Le Havre cruise port, France
Four fifths of the town was destroyed in September 1944 and Auguste Perret rebuilt the centre in reinforced concrete on a grid, which is now a World Heritage site, listed for the planning rather than for anything old. Monet painted a sunrise in this harbour and gave Impressionism its name.
Worth knowing. Perret designed the whole centre around one measurement, a module of 6.24 metres, and used it for everything. Once you know that, you can read the entire city like graph paper.
What to do in Le Havre for free
The centre is about twenty-five minutes on foot and flat. St Joseph's church is the tall one you can see from the ship, and standing inside it costs nothing: the tower is a shaft of coloured glass over a hundred metres high, lit from the top.
What costs money
The ship's own excursions usually cost more than booking the same trip yourself. Two things come with the price. The ship waits for its own excursions and doesn't wait for you. And if the port is missed, P&O refunds its own without you asking. A trip you booked yourself is a claim on your travel insurance, so check what your policy covers. The ship sells its own trips to all of these, and the desk is open on board if you'd rather do it that way.
Honfleur. The harbour Monet and Boudin painted, about forty minutes round the estuary. There's a public bus as well as a coach tour.
Etretat. The white cliffs with the arch and the needle standing off them, an hour up the coast. The view everybody knows is from the cliff top, so there's a climb in it.
Paris. Three hours each way. It fits into a long day here, and most of that day is a coach seat, so go knowing that's the trade.
How long you get ashore in Le Havre
The published times give you between about 12 and 14 hours alongside, depending on the sailing. Take off the time it takes a few thousand people to get off, and the time you need to be back on board before the ship leaves, and that is your day. P&O give the real hours the day before, and the all-aboard time is earlier than the departure time.
Money and language in France
Euro (EUR, €). Cards are fine almost everywhere. A boulangerie queue moves faster if you have coins. Everything on board is charged in sterling, so this only matters ashore.
A greeting in French before you switch to English is worth more here than anywhere else on these itineraries.
| English | French | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| Hello | Bonjour | bon-ZHOOR |
| Goodbye | Au revoir | oh ruh-VWAR |
| How much? | Combien ça coûte? | kom-BYAN sa KOOT |
| Thank you | Merci | mair-SEE |
| Please | S'il vous plaît | seel voo PLEH |
Which ship calls at Le Havre, and when
Every call here on sailings leaving between October 2026 and October 2028, with the hours ashore P&O published. These times are a guide, not a promise: the captain gives the real ones the day before.
| Ship | Sails | Day | Ashore |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iona | 17 October 2026, 7 nights | Day 2 | 06:00 to 18:00 |
| Arvia | 28 May 2028, 14 nights | Day 14 | 08:00 to 20:00 |
| Arvia | 4 June 2028, 7 nights | Day 7 | 08:00 to 20:00 |
| Arvia | 4 June 2028, 14 nights | Day 7 | 08:00 to 20:00 |
| Arvia | 25 June 2028, 14 nights | Day 9 | 08:00 to 22:00 |
| Arvia | 2 July 2028, 7 nights | Day 2 | 08:00 to 22:00 |
| Arvia | 2 July 2028, 14 nights | Day 2 | 08:00 to 22:00 |
| Arvia | 23 July 2028, 14 nights | Day 14 | 08:00 to 20:00 |
| Arvia | 30 July 2028, 7 nights | Day 7 | 08:00 to 20:00 |
| Arvia | 30 July 2028, 14 nights | Day 7 | 08:00 to 20:00 |
| Arvia | 17 September 2028, 14 nights | Day 9 | 08:00 to 22:00 |
| Arvia | 24 September 2028, 7 nights | Day 2 | 08:00 to 22:00 |
| Arvia | 8 October 2028, 7 nights | Day 7 | 08:00 to 20:00 |
The other stops on these cruises
Every one of these is on at least one of the sailings that calls at Le Havre.
- AlesundThe whole town burned down in one night in January 1904 and was rebuilt at speed in Art Nouveau, with materials Kaiser Wilhelm II sent by ship.
- Getxo (tours to Bilbao)Basque country, at the mouth of the river up to Bilbao.
- HaugesundNorway calls this its birthplace: Harald Fairhair, who pulled the country into one kingdom in the 870s, had his seat at Avaldsnes, just down the coast.
- HellesyltA waterfall runs straight through the middle of the village and into the fjord.
- KristiansandLaid out as a grid in 1641 by Christian IV of Denmark-Norway, who wanted a fortress town guarding the entrance to the Skagerrak and had one built on the sand at the river mouth.
- La CorunaThe Spanish Armada sailed from this harbour in 1588, and it's still guarded by the Tower of Hercules, a Roman lighthouse from about the year 100 which has never stopped working: the oldest one on earth still doing its job.
- La RochelleThree medieval towers stand at the mouth of the old harbour, and a chain was slung between two of them to shut the port at night.
- Le Verdon (for Bordeaux)The mouth of the Gironde, where the estuary meets the Atlantic, and a deep water quay built for cargo rather than for a town.
- OldenA village of a few hundred people at the head of Nordfjord, 100 km in from the open sea.
- SkjoldenThe innermost point of the Sognefjord, about 200 kilometres from open water.
- StavangerA herring and sardine-canning town that struck North Sea oil in 1969 and became Norway's richest city.
- VigoEurope's biggest fishing port by weight landed, and it smells honestly of it near the market.
Free, and it works with no internet. Give it the dates you sail and it works out your own stops. One button in Stops then saves the street map for each one. It shows you round the ship too.
All the ports written up so far, the things to do before you sail, or the ship pages for Iona and Arvia.