Things to do in Honfleur
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Honfleur
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best months overall, warm enough, long days, everything open and crowds below peak.
Spring blossom and Giverny reopening in April, March still quiet and cool with reduced hours.
Peak summer, longest days and full boat programme but most crowded, expensive and hard to park.
Food travellers season, scallop festival and cider harvest, November turns quiet and damp.
Quiet and atmospheric with the Christmas market in December, February is the weakest month.
What's on
- Fête des Marins Pentecost weekend
Sailors festival with boat parade, procession and blessing of the sea, the town's most traditional event.
- Bastille Day festivities 14 July
National day festivities in peak summer season.
- Honfleur jazz programming July
Jazz programming at venues around town per the Tourist Office agenda.
- Deauville August racing meeting August
The prestigious August meeting at the Hippodrome de Deauville-La Touques.
- Fête de la Coquille et de la Pêche Usually a weekend in October
Scallop and fishing festival on the Vieux Bassin quays with seafood market and shanty singing, free entry.
- Honfleur Christmas Market through December
Christmas market on Place Arthur Boudin with lit quays.
Best things to do in Honfleur
Vieux Bassin
Tall slate houses ring a 17th century harbour basin, best seen early, late and after dark.
Église Sainte-Catherine
France's largest wooden church, built by shipwrights so its nave looks like upturned hulls.
Musée Eugène Boudin
Boudin's own bequest plus Monet and Courbet explain the estuary light you just walked through.
Maisons Satie
Satie's birthplace turned into a surreal audio guided installation, magical if you like Dada.
Saturday Market on Place Sainte-Catherine
Saturday stalls of Norman cheese, cider, oysters and crepes make the best picnic lunch in town.
Chapelle Notre-Dame de Grâce
Sailors' chapel full of model ships above town, with the Mont-Joli panorama a few minutes away.
Jardin des Personnalités
Quiet estuary garden honouring Honfleur's artists, continuing to the Butin beach promenade.
Naturospace
Tropical glasshouse of free flying butterflies, the rainy morning pick for under tens.
Where to stay in Honfleur
Sainte-Catherine / Vieux Bassin
first trip, all-round base
Five minutes from the basin, church and market, where Honfleur's evening magic lives.
The Grâce / Saint Siméon edge
luxury, quiet and views
Gardens, parking and estuary views a pleasant ten minute walk from dinner in town.
Saint-Léonard / east old town
value inside the walls
Quieter residential streets still on foot in town, often half the basin price.
Think twice about
- Directly on the Quai Sainte-Catherine quay-front
Terraces run late, deliveries start early and historic buildings insulate poorly. One street back solves most of it.
- Out-of-town commercial and outlet zone toward La Rivière-Saint-Sauveur
Safe but a road and retail landscape a drive from the old town, so you commute into your own holiday.
Best restaurants in Honfleur
Les Impressionnistes
Refined Norman gastronomic cooking in the farmstead where the Impressionists ate and painted.
Sa.Qua.Na
Alexandre Bourdas reinvented as bakery by day and inventive sharing plates by night.
L'Escale
Large family seafood house famous for vast shellfish platters and a generous set menu.
Huître Brûlée
Small produce led room two minutes from the harbour, with real care for vegetarian diners.
La Cidrerie
Proper creperie for buckwheat galettes and the best farmhouse cider list to learn from.
Coup de Fourchette
Home style cooking five minutes out that embarrasses quay front kitchens charging triple.
Mamie Louise
Vine covered burgers and cocktails spot, the welcome break from cream, cider and seafood.
Pom'Cannelle
Quay front crepes, waffles and 50 flavours of artisanal ice cream that local guides endorse.
Outdoor things to do in Honfleur
Retro Tour Normandie
Vintage sidecar ride along the coast and cider lanes, the best single splurge based in Honfleur.
Promenade en Bateau Honfleur
Estuary boat trip under the Pont de Normandie gives the only water level view of the waterfront.
Honfleur Landmarks and Gems E-Bike Tour
Guided e-bike loop makes the Grace plateau climb easy and orients you on a first morning.
Côte de Grâce Walk
Free half day walk from the basin to the Grace chapel, Mont-Joli viewpoint and Butin promenade.
Route du Cidre
Signposted cider loop through bocage villages with farm gate cider, pommeau and Calvados tasting.
Trouville-sur-Mer
Working fishing port with a quay fish market, the food first half of the twin resort outing.
Deauville
The Planches boardwalk, named beach cabins and Belle Epoque resort polish, 30 minutes away.
Golf de Deauville Saint-Gatien
27 scenic woodland holes in Auge valley, the better value round and the better clubhouse lunch.
Best hotels in Honfleur
La Ferme Saint Siméon
The farmstead where the Impressionists gathered, now a five star garden hotel over the estuary.
La Maison de Lucie
18th century house near the basin with a garden and the strongest review signal in town.
Les Maisons de Léa
Former salt store facing the wooden church, with beams, a spa and the market at breakfast.
Best Western Le Cheval Blanc
Reliable harbour view three star on the quieter east quay, where the view is the product.
ibis Honfleur
Best budget pick with a car, with free parking, air conditioning and a praised breakfast.
ibis budget Honfleur Centre Ville
The even cheaper Ibis sibling at the town entrance, chosen on price alone.
Is Honfleur expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | €85 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | €165 a person |
| Splurge | €350 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Retro Tour Normandie: weeks ahead
- Honfleur Landmarks and Gems E-Bike Tour: a few days ahead
- Golf de Deauville Saint-Gatien: a few days ahead
- Golf Barrière de Deauville: a few days ahead
- Normandy American Cemetery and D-Day Beaches: weeks ahead
- Maison et Jardins de Claude Monet, Giverny: a few days ahead
- Mont-Saint-Michel: weeks ahead
- La Ferme Saint Siméon: weeks ahead
- Book every mid and high price dinner 2 to 7 days ahead in season, weeks for Les Impressionnistes weekends.
- Book hotels for May to September and French holiday weekends, which sell out.
- Book sidecar tours, D-Day guides, e-bike tours and Giverny timed entry ahead in season.
Is Honfleur safe?
- Honfleur feels very safe, watch pickpockets only in the Saturday market and peak basin crowds.
- Mind cobbles, open quay edges with no railings and small children near the water.
- Respect barriers and tide times at Etretat cliffs, erosion is active. Emergency number 112.
Honfleur travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Quay front terraces charge for the reflection, drink on the quay and eat one street back.
- Judging Honfleur at 1pm on a summer Saturday, the same town at 8am and 8pm is far better.
- Mont-Saint-Michel and combined Etretat plus D-Day day tours involve too much driving.
- Plage du Butin is a promenade and picnic beach, go to Trouville or Deauville for a swim day.
Getting around Honfleur: public transport and more
- Walk inside Honfleur, the core is compact and cobbled and cars are a liability.
- Honfleur has no railway station, use Le Havre or Deauville-Trouville trains plus a Nomad bus.
- You need a car, a tour or timed regional buses for Deauville, Étretat and the cider country.
- Use the signed edge of town car parks and arrive before 11am or after 5pm in August.
Who Honfleur suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | OK |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | OK |
Make Honfleur your trip
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