Bayeux & nearby
Major sights & useful bases
Start around Bayeux for some of the best-known sights in Calvados, then use the surrounding roads and smaller communities to build easy half-day and full-day trips.
Bayeux · Caen
Normandy
the Calvados holiday homes & rentals
D-day history, elegant seaside towns, apple country and norman heritage.
Find a stay in the Calvados
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Discover the Calvados
A place worth slowing down for
Discover Calvados: D-Day history, elegant seaside towns, apple country and Norman heritage, with independently owned holiday homes that make a comfortable base for exploring at your own pace.
Calvados brings together D-Day history, elegant seaside towns, apple country and Norman heritage. A stay here can combine time around Bayeux and Caen with smaller discoveries near Honfleur, Cabourg and the countryside in between.
Independent holiday rentals
Holiday homes, cottages & gîtes in the Calvados (0)
Browse independent holiday rentals, cottages, gîtes and other places to stay in the Calvados, then contact owners and managers directly. Holiday House France does not add a guest booking fee.
Listings for the Calvados are coming
We are building a collection of independently owned holiday homes across France.
Explore the whole department
Four sides of Calvados
Calvados changes character as you travel across it. These four starting points help divide the department into manageable days out while leaving room for smaller places along the way.
Caen & the wider area
Character, coast & heritage
The area around Caen adds a different side of Calvados, mixing local history with everyday French life and plenty of reasons to stop rather than simply pass through.
Caen · Honfleur
Honfleur & nearby
Markets, villages & local life
Around Honfleur, smaller towns and villages make good bases for slower days, market visits, café stops and discovering the department away from its headline attractions.
Honfleur · nearby villages
Cabourg & beyond
Quieter corners & day trips
Use Cabourg as a gateway to the wider department, where scenic roads, countryside and less-visited places reward leaving room for spontaneous stops.
Cabourg · wider Calvados
Towns & villages
Places to explore in the Calvados
These towns, villages and local experiences make useful anchors for discovering Calvados, whether you prefer heritage, coast, countryside or a mixture of all three.
Bayeux
One of the essential stops in Calvados, combining major sights with a good choice of places to eat, browse and begin a wider day out.
Caen
A strong second base for exploring the department, with its own atmosphere and easy links into surrounding coast, countryside or heritage sites.
Honfleur
A characterful place to slow the pace, explore local streets and markets, and see another side of Calvados beyond the best-known visitor centres.
Cabourg
Worth adding to a longer itinerary for its setting and for the quieter roads, villages and landscapes found nearby.
Local markets
Weekly markets across Calvados are ideal for regional produce, picnic supplies and a glimpse of everyday local life.
Scenic routes
Allow time for the journey as well as the destination: the smaller roads between towns and villages often reveal the most memorable corners of Calvados.
Outdoor days
Walking, cycling and relaxed days outside give a useful counterpoint to sightseeing, particularly when staying for a week or more.
Food & drink
Independent restaurants, bakeries and regional specialities are part of the experience. Ask local hosts for nearby favourites rather than relying only on the busiest centres.
Make a holiday of it
What makes the Calvados special
D-Day beaches & history
Calvados is particularly rewarding for d-day beaches & history. Build a day around Bayeux or Caen, then add smaller stops nearby rather than trying to cover too much ground at once.
Coast, cider country & historic towns
The department also works well for coast, cider country & historic towns. Around Honfleur and Cabourg, slower routes and local places make it easy to mix sightseeing with time outdoors.
Markets, food & local life
Leave room for markets, cafés and regional food. These everyday experiences often provide the strongest sense of place during a holiday in Calvados.
D-Day & the Battle of Normandy
D-Day landmarks and places of remembrance across Calvados
Calvados contains an extraordinary concentration of places connected with 6 June 1944 and the fighting that followed. The numbered map now focuses on the principal landing beaches, batteries, airborne objectives and major Allied and German cemeteries, giving a much clearer picture of the campaign than a long list of burial grounds alone.
↕ Numbers on the map correspond to the places below. Select a number or a card to locate the site.
Pegasus Bridge
British glider-borne troops seized the Caen Canal and River Orne crossings in the opening minutes of D-Day. Holding these bridges protected the eastern flank of the invasion and became one of the best-known airborne actions of 6 June.
Visit official websiteMerville Battery
Before dawn on D-Day, troops of the 9th Parachute Battalion attacked this fortified German coastal battery east of the Orne. The preserved position helps explain the scale and difficulty of the airborne mission.
Visit official websiteSword Beach
The easternmost of the five Allied landing beaches, Sword was assaulted mainly by British forces. The beachhead linked with airborne troops around the Orne crossings and formed the starting point for the advance towards Caen.
Visit official websiteJuno Beach
Canadian forces landed along Juno Beach between the British sectors of Gold and Sword. The fighting on the shore and in the villages inland was fierce before troops pushed south towards their D-Day objectives.
Visit official websiteGold Beach
British troops came ashore on Gold Beach west of Juno. Their objectives included securing the coast around Arromanches, linking with neighbouring beachheads and opening the route towards Bayeux.
Visit official websiteBritish Normandy Memorial
On a hillside at Ver-sur-Mer overlooking Gold Beach, the British Normandy Memorial records the names of more than 22,000 servicemen and women under British command who died during D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. It is a major place of reflection and remembrance on the invasion coast.
Visit official websiteArromanches & the Mulberry Harbour
The remains offshore at Arromanches belong to the artificial Mulberry harbour built after the landings. It became a remarkable engineering lifeline for bringing vehicles, stores and reinforcements ashore.
Visit official websiteLongues-sur-Mer Battery
Set on the cliffs between Gold and Omaha, this German coastal battery retains several substantial gun casemates. Its position gives a vivid sense of the Atlantic Wall defences overlooking the invasion coast.
Visit official websiteOmaha Beach
American troops faced particularly severe resistance on Omaha Beach. The bluffs, draws and surviving defensive positions make the landscape itself an important part of understanding what happened here on D-Day.
Visit official websitePointe du Hoc
US Army Rangers scaled the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc to attack a German gun position threatening the landing beaches. The cratered ground, bunkers and cliff-top setting remain among the most striking surviving D-Day landscapes.
Visit official websiteNormandy American Cemetery
Overlooking Omaha Beach at Colleville-sur-Mer, the Normandy American Cemetery contains 9,389 graves. Its setting above the invasion coast makes it one of the principal places of American remembrance in Normandy.
Visit official websiteBayeux War Cemetery
The largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Normandy stands at Bayeux, one of the first major towns liberated after D-Day. The Bayeux Memorial is situated opposite.
Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery
This major Canadian cemetery lies inland from Juno Beach near Reviers. Many of those buried here were killed during the landings and the difficult battles that followed as Canadian forces advanced towards Caen.
La Cambe German War Cemetery
La Cambe is the largest German military cemetery in Normandy, with more than 21,000 dead. Its restrained design and peace garden offer a markedly different but important perspective on the human cost of the campaign.
Visit official websiteHistorical context independently written by Holiday House France using sources including Commonwealth War Graves Commission and American Battle Monuments Commission and Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge.
Travel & getting around
Getting to & around Calvados
Calvados connects into the wider road and rail network of Normandy. The best arrival route depends on where in the department your holiday home is located.
A car is usually the most flexible option for linking smaller towns, villages, beaches or countryside, although larger centres may also have useful rail and bus connections.
For day trips, group nearby places together and allow extra time for local roads, market stops and scenic detours. The journey is often part of the appeal.
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