DIY Battlefield Tours

Fagin

Active member
UKGSer Subscriber
Joined
May 29, 2016
Messages
148
Reaction score
4
Location
Bishops Lydeard,Somerset
Hi

I am thinking of doing my own trip round some of the WW1/WW2 sites in Europe but can only really manage long weekends away at a push :rolleyes:

I also begrudge paying a s**t load of money for an organised adventure.

Can anyone recommend a particular schedule with travel and accommodation ideas that 2 of us could do please?

Thanks
 
Ferry to Caen, breakfast in the bar opposite the floating harbour in arromanches, Gun battery at Merville, St mere Eglise for the airborne museum, Pegasus bridge very close to Caen, back home.

If you have time a couple of graveyards.

Just googled Normandy WW2 sites

Pegasus Bridge.
Merville Battery.
The Grand Bunker.
Canadian Memorial Juno Beach.
Arromanches 360° Cinema.
The Landing Harbour Museum.
German gun battery at Longues-sur-Mer.
American Cemetery, Omaha Beach.
 
Ferry to Caen, breakfast in the bar opposite the floating harbour in arromanches, Gun battery at Merville, St mere Eglise for the airborne museum, Pegasus bridge very close to Caen, back home.

If you have time a couple of graveyards.

Just googled Normandy WW2 sites

Pegasus Bridge.
Merville Battery.
The Grand Bunker.
Canadian Memorial Juno Beach.
Arromanches 360° Cinema.
The Landing Harbour Museum.
German gun battery at Longues-sur-Mer.
American Cemetery, Omaha Beach.

Thanks for the info ymfb, much appreciated :thumby:
 
For D-Day sites: Ferry to Caen as first choice, or use Le Havre or Cherbourg. Catch the overnighter, visit one set of sites on the way to your hotel, full day out next day for the second set, morning ferry home on Day 3, jobs a good'un.

Stay in Arromanches, which is just about central and is the location of one of the Mulberry harbours. (Normandy Beach Hotel is highly recommended but books up well in advance).

For a 2 day trip, go (or arrive from) west and visit the UK/Commonwealth sites including Pegasus Bridge, Merville Battery, Allied War Graves in Ranville, 360Degree cinema and as many of the numerous museums along the coast as you want to fit in.

2nd day, go east and visit the American landing sites, Omaha Beach cemetery, Point du Hoc. St Mere Eglise and Utah Beach both have good museums, just keep in mind once you've seen one tank/jeep/machine gun/set of uniforms it can become a bit "samey".

Haven't done a lot of WW1 sightseeing, but I have stayed in Ypres which is an ideal base for many battlefields, museums and war graves. Not to mention the nightly Last Post ceremony, very moving, if you only do one thing, do this.
 
We go several times every year, just a bunch of mates and we organise things between ourselves, such as where we're going to visit, etc. We camp at Ypres, and we also go to Bayeaux, where we rent cabins. Each trip is just a long weekend, ie cross the channel on the Friday, and return Monday, either using Portsmouth/Caen, or the Tunnel. Works great. Loads to see, as the others have mentioned.
 
I go 2-3 weekends per year to have a mooch around....I use the website below to choose my sites to visit:

https://www.cwgc.org/

Once I've selected my list of places to visit, I put them into a s/sheet and then use batchgeo to create a route:

https://batchgeo.com/

And then transfer the addresses into the sat nav, create a route & off I go....I don't normally pre-book digs, just find a place en route (or use the hotels POI on the sat nav) - never been stuck for somewhere to stay.

The chunnel is only 35 mins away from me so a piece of cake :D
 
Long weekends away.... I guess you mean, all day Friday, Saturday, Sunday, back home Monday night?

Does this embrace the however long it is getting from your Scottish retreat into (mainland) Europe and back again?

Do you intend to fly / drive or go by boat / road?

Why not start with those closest to you:

Holland.... Ypres.... then the fields of the Somme......The great thing is that these sites are all close together. Then think about a bit further south to say, Verdun.

Then, look a bit further afield... The D Day beaches are miles away from Calais.... the U-Boat pens even further.....

Really, have you given this any thought at all? The major WW1 sites are not particularly close to what the Brit’s see as the ‘must do’ WW2 site of D Day.

Get yourself a half decent map and go to the library (it will save you buying anything) for Major Holt’s Battlefield Guides http://www.guide-books.co.uk/index.html or something similar. Work out where the major sites are. Do some research of your own, rather than being spoon fed every idea which probably won’t suit you, as the well intentioned advice giving bod won’t have factored in you getting from Aberdeen to Arromanches and back without using up most of your very cheap long weekend away and you intend to walk.

PS Many of the guided tours are very good value, as the guides know how to pack things in. Yes, you have to pay but that is how it works; they earn their living organising something that bods don’t know how to do themselves or want someone else to do for them.... which is the purpose of your enquiry after all.... on top of which you want the accommodation, cheap presumably, too?

Try a look in the Travel section. You’ll get lots of ideas. You have paid £12, so it will be good value. If it isn’t complain.

PPS Aw, feck it. Just Google ‘self guided battlefield tours’ or something like that. The one to Gettysburg won’t suit you, though.
 
+1 for Major and Mrs Holts battlefield guides, they are doing a deal at the mo where you get all five of their fold-out maps (instead of one) when you buy a book.
 
If time is your enemy you really shouldn't begrudge paying an expert to do all the graft for you. I suspect you're likely to get loads crammed in, be amongst like minded people who have knowledge of their own and I imagine you'd have a great weekend. Or you could go 3 or 4 times and not see/experience nearly as much as in one trip.

(I've never done a guided trip, been a fair few times and been happy with my own slow pace of seeing stuff but have never been worried about time being a factor)
 
My sister, who’s idea of hell is any sort of boys’ trip, went along begrudgingly on an weekend with assorted of her inlaw’s on a Ypres ‘educational’ tour. Much to her (and my) surprise she really enjoyed it. Well organised, the guide / lecturer was well prepared, knew his stuff, went at a comfortably brisk pace around sites and had access to some things that are otherwise closed to the general public.

Well worth it, if you only have a day or so.
 
My sister, who’s idea of hell is any sort of boys’ trip, went along begrudgingly on an weekend with assorted of her inlaw’s on a Ypres ‘educational’ tour. Much to her (and my) surprise she really enjoyed it. Well organised, the guide / lecturer was well prepared, knew his stuff, went at a comfortably brisk pace around sites and had access to some things that are otherwise closed to the general public.

Well worth it, if you only have a day or so.

I've 'done' Ypres a few times but may well look something like this up for the next time I'm there. There is bound to be loads of missed stuff in and around
 


Back
Top Bottom