The beach where the Americans landed on 6 June 1944 stretches across three villages next to the campsite: from your cottage in Port-en-Bessin, you are in Colleville in twelve minutes.
Camping Portland, a five-star Yelloh! Village, is in Port-en-Bessin, seven kilometres from the start of Omaha Beach. The beach runs from Colleville-sur-Mer to Vierville-sur-Mer, below grassy bluffs where the Germans had dug their strongpoints. On 6 June 1944 the US 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions came ashore here under fire, on the day that earned the name “Bloody Omaha”. Today the sand stretches as far as the eye can see at low tide, and the remains can be visited on foot: the WN62 casemates above Colleville, the Signal monument at Saint-Laurent, the WN72 bunker at Vierville.
The D514 follows the coast through Sainte-Honorine-des-Pertes: twelve minutes to Colleville, fifteen to Saint-Laurent, twenty to Vierville.
Park on the seafront at Saint-Laurent or Vierville, then walk on the sand: the memorials line the beach.
Check the tide times before you go: at high tide only a narrow strip of sand is left below the sea wall.
Where the Les Moulins draw meets the beach, the Signal monument marks one of the first landing points. On the sand, the steel sculpture “Les Braves”, set up in 2004 for the 60th anniversary, honours the soldiers of 6 June. The Omaha Beach Memorial Museum is a short walk away, on avenue de la Libération.
Above the beach, a path runs past the casemates of strongpoint WN62, which covered the Easy Red and Fox Green sectors: this is where the view over the bay is widest. At the American Cemetery roundabout, the Overlord Museum shows the Leloup family collection, from vehicles to soldiers’ personal belongings, in life-size settings.
To the west, the beach runs up against cliffs that lead on to the Pointe du Hoc. The US National Guard Memorial stands on top of the WN72 bunker, which guarded the Vierville draw: this is Dog Green sector, where the first waves of the 29th Division landed.
When the tide goes out, Omaha becomes a strand several hundred metres wide. You walk, fly a kite, and the children build sandcastles facing the slopes the soldiers climbed. Barefoot on that sand, the story of 6 June often becomes real for them.
Photo credits: Rolf Kranz (CC BY-SA 4.0), Jebulon (CC0), uwebrodrecht (CC BY-SA 2.0), Rennett Stowe (CC BY 2.0) / Wikimedia Commons.
Camping Portland is a five-star Yelloh! Village on the heights of Port-en-Bessin. After a day on the D-Day beaches, the indoor water park is waiting at 30 °C, with its 48 m slide and jacuzzi, and the premium pitches have their own heated private washrooms.
Our guests rate us 9.4/10 and the Yelloh! Village network ranks us in its Top 5. Cottages sleep 4 to 8 people, including one cottage adapted for guests with reduced mobility.
5-star cottages and a 2,020 m² heated water park, in Port-en-Bessin facing the Channel.
Check availability