in 2026, with August off: a half day in the Omaha sector cost €90 a person and a full day €140, the full days covering either Omaha, the US airborne drops with Utah Beach, or the British and Canadian airborne sector around Pegasus Bridge and Merville. Tours leave from Place de Québec in Bayeux at about 08:30.
Good to know
Choose the sector that matches the history you care about, since one day cannot cover all five beaches properly, and book ahead from spring onwards.
Time your trip for the D-Day Festival around 6 June
D-Day beaches, Caen and Bayeux
A few days around 6 JuneBook ahead
Parachute drops, vehicle parades, bagpipes and fireworks fill all five beaches around the D-Day anniversary, most events free.
What it is
Every year around the anniversary, the coast fills with the D-Day Festival Normandy: parachute drops, parades of military and civilian vehicles, bagpipe concerts, re-enactments, dances and fireworks along Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword, with more events in Caen and Bayeux. The 2026 edition, the 20th, ran from 30 May to 14 June with close to 100 events, most of them free.
How to do it
Book accommodation as soon as your dates are fixed, check the programme for drop zones and ceremony times, and leave room for delays between sites.
Good to know
The anniversary itself brings official ceremonies at the cemeteries and memorials, and these are the most crowded days of the year on the coast, with heavy traffic and rooms taken early. The festival returns in June 2027; if you prefer the beaches quiet, come in May or September instead.
Spend half a day at Bayeux's cathedral and war cemetery
Bayeux
Half a dayFree
Bayeux keeps Bishop Odo's cathedral of 1077 and the largest Commonwealth war cemetery of its war in France.
What it is
Bayeux, the first major town the Allies secured after D-Day, is the natural base for the beaches. Its cathedral, consecrated in 1077 by Bishop Odo, William the Conqueror's half-brother, is the one the Bayeux embroidery was made for. On the ring road, the Bayeux War Cemetery holds 4,144 Commonwealth graves, the largest of its war in France, with a memorial to more than 1,800 missing opposite.
How to do it
The cathedral is free and open daily from 09:00 in season and 10:00 in winter. The Battle of Normandy Memorial Museum next to the cemetery (€8.50) covers the summer of 1944 and closes in January 2027.
Good to know
Know one thing first: the Bayeux Tapestry is not here. Its museum closed in August 2025 for a rebuild due to reopen in autumn 2027, and from 10 September 2026 to 11 July 2027 the embroidery is on show at the British Museum in London.
Walk Omaha Beach and visit the Normandy American Cemetery
Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy
Half a dayFree
Stand among the graves on the bluff above Omaha Beach, then go down to the sand and the steel sculpture the tide half covers.
What it is
The cemetery sits on the bluff above Omaha Beach at Colleville-sur-Mer: 9,389 graves, and almost 1,600 names on the Walls of the Missing. At Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Anilore Banon's steel sculpture Les Braves, put up for the 60th anniversary in 2004, stands on the beach and is partly covered at high tide.
How to do it
Entry is free, and it is closed on 25 December and 1 January. The path from the cemetery down to the sand has been shut since 2016 for security reasons, so drive or walk to the public beach access nearby. Back at the cemetery, the flag is lowered in a ceremony one hour before closing.
Good to know
Plan ahead for 2027: ABMC expects every visitor, individuals included, to pre-register, with reservations starting in summer 2027.
Time needed
Half a day
Best time
Stay for the flag lowering, one hour before closing
Canada's D-Day museum stands right on the sand where Canadian troops came ashore, with a German bunker in the dunes in front.
What it is
Canada's museum on the D-Day beaches stands right on the sand at Courseulles-sur-Mer, where Canadian troops came ashore on 6 June 1944. The exhibition follows Canada's whole war rather than the landing alone, so give it a good hour and a half.
How to do it
From April to October, guides run 45-minute tours of Juno Park, the dunes in front of the museum, including a German bunker; tours are for ages six and over, can be cancelled in bad weather, and alternate between English and French, so check the day's schedule when you arrive. Hours run 09:30 to 19:00 from May to August and are shorter the rest of the year, and ticket sales stop 45 minutes before closing.
Good to know
The centre is closed throughout January and on 25 December.
Trains from Paris Saint-Lazare run every couple of hours to Caen and on to Bayeux, 2 hours 20 minutes in all, and continue to Carentan, the station closest to Utah Beach and Sainte-Mère-Église. By car, the A13 motorway reaches Caen from Paris in about 2 hours. Caen-Carpiquet is the nearest airport, and the ferry ports at Ouistreham and Cherbourg link Normandy with England.
Getting around
A car is the easy answer: the sites are spread along 80 km of coast and the inland drop zones. Without one, take a guided minibus tour from Bayeux, or use the Nomad coaches from Bayeux station, which reach Arromanches and the coast near the American cemetery a few times a day, so check timetables before relying on them. The signed cycle route from the landing beaches to Mont Saint-Michel starts here for riders.
How many days
In must30's view, two full days. Give one to the American sector, with Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach and its cemetery, Utah Beach and Sainte-Mère-Église, and one to the British and Canadian sector, with Arromanches, Longues-sur-Mer, the British memorial, the Juno Beach Centre and the airborne sites near Caen. Add half a day for the Mémorial de Caen.
When to go
April to October brings the longest opening hours and guided tours; many museums close for part of January, and some for longer. The weeks around 6 June are the busiest of the year, with the D-Day Festival and official ceremonies, so book rooms early or come in May or September instead. Check closures before you go: Pointe du Hoc is under restoration until mid-2027, and Memorial Pegasus reopens in May 2027.
Where to base yourself
Bayeux is the classic base: a station on the Paris line, the minibus tours, the cathedral, and a central position between the American and British sectors. Caen suits travellers who want a bigger city and the Mémorial on the doorstep. Arromanches and Port-en-Bessin put you on the coast, and Sainte-Mère-Église or Carentan suit a day focused on Utah and the airborne sites.
Questions travellers ask
How many days do you need for the D-Day beaches?
Two full days let you cover the American sector and the British and Canadian sector without rushing, plus half a day for the Mémorial de Caen. With one day, pick a sector: Omaha Beach, the American cemetery and Pointe du Hoc, or Arromanches, Longues-sur-Mer and the British memorial.
Can you visit the D-Day beaches without a car?
Yes, with a guided minibus tour from Bayeux, which reaches Bayeux from Paris Saint-Lazare by train in about 2 hours 20. Nomad coaches from Bayeux serve Arromanches and the coast near the American cemetery, but only a few times a day, so they suit one or two sites rather than a full circuit.
Can I see the Bayeux Tapestry in 2026 or 2027?
Not in Bayeux. The Bayeux Tapestry Museum closed in September 2025 for a rebuild and plans to reopen in October 2027. Meanwhile the tapestry is on loan to the British Museum in London, on show from 10 September 2026 to 11 July 2027.
Which is the best base for the D-Day beaches?
Bayeux, for most people: it sits between the American and British sectors, has trains from Paris and is where the minibus tours start. Caen is the alternative if you want a larger city and the Mémorial de Caen close by.
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