Personally-guided World War II Battlefield Visits:
Normandy, Ardennes (Battle of
the Bulge), Market-Garden
('Bridge Too Far')

Machine-gunners' view of Omaha Beach: looking out from one of the bunkers above the Fox Green part of Omaha

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 (for Normandy) or Brussels (for Ardennes and Market-Garden)
• Suggested 3-day itineraries - but tailor made itineraries of different durations possible
• 5-day joint theme tours possible: Normandy & the Bulge
  or Market-Garden & the Bulge
• Larger groups? Ask us for a quote for a private minibus (10-15 people) or coach (16-50 people)

The Normandy Beaches
3 day / 2 night private tour for up to 5 people

Our anticipated schedule has us arriving in Normandy mid-afternoon on Day One, starting with a visit to one of the top sites (Omaha Beach for the U.S., Juno Beach for Canada, Pegasus Bridge for the UK) and ending with check-in to our hotel in the pretty town of Bayeux - we stay

German guns still in their huge bunkers at Longues-sur-Mer

The Ardennes: The Battle of the Bulge
3 day / 2 night private tour for up to 5 people

Arriving in the Ardennes region (south-east Belgium) mid-afternoon on Day One (or before lunch if starting from Brussels), we start with the Siegfried Line - we see some of the German 'dragon's teeth' concrete anti-tank defences which are still in place at the edge of the woods on the German-Belgian border. This is one of the places from which the German attack on the 16th of December 1944 was launched - we see the tracks in the woods down which the panzers attacked. We will look at locations in the woods and on the hillsides where the American infantry put up strong resistance, before we head west along part of the route followed by SS Col. Peiper's lead force of tanks. We stay two nights in a hotel in Bastogne, and take in the major sites there - the American memorial and museum, the Bois-Jacques (where Easy Company of 'Band of Brothers' spent a hard time), the road where Patton's force broke through after five days of siege - and other highlights: a Tiger II Tank, a Panther (Panzer V) tank, and good museums in La Roche or Diekirch. We can finish our tour at the American Cemetery in Luxembourg City where Gen. Patton is buried. As well as the rich historical interest, you will find the Ardennes a most attractive rural area - woods, fields and rivers, and small villages and churches using the local stone.
Sample 3-day itinerary

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.

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 requirements, and to ajust the schedule depending on weather, circumstances and preferences.

to Pointe du Hoc, where the American Rangers scaled the cliffs; the British and Canadian beaches; a drive following the route of the Canadians inland (the early tank battles around Buron / Ardennes Abbey).

Museums & Sites: Choice of Pegasus Bridge; the Memorial at Caen; the Airbourne Troops museum at Ste-Mére Eglise; the recently renovated Battle of Normandy Museum in Bayeux; the 360-degree cinema at Arromanches; the German bunker at Ouistreham (the Atlantic Wall Museum); the Bayeux Tapestry; and the cathedrals of Bayeux and Caen.
Cemeteries: the British cemeteries at Bayeux or Ryes; the German cemetery at La Cambe (with its fascinating exhibition on the ongoing work of the German war graves authority); and the American cemetery on the bluffs over Omaha Beach.
Add-ons: Mont St Michel; Falaise Gap
Sample 3-day itinerary
Sample 3-day Canadians in the
- Battle of Normandy itinerary

Above: The 'Bulge' area - The Ardennes - contains isolated villages of local stone buildings, open pastureland, forest, and attractive rivers

Market-Garden, September 1944
3 day / 2 night private tour for up to 5 people

Our tour gives 48 hours in the area and follows a south to north route, following the 60 mile 'corridor' which the British land forces pushed up to try and get to the British paratroopers at Arnhem and Oosterbeek, joining up with the U.S. airbourne forces on the way.
From the start point at 'Joe's Bridge' we visit the town of Valkensvaard, the 101st Airbourne drop-zone, and the bridges of Son and Best. Our first night is spent in the Eindhoven area, the second near Arnhem. On Day Two we cover the 82nd Airbourne drop-zone, the huge (and surviving) bridge at Grave, the bridges (rail and road) at Nijmegan, and the memorial marking the dramatic crossing of the River Waal there by the 82nd,

Above: 'The Bridge Too Far' over the Rhine at Arnhem
Below: Marker for one of the 82nd Airborne Division's drop-zones near Nijmegen

Looking over the cliff edge at Pointe du Hoc, where U.S. Rangers scaled the cliffs

two nights here. In our 48 hours in Normandy (the afternoon of Day Three is spent travelling back) we will cover your choices from the following:
Battlefields: a walk along Omaha Beach and up the bluffs above it, give you a close account of how the touch-and-go struggle here was gradually won; a look at the Mulberry Harbour remains on the beach at Arromanches and the German guns still in their bunkers at Longue; a visit

Above: Sections of the Mulberry Harbour rest on the beach more than 60 years on
Below: The pock-marked landscape at Pointe du Hoc

Above: 'Dragons Teeth' German
anti-tank defences - part of the 'Siegfried Line' still visible today on the German-Belgian border
Below: Traces of fox-holes and shell craters in the Bois-Jacques woods

Go To Top

finishing with 'The Island' and the British drop-zones. Our final morning is for Oosterbeek (museum and British cemetery) and the 'Bridge Too Far' in Arnhem itself, over the river Rhine.

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).

Related links:

• Detailed Normandy itinerary
• Detailed Canadians in
  Normandy itinerary
• Battle of the Bulge itinerary
• WW2 Photo Galleries

Public group tours 2008:

• Normandy 1066 to 1944
• Market-Garden & the Battle of the Bulge
• Germany: Development of the V2 and Total War to Cold War