Things to do in Dieppe
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Dieppe
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best overall: long days, gardens open, cliff path in flower, town awake but not overwhelmed.
Scallop season runs 1 October to 15 May, the food reason to come, with quiet cheap weekdays in winter.
Warmest sea and fullest town: daily boats and supervised swimming, but highest prices and hardest bookings.
Worst months: short days, Channel storms that can delay ferries, some restaurants on annual leave, gardens shut.
What's on
- Festival International de Cerf-Volant September, about a week
Giant and artistic kites from around thirty countries over the seafront lawns. Historically a roughly two year cycle, so check your year.
- Foire aux Harengs et à la Coquille Saint-Jacques Mid November weekend, 16 to 17 November in 2024
Herring grilled on braziers along the quay, scallops everywhere and the whole town eating outdoors.
- Dieppe Raid commemorations 19 August
Annual ceremonies for the 1942 raid with Canadian representatives, at the memorial, Square du Canada and the war cemetery.
Best things to do in Dieppe
Musée de Dieppe
A cliff top castle museum holding one of Europe's finest carved ivory collections, plus seascapes and the town's best view.
Marché de Dieppe
Voted France's finest market in 2020, a mile of stalls filling the Grande Rue every Saturday morning from 8am.
Église Saint-Jacques
A Gothic pilgrimage church with a carved frieze of the peoples Dieppe's sailors met on their voyages.
Église Saint-Rémy
The quieter second church, with fine choir wood panelling, an organ case and Renaissance treasury decoration.
Chapelle Notre-Dame de Bonsecours
A small sailors' chapel on the eastern cliff, full of votive boats, with a panorama back across the whole town.
Le Mémorial du 19 Août 1942
A volunteer run museum in a former theatre telling the story of the mostly Canadian raid of 19 August 1942.
Estran Cité de la Mer
A hands on museum of the working sea, shipbuilding, fishing and the chalk coast. Note the aquarium has closed.
Plage de Dieppe
Two kilometres of pebble beach fronted by vast seafront lawns, the town's living room for walking and brave swims.
Where to stay in Dieppe
Seafront (Boulevard de Verdun)
first trip, all-round base
Sea view rooms facing the lawns and the Channel, with the castle, harbour and old town all a walk away.
Old Town and Harbour
market mornings and eating out
Inside the Saturday market streets and at the restaurant terraces, in mostly small hotels and apartments.
Countryside just inland
chateau stays and garden trips
A chateau guest stay at Tourville-sur-Arques and village calm in Varengeville, both needing a car.
Station and outskirts
drivers and late arrivals on a budget
Chain budget rooms at the edge of town, fine with a car and a poor base for a car free weekend.
Think twice about
- Inland residential quarters (Neuville-lès-Dieppe, Janval)
Ordinary suburbia with nothing for a visitor to walk to. Not unsafe, just a poor base without a car and a reason.
- Ferry port perimeter
Functional and quiet at night rather than dangerous. A place to pass through, not a place to stay.
Best restaurants in Dieppe
Restaurant Les Voiles d'Or
Dieppe's destination table above the harbour, the finest cooking in town, on a short Thursday to Sunday week.
A La Marmite Dieppoise
The home of the marmite dieppoise, the town's rich fish stew, served in generous portions off the Puits Sale square.
Le Turbot
A traditional fish restaurant on the quiet side of the harbour, with a great value lunch menu and superb scallops.
Le Bistrot du Pollet
A tiny acclaimed bistrot in the fishermen's quarter, chef cooking and a blackboard menu of the day's catch.
Le New Haven
The big dependable harbour brasserie for groups and families, Norman seafood at honest prices on Quai Henri IV.
La Musardière
A more composed harbour room on Quai Henri IV, known for its fish soup, fine wines and welcoming hosts.
Bistrot des Barrières
A bistrot under the fish market arcades with a praised lunch menu, the market morning lunch pick.
Le Jehan Ango
A small intimate room with the town's highest rating for its size, named for Dieppe's great shipowner Jean Ango.
Outdoor things to do in Dieppe
GR21 Sentier des Falaises
France's favourite GR trail runs along the Alabaster Coast cliffs west from Dieppe to Pourville and Varengeville.
Les Falaises
Walk the foreshore under the chalk cliffs at low tide, but only on a falling tide and never against the cliff.
Golf de Dieppe Pourville
Normandy's oldest course, founded 1897, 18 holes on the plateau above Pourville with Channel views and sea wind.
Navigation Normande
Boat outings from the harbour along the cliffs, the sea level view of castle, chapel and chalk coast.
Bateau Ville de Dieppe
A full day at sea fishing with a local crew, the working boat version of a Dieppe splurge day.
Le Bois des Moutiers
A Lutyens house and Gertrude Jekyll gardens above the sea at Varengeville, visited in small guided groups only.
Jardin Shamrock
The world hydrangea collection, over 2,000 plants in a village garden, at its best from late June to September.
Église Saint-Valéry
A clifftop church with a Braque stained glass window and a marine cemetery where Braque himself is buried.
Best hotels in Dieppe
L'Échappée - Hôtel Casino Dieppe
Dieppe's only luxury tier hotel, a seafront 4 star attached to the casino, with sea view rooms over the lawns.
Hôtel Mercure Dieppe La Présidence
A reliable seafront 4 star with a panoramic breakfast room, underground parking and upper floor sea views.
Hotel Aguado
A family run seafront 3 star ranked the town's best hotel, loved for its breakfast, welcome and bike storage.
Hôtel de la Plage
A modernised beach hotel at the castle end of the seafront, with whirlpool baths and sea facing terraces.
Hôtel Windsor
The seafront on a budget, simple and well kept, with the same lawns and Channel outlook as pricier neighbours.
Château de Miromesnil
Maupassant's birthplace run as a five room guest stay, with a celebrated walled kitchen garden 8 km inland.
Jardin des Pérelles
A small guesthouse in Varengeville with terraced rooms and kitchenettes, two minutes from the GR21 path.
hotelF1 Dieppe
The chain budget floor on the edge of town, clean and cheap, best for drivers arriving late or leaving early.
Is Dieppe expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | €65 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | €135 a person |
| Splurge | €290 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Golf de Dieppe Pourville: a few days ahead
- Navigation Normande: a few days ahead
- Bateau Ville de Dieppe: a few days ahead
- Le Bois des Moutiers: weeks ahead
- L'Échappée - Hôtel Casino Dieppe: weeks ahead
- Château de Miromesnil: weeks ahead
- Restaurant Les Voiles d'Or: weeks ahead
- A La Marmite Dieppoise: a few days ahead
- Book Le Turbot, the Marmite, the Bistrot du Pollet and Les Voiles d'Or ahead, always at weekends and in scallop season.
- Le Bois des Moutiers is reservation only in small guided groups. No booking, no visit.
- Seafront hotels fill for the kite festival, the November herring and scallop fair, May holiday weekends and August.
- Boat sailings and fishing charters are weather dependent. Book in season and re-confirm on the day.
Is Dieppe safe?
- Keep well back from cliff edges on top and never sit or shelter against the cliff base. Chalk falls happen without warning.
- Walk the cliff base only on a falling tide with tide tables checked. People are cut off on this coast every year.
- Swim in supervised zones in season. Currents off the shingle can be strong and the water stays cold.
- Emergency number is 112. In a cliff or tide emergency, give the nearest valleuse or landmark name.
Dieppe travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Scallops served from mid May to October are not the local product. The Dieppe season is 1 October to 15 May.
- The beach is pebbles, not sand. Dieppe is for promenading and brave swims, not sunbathing on a towel.
- The Estran aquarium in older guides no longer exists. Go for the maritime museum it now is.
- The first terrace on Quai Henri IV is rarely the best of it. Ratings separate the strip clearly.
- Etretat at noon in August is the coast at its most crowded. Arrive early or walk nearer Dieppe instead.
Getting around Dieppe: public transport and more
- The whole town is a 20 minute walking radius: castle, churches, market, harbour, beach and station.
- Trains run to Rouen in about 45 minutes and to Paris Saint-Lazare in about 2 hours 20 to 2 hours 40.
- The DFDS ferry to Newhaven takes about 4 hours, up to three sailings a day in season.
- The ferry port is 2 km from the station: a cash only shuttle bus, a short taxi ride, or a 28 minute walk.
- You need a car, bus or taxi for Varengeville, Veules-les-Roses and Etretat.
Who Dieppe suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | OK |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | OK |
Make Dieppe your trip
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