Australia and / or New Zealand and the Western Front
2 to 6 days private tour for up to 5 people

With hotel nights on the Somme (For Villers-Brettoneux, Pozières, Bullecourt and Fromelles) and Ypres (Polygon Wood, Hill 60 and Passchendaele), we will put together a programme which will also include as many of the other general sites in the Somme / Ypres areas (even Verdun) as your time allows.
Photo gallery & sample itinerary

Personally-guided World War I
Battlefield Visits:
Ypres, Somme, Verdun, Canadian / Australian tours, U.S. battles (Belleau Wood, St Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne)

Make your own party - do get in touch to discuss possible dates. Taking 5 people (+ Guide / Driver) in a comfortable air-conditioned Citroën C8 or rental vehicle we will explore the battlefields on foot, by car, and through museums. We stay in comfortable hotels in the region. The history, context, and significance of all we shall see will be very clearly explained by your Guide Dr Andrew Thomson (see More About Us). On all of our trips we are of course happy to accomodate specific requests, and to adjust the schedule depending on the weather and circumstances / preferences.

Small British Commonwealth battlefield cemeteries dot the landscape of the Somme (above) and Ypres

Related links:

• Photo Gallery: Somme 1916
• Photo Gallery: Ypres
• Photo Gallery: Verdun
• Photo Gallery & sample itinerary: Australians on the Western Front

museum in Ypres town centre. Night in hotel in Ypres, after attending the moving Last Post Ceremony at 8 p.m. at the Menin Gate.

On Day Two we drive down to the Somme early (90 mins) and then do a selection from the following: visit the Historial museum in Peronne, make a cross-country walk along a section where the front line was located prior to the 1 July 1916 start of the Battle, see the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, visit the Newfoundland Memorial Park with its preserved trenches, walk round the huge Lochnagar Crater, and visit quiet battlefield cemeteries.

A 3-day tour would add time south of Ypres ('Plugstreet Wood', the site of the 1914 Christmas Truce, the Caterpillar crater & Hill 60), take in Vimy Ridge, and give us our second night in a hotel in Péronne on the somme allowing us an early start on Day three for a full day exploring the Somme.

Day Trips to Ypres or the Somme from Kent: Depart Eurotunnel Folkestone around 8 a.m., back into Folkestone 10 p.m.

The Somme & Ypres
2 day (1 night) or 3 day (2 nights) private tour for up to 5 people

Our anticipated schedule is to visit the Ypres area on our first day: we will explore a section where 'No Man's Land' was located, visit Tyne Cot Cemetery (the largest British war cemetery in the world), preserved trenches at the Yorkshire Trench & Dugout site, and - if time - visit the excellent 'In Flanders Fields'

Lutyens' vast Memorial to the British Missing of the Somme at Thiepval

The Cloth Hall in Ypres - a huge 14th-century building, completley destroyed in World War I and rebuilt since. It now houses the excellent 'In Flanders Fields' museum

PRICES FOR DAY TRIPS FROM EAST KENT:

£ 380 Ypres, £ 420 Somme. We can take anything up to 6 people. The price is the total for the trip (to get a per head price simply divide the total price by the number of people).

Customer Information:
Valid passport required. All monies for tours (of 24 hrs or longer) for EU citizens are paid into our Trustee Account in accordance with the consumer protection measures in the EU Package Travel Regulations 1992; monies are only released by the Trustee following completion of the trip. £70 p.p. deposit; balance 8 weeks prior to trip.

Verdun
3 days / 2 nights private tour for up to 5 people

Staying in a village near Verdun, we explore not just the French battlefield of 1916, but the sectors either side - areas from which the Americans launched their major attacks in September/October 1918: St Mihiel, and the Argonne Forest. These are amongst the least-visited Western Front sites, but include the most spectacular crater fields and preserved trench systems to be seen anywhere.

Day One: Vauquois Craters in the Argonne; western end of the 1916 fighting - Côte 304, Mort Homme.
Day Two: Verdun 1916 - Fort Douaumont, Froidterre & Thiaumont. Bois d'Apremont - preserved trenches in the woods in the St Mihiel area. Verdun 1916: Fort Douaumont, Fort Vaux.
Day Three: 1916 - Maginot Memorial, Fleury ruined village, Ossuary, Trench of Bayonets.

Above: Dwarfed by the huge craters left by underground mining and subsequent blowing up of each others front lines: Butte de Vanquios, Verdun Area
Below: Elaborate German bunkers in the Argonne Forest - the 'Abri de Kronprinz'

Canada and the Western Front
2 to 6 days private tour for up to 5 people

With hotel nights on the Somme (For Courcelette, Vimy Ridge, and Monchy-le- Preux) and Ypres (Vancouver Corner for the April 1915 Gas Attack memorial, Essex Farm where John Macrae wrote 'In Flanders Fields', and Passchendaele), we will put together a programme which will also include as many of the other general sites in the Somme / Ypres areas (even Verdun) as your time allows.

For Ypres, just one hour from Calais, this allows over 9 hours in the battlefield and the town - local time, we arrive around 11.00, explore the battlefield, and get into the town by 4 p.m. if we are going to visit In Flanders Fields, otherwise by 6.00 p.m. in time for a pleasant evening meal before attending the 8 p.m. Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate. We leave at 8.30 p.m.

Private groups (i.e. you & your friends), dates by arrangement.

• 2 to 5 people, travelling in our air- conditioned Citroen C8 minivan or rental car
• Start & finish:
  - at the Channel Tunnel (meeting you off the regular train down from London);
  - Canterbury (our base - short tour & one night in B&B);
  - Paris or Brussels;
  - or the TGV stations at Lille (Somme & Ypres) or Lorraine (for Verdun)
• Suggested 1, 2 & 3-day itineraries - and tailor made itineraries of different durations possible
• Larger groups? Ask us for a quote for a private minibus (10-15 people) or coach (16-50 people)

For the Somme, 90 minutes from Calais, this allows six-and-a-half hours on the battlefield - local time, we arrive around 11.30 a.m. and leave at 6 p.m. We can break the journey 30 minutes from Calais for an evening meal at an excellent restaurant.

Traces of the trenches of the Western Front in the landscape at the Newfoundland Memorial Park

Vimy Ridge Memorial, near Arras (choir performing at a sunset ceremony for the 90th aniversary of the battle, April 2007)

Above: The striking Australian memorial at Fromelles

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The U.S. in World War I
2 to 6 days private tour for up to 5 people

With hotel nights near Verdun for both Meuse-Argonne (Lost Battalion, Sgt. York Site) and St Mihiel (preserved trenches, U.S. Memorial), we can extend this tour depending on the time available and your particular interests (maybe family links to particular battles): this could include Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood,

Marker stone for the site where the 'Lost Battalion' held out in the Argonne Forest from 2-7 October 1918

Soissons, and even the actions fought much further north by the two divisions which fought with the British (Hindenburg Line, Mt Kemmel).

Prices:
All prices are per person, sharing in a double / twin room (shower & w.c. en-suite; breakfast included; comfortable 2- or 3-star hotels), including all transport, and the services of a Guide throughout.
Not included in the price: meals other than breakfast, insurance, and museum entries (thus giving flexibility depending on the weather to go to as many or as few as desired).

Right: One of the six Caribou Monuments put up in honour of Newfoundland's losses in World War I (Monchy-le-Preux)

Public group tours 2008:

Further down the Western Front: Chemin des Dames, Verdun, Hindenburg Line