Tour Duration: 3 days / Group Size: 2-5 people

Destinations: Belgium and France.

Season: January to December / Airfare Included: NO

Tour Customizable: YES

Per Person Price: €723 - Based on two people sharing a twin/double room.

A comprehensive fully guided tour of the Ypres and Somme Battlefields of the Great War. Visiting all the 'must see' locations and many more places of interest known only to the locals. An ideal tour for an in-depth first visit. This is a sample itinerary which can be modified to suit your requirements. Your guide is a professional battlefield guide who lives in the area and has many years experience of guiding.

DAY 1 Pick up at Lille. After meeting you we make our way to the historical and ancient City of Ypres, known to the Tommies as 'Wipers'. Your tour will include as much of the Salient as our time will allow, visiting Plugstreet Memorial to the Missing, the Irish Tower, German Blockhouses, Messines Church and the Crypt, where it’s said Hitler was once treated for wounds, Shell Fire Corner, Zillebeke and Church, Hill 60, Hooge Crater. Hill 62, and Hellfire Corner. On to St Martin’s Church, St George’s Chapel then to the Menin Gate. As a fitting end to the day we will attend the Last Post Ceremony. Concluding in an overnight at a local good quality hotel such as the Ariane Hotel.

DAY 2 Starting at Passchendaele and Tyne Cot – largest Commonwealth Cemetery. 11,976 rest here, of which 8,366 are Unknown. Onto Vancouver Corner and Poelkapelle to visit Pte. Condon, 14 years of age. Then Langemark, and its German Cemetery. Leaving the Ypres Salient we make our way to the Somme, towards the British Front Line down through Serre, Sheffield Memorial Park, the Sunken Road and the Hawthorn Crater before visiting Newfoundland Memorial Park. Then the Ulster Tower, and Thiepval, the largest British Memorial. Here are the 72,000 names of those still missing on the Somme. Finally onto the Leipzig Salient and the Lonsdale cemetery. Overnight at a good quality local B&B.

DAY 3 We begin with Ovillers and La Boisselle, visiting Sausage and Mash Valleys, and the Lochnagar crater. Then we drive to Mansel Copse, the Devonshire Cemetery; this was the jumping-off trench for the Devonshire’s on 1 July. Fricourt, then the woods: Mametz, Bernafay, Trones, Delville and High Woods. We head back via Pozieres and Mouquet Farm (Mucky Farm Drop off at Arras or Amiens. Price Includes: Pick up from Lille / 3 days fully guided tour in our vehicle / 2 nights accommodation with Breakfast based on two people sharing a twin/double room. Single supplement 70 Euros - Transfer to Lille at the end of the tour -150 Euro supplement.

THE BATTLEFIELDS EXPERIENCE

Le Vieux Café Jourdain, 2 Rue des Cordeliers

80560 Mailly Maillet, Somme, France

telephone and fax: 00 33 32 27 62 960