THIS IS OUR fifth European wargamers’ tour since 1991’s Millennium of Mayhem led by James F. Dunnigan. Join a small group of wargamers and family to see battlefields, castles and see some general interest sites in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. If you like, there will be options to play several wargames hosted by local gamers. Lasting friendships have developed among US and European participants. You can even ride on vintage German tanks and softskins at the Militracks militaria fair in Overloon. We have 1 seat open; there is still time to join the 10 booked to date.

Our historian tour manager is Mark Williams, a long time wargamer and retired from military aircraft design at Boeing. He teaches history and political science at St. Charles community college in Missouri.

Our tour host is Rich Baier who has traveled on the WargamerTour in 2003 & 2010. His goal is to make sure everyone feels included and having a good time.

They both look forward to welcoming you aboard our squad's Mercedes Sprinter mini-coach!

• Custom Europe tour itinerary for those interested in military history like wargamers • Visits to olden cities, battlefields, castles and military history museums: • Château de Chinon • French Tank Museum in Saumur • D-Day sites: Utah Beach, Sainte-Mère-Église, Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc, Villers-Bocage, Ouistreham Flak Tower, Pegasus Bridge • Chateau Galliard • Rouen • Batterie Todt • Dunkirk • Ghent • Market Garden: Eindhoven, Nijmegan, Arnhem • Militracks militaria fair: ride along restored WWII German vehicles • Overloon • Amsterdam • With options for Paris, wargames, Caen Memorial Museum & Castle Gravensteen • Travel with a limited-size group & meet US & foreign gamers • Limited group size

Fourteen days (12) total number of nights

Tremblay-en-France/Roissy CDG (1) Sheraton Paris Airport & Conference Center

Chinon (1) Ibis Styles Chinon

North Caen, Hérouville-Saint-Clair (3) Ibis budget Caen Hérouville

Rouen (1) Ibis Rouen Centre Rive Gauche Saint Sever

Dunkirk (1) Ibis Dunkerque Centre

Ghent (2) Ibis Gent Centrum St-Baafs Kathedraal

Arnhem (1) Holiday Inn Express Hotel

Horst (1) Parkhotel

Amsterdam (1) Hampshire Eden Amsterdam Hotel

Note: some hotels are subject to change with equivalent or better; see Updates section for latest.

Click here for a printer-friendly flyer. Tour is operated by Horn Tours of Netherlands. Price is per person based on double or triple room occupancy. Or while single rooms are available, a single supplement is payable to have a room to yourself. Click to contact Stevie Jay.

Document required for US Citizens is Passport valid through at least November 21, 2008 (or 6 month after planned return if later than May 21) with two blank pages; no visa or shots at this time. Other citizens should consult their consulate.

Insurance coverage is included at no extra charge, via a Deluxe Group Plan from Travel Guard at a cost of 7.2% of the tour cost to cover accident, bags, cancellation/trip interruption charges, for coverage details see www.steviejaytravel.com/insurance. Click here if you want to waive coverage. Because of licensing issues, Pennsylvania & Montana residents cannot buy TravelGuard's Deluxe Group Plan, but may buy insurance coverage on an individual plan by mentioning that interest in the Notes to the Organizer.

Other terms at www.steviejaytravel.com/terms-and-conditions are incorporated by reference. Details and price subject to change, due to conditions beyond our control, such as fuel surcharges, government-imposed taxes and fees. Riding WWII-era vehicles is subject to equipment operation and availability beyond our control.

Included meals are noted each day with the initials of either Buffet Breakfast (BB) or Continental Breakfast (CB).

Since this site was uploaded and the pdf flier was made the end of November:

• 8DEC17 Delta Air Lines is now charging fees for checked bags on transatlantic routes for its lowest-priced fares. For flights departing on or after April 10, 2018 basic economy ticket holders will now pay $50 [see below] for the first checked bag and $100 for a second bag. Source: TravelMole.com

• 11DEC17 Delta Air Lines is imposing a $75 fee for the 1st checked bag for economy class pax on flights to Europe and North Africa from Canada and the U.S. OpenJaw.com

• 31DEC17 Extended the early bird discount to Saturday January 6. We have enough people booked for the tour to "go" but the date approaches when we must release excess hotel rooms. Group size likely to be smaller, perhaps a dozen so we are negotiating for a Mercedes or Ford mini-coach that holds 14-17 people instead of the bigger motor coach.

• 03JAN18 Sent out a LAST CHANCE email because we must give back unused hotel rooms soon. We are unlikely to be able to get them back later (although we will try for you).

• 10JAN18 We now have 9 people booked and have heard from 2 others that may be booking shortly. Seats open dwindle in what we call our "Sdkfz 250" mini-coach (Mercedes Sprinter) but hotel space is likely to be gone before all seats are utilized.

• 12JAN18 We now have 10 people booked. Above we added an Important Note About Limited Space Left—see the top of the page.

• 02FEB18 We have held a two extra hotel rooms so that we book a few more people without delay.

• 21FEB18 To accommodate a smaller group size, e have committed to a medium size motor coach from Horn Tours who now operates the tour instead CHR Travel. 

• 26APR18 We have had to release two unsold hotel rooms and now have just 1 seat open, sharing with another guy who is already booked. If 2 or more want to go, click the CONTACT ORGANIZER button to see if we can accommodate your party.

Because of the 21FEB18 change, we have had to change 3 hotels: 

Accommodations: (12) total number of nights

Roissy (1) Sheraton Paris Airport & Conference Center

Chinon (1) Ibis Styles Chinon

Caen (3) Ibis Budget Caen Nord Memorial* (similar location/quality original hotel withdrew their confirmation claiming that they were doing renovations)

Rouen (1) Ibis Rouen Centre Rive Gauche Saint Sever

Dunkerque (1) Ibis Dunkerque Centre

Gent (2) Ibis budget Gent Centrum Dampoort* (closer to old quarter; new hotel)

Arnhem (1) Holiday Inn Express Hotel

Horst (1) Parkhotel

Amsterdam (1) ibis Amsterdam Centre Stopera* (closer to game club & resistance museum)

*New hotels are starred; we have left the original list of hotels in the Accommodations section so you can compare.

 THIS IS OUR FIFTH WARGAMER TOUR

By Bill Owen, tour designer since 1972 and wargamer since 1965, not counting Napoleonic 200th anniversary re-enactments of various battles (the guys had an "in-tents" experience, plus vintage train tours of Civil War battlefields):

• 1991 Millennium of Mayhem from Manchester, England to Amsterdam, Netherlands with James F. Dunnigan and Al Nofi

• 1997 Tanks For The Memories, round from and back to London

• 2003 WYWAE: Wargame Your Way Through Europe from Rome to London

• 2010 Tour Of Battle from Paris to Strasbourg with Al Nofi

• 2018 WargamerTour.com WWII & Castles from Paris to Amsterdam

TESTIMONIALS

• "They listen to your wants and desires and follow through. Totally professional but friendly all the way." - Michael Mathews, Sous-Officier, 21e Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne, 3e Compagnie 

• "Was on your 2003 tour. Definitely will recommend this tour to others. Well worth whatever the cost will be. I'm 80 now and just finished a similar 14 day tour in Poland, father's birthplace." - Dave Nelson WYWAE tourmember sent us a photo riding in halftrack in Poteau, Belgium

REMAKING HISTORY ON TOUR 

Some recollections from past tours • My buddy, Bob Bledsaw, won the Napoleon at Waterloo tournament • Bob Bledsaw and I were playing Hitler’s War on the way through the Cotentin Peninsula and at some point I got tired of his asking “Can you do that?” and threw the rulebook at him saying “I quit!” And he responded, “Does that mean I win then?” So I grabbed it back and said, “I’ll show you why you’re wrong!” and we kept playing.

• And another now-fond memory is his walking around with a giant beer mug at Waterloo in 1991. “What’s with the empty mug, Bob?” He responded with disgust that they charged him $5 for the beer so he figured that it came with the "souvenir" mug.

• Or Jim Dunnigan saying at the top of the Lion Mound there “Napoleon was defeated by mud.” That’s it?!

• At a display case showing the WWI helmets, JFD said, “Here’s illustrated cultural differences in the armies involved: the Germans hired a ballistics expert to design their helmet, the French, an artist and the British, a committee!”

• While driving through the Ardennes, I volunteer, “Doesn’t look like rough terrain (here) to me.” And John Holtz responding, “But the defender gets to choose where to set up!”

• Yelling while packed into a vintage Sdkfz 251 we were riding in at Poteau Belgium, over the extremely loud motor, something like, “We’re spotted …even if they can’t see us yet!”

• On the hill by the Mulberry Harbor at Arromanches, checking to verify the terrain accuracy with my new giant D-Day wargame map series and the coach driver saying to me, “It won’t be that hard to find your way back to coach parking lot.”

• Most infamously, my tiny wargame set-up in a thin, leather briefcase that the guys called the Football, like the Secret Service carries for the President and the nuclear “button”.

• Nick Moran driving straight into the world’s biggest mud puddle with his British Army surplus Chieftain tank.

• Al Nofi's plan to lead a "Patton Memorial" group pee-in-the-Rhine excursion at Strasbourg

US travelers depart for Paris today on an overnight flight.

NOTE:  • You arrange for your own flight on May 8, 2018 to Paris/CDG* (Charles de Gaulle airport). • To arrive any time tomorrow, May 9, 2018 in Paris at Sheraton airport hotel in CDG's Terminal 2.

*On the grey map below, Tremblay-en-France & Roissy are the small French towns where Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG) is located. When you arrive at the CDG airport, you either just walk to the Sheraton right in Terminal 2 or take a free tram from other terminals. 

Our tour stays the first night (May 9) in the Sheraton hotel that is located in CDG's Terminal 2 right above the RER rail terminal that takes one into to Paris. After arrival at the hotel, you are welcome to head into Paris on a RER train (terminal underneath hotel); an RER ticket costs €10.30 each way (on the return, look for trains to “Aeroport Ch. de Gaulle 2–TGV”).

We depart CDG in our tour's private coach on May 10 to Chinon. Do NOT schedule your flight to arrive in Paris on May 10! You must depart the USA on May 8 or before; arriving in Paris the next day. Call us if you need suggestions on the best value air flight options from your nearest major airport.

Departing the tour

Any flight time on May 21 from Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) airpot is fine. If you give us the flight schedule in April we will arrange a van departure from the hotel to allow for plenty of check-in time based on your departure time. If you stay on after May 21, you will need to make your own hotel and travel arrangements.

Very important note about booking your air fare 

Choose what most air booking sites call a “Multi City” search (not just "round trip"). So, enter to Paris May 8 and return from Amsterdam May 21.

For the majority who arrive in Paris Charles de Gaulle’s Terminal 2, just walk to the Sheraton which is located in the center of the Terminal. A few may arrive in other Terminals; they take the CDGVAL* shuttle train. 

Our tour staff greets you at the hotel and will help with baggage storage if you arrive before check-in time (4:00 p.m.) so that you have the option to take an RER train into see Paris independently.

Suggested optional sights: Eiffel Tower, Champs-Élysées, Napoleon’s Arc de Triomphe (commemorating the battle of Austerlitz) and featuring a visit to the Musée de l’Armée at Les Invalides. Here the military history collections span the period from antiquity through the 20th century plus the tomb of Napoleon.

Photo: Musée de l’Armée at Les Invalides

* CDGVAL is Charles de Gaulle’s free airport shuttle train links quickly and easily terminals 1, 2, 3 + RER-TGV railway stations in 8 minutes. Trains run every 4 minutes between 4 AM and 1 AM.

Drive south to the Loire Valley. Stop at Orleans where we will have a bit of time for lunch. Continuing west we arrive in Chinon, strategic location of the Château de Chinon owned by Henry II, the King of England who was also then Count of Anjou. If hungry, inside the fortress is the Tearoom L’Echauguette. (BB)

Photo: like main tour page which is aerial view, above is another perspective of the Château de Chinon

We drive to nearby Saumur where Patton learned under the greatest swordsman in Europe at the French Cavalry School, Adjutant M. Cléry. Because of his training here, Patton convinced the US Army to produce the Model 1913 Cavalry Sabre which was obsolete by World War I.

It is also the location of the Musée des Blindés, the French tank museum featuring armored vehicles from World War I (Saint-Chamond at the bottom of the next page) to the modern day. Here you will see the Tigers I and II plus marks of various Panzers (like the Panther with our 2010 group shown). French models from 1940 include Hotchkiss H 39, Renault AMR 33, Renault R 39, Panhard AMD 178, Renault B1 bis and Somua S 35.

This afternoon we head north via Le Mans and Falaise, the latter where two German armies were encircled. We arrive at Caen, Normandy. If time permits, we will have an option to visit The Caen Memorial Museum; admission is extra because rest of the group will continue on to the hotel (where we stay 3 nights). Driver will come back to pick up the museum-goers. (CB)

Photo: Tiger II at Saumur's Musée de Blindés

Invasion is coming! We head to the Cotentin Peninsula, visit the 82nd Airborne Division’s objective of Sainte-Mère-Église, the first village liberated by US troops in France. It has a dummy of paratrooper, John Steele, still hanging from the church steeple. Then on to the 101st Airborne’s objectives of securing the causeways leading from the beach.

Utah Beach is where the initial landing craft had drifted over a mile from their intended destination. The 4th Infantry Division’s Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., the oldest man at age 56 and the only general to land with the troops, had to make a decision about whether to reboard and head to right beach. Return to north Caen. (CB)

Photo: Airborne Museum, boarding a vintage C-47 over tiny terrain below

As we head to the coast, we pass by the last battlefield of the 100 Years War in Normandy in 1450. Its Memorial was knocked over by a Sherman tank in 1944. We visit the 2nd Ranger Battalion objective of German artillery positions at imposing Pointe du Hoc, the highest ground between the Utah and Omaha Beaches. After a brutal ascent and battle, we find out the terrible irony of what they had captured. Today, the 31 acre site is maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission.

After yesterday’s visit to Utah Beach, we can now compare the difference in the heights of Omaha Beach where the invasion nearly failed. Then we continue inland to Villers-Bocage to get a play-by-play of this “meeting engagement” on D+7 where Tiger ace, Michael Wittman destroyed a dozen tanks and vehicles of the British 22nd Armoured Brigade of the 7th Armoured Division. Return to north Caen. (CB)

Photo: the Ranger's objective, Pointe du Hoc

We drive a bit north to Sword Beach and Ouistreham to visit a German Flak Tower. The we head inland to Benouville’s Pegasus Bridge, nicknamed for the British Paratrooper’s shoulder patch. Here they were to take the two bridges over the river and the Caen Canal and ordered, “hold until relieved.” On our 2003 tour, in the adjacent cafe, its proprietor, Arlette Gondree, served us wine & Calvados telling about how she hid with “mother while daddy showed the British paratroopers where the Germans were located.” Military units from around the world bring shoulder patches and other souvenirs for her walls. We visit the Pegasus Bridge and museum here.

Then we head east to the castle, Chateau-Galliard, overlooking the River Seine. Built by Richard the Lionheart, King of England and feudal Duke of Normandy. From 1196, it was built in just two years, and is an early example of concentric fortification and the use of machicolations (protected points to drop objects from the top of wall).

We travel to Rouen, the site of Joan of Arc’s burning at the stake in 1431. Here, the 14th century Gros Horloge is an astronomical clock (at left) that’s worth a look. (CB)

Photo: the original Pegasus Bridge

This morning we pass through Abbeville where Panzer general Guderian broke through to the English Channel and withstood the greatest armored counterattack of hundreds of Allied tanks until Kursk. 

We continue north along the coast to where the coast turns east, and the Atlantic Wall’s Batterie Todt located on the Strait of Dover with its massive casemates (made of 11.5’ of reinforced concrete) to protect four 380mm (15”) guns like the Bismarck’s and the impressive K5 280mm railway gun with its 71’ barrel. It’s one of two surviving today, a twin of “Anzio Annie”.

On to Dunkirk, the site of the miraculous escape of the British Army from France. (CB)

Photo: Batterie Todt on the coast of Calais

We visit the Dunkerque 1940 Museum located in Bastion 32, a fort built in 1874 which was the headquarters for the French and Allied forces. They tell the story of Operation Dynamo’s evacuation of 338,000 Allied soldiers surrounded by the panzers.

We continue on to Ghent where we have the rest of the day free. Through tomorrow this is a time to take it a little easier than we have so far. (CB)

Photo: Dunkerque 1940 Museum

Full of chocolate shops and olden sights, there are lots of things to do like exploring Castle Gravensteen (top of next right hand page) from the year 1180. You will need to get to sites on your own and pay for admissions this day.

The Ghent Altarpiece is considered a world masterwork from 1432 and was featured in George Clooney’s movie, Monument Men. The movie attempts to tell the remarkable story of when a conquering army actually sought to find masterpieces with the goal of returning them to those they were stolen from.

Hosting yet another game for us, Henk and the Red Barons club are putting on a wargame for us tonight from 7-9 P.M. The rule system is Ironfist’s Battlegroup where each model is an actual vehicle and two stands, a squad. You are welcome to try it! (CB)

Photo: Gravensteen Castle

Make our way to the “forming up point” for Operation Market-Garden, the doomed campaign to cross the Rhine at a “lightly-defended” sector. We meet our Dutch guide at Valkenswaard who will show us Hell’s Highway via the US Airborne objectives of Eindhoven and Nijmegan, culminating in the beleaguered British and Polish paratroopers at Arnhem, the key bridge “too far”.

We stay overnight in Arnhem and are arranging for a Flames of War game at a local wargame shop this evening. (CB)

Photo: a 25-pounder gun faces the John Frost Bridge in Arnhem

This morning we motor to the site of the largest tank battle in the Netherlands, Overloon, which involved the 7th US Armored and 11th British Armour September 30, 1944.

Its War Museum is also the site for this year’s “Militracks”, a militaria fair with the option of riding on World War II era German softskins and tanks. (The price for this ride is included at the highest level, for tanks but on the day, you can opt out or choose a lesser vehicle for a refund.)

But don’t miss the excellent museum with 150 vehicles and guns, many that until recently were sitting outside where they were knocked out. Here you will find out the “rest of the story” after Market Garden as the Germans attempted to cut off the corridor. In the late afternoon we head to nearby Horst and our lakeside hotel. (CB)

Photo: riding a Schwimmwagen at a previous Militracks; only 189 are known to be in existence after over 15,500 were made by 1944

We drive to Amsterdam and our centrally hotel on the Amstel canal. There’s everything here from charming narrow houses to a risqué Red Light district. Whether shopping for Gouda cheese or Dutch shoes, a souvenir for micro-armor gamers are a handful of tiny Dutch houses! 

We are looking into one last wargame option here with the Amsterdam 6 Shooters club. As of February 20, they are planning games in both the afternoon and evening so you can sightsee early and game late or vice versa! (CB)

Photo: Amsterdam's Amstel Canal in the evening

This is our last morning in Europe (unless you planned to stay on independently). Say your last farewells to new gamer friends with unforgettable memories of a unique wargamers tour of Europe!

If you advise us of your flight time, number and airline name in April, at no extra charge, we will arrange for transportation to the airport this morning. Most connections arrive back in the US the same day. (CB)

Photo: Henk & the Red Barons Club host us for a game in Ghent; one of the benefits of going on the tour is the gamers you meet on our coach and European gamers along the way.