"In the Footsteps of the Great War" is a comprehensive seven-day coach tour that guides travelers through the pivotal World War I battlefields, cemeteries, and memorials of Belgium and Northern France. Accompanied by a specialist battlefield guide, the itinerary begins with two nights in Ypres, exploring significant sites like the Essex Farm dressing station, the Tyne Cot cemetery, and the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate. As the journey continues into France, participants visit the Vimy Ridge memorial, the Somme battlefields, and the Armistice Carriage in Compiegne where the Western Front conflict officially ended. The final days focus heavily on the French and American experiences, featuring the Verdun forts, the Meuse-Argonne American Offensive, Belleau Wood, and preserved trenches in the Champagne Battlefields before concluding with a return to London. The package includes six nights of hotel accommodation, select meals, and executive coach travel throughout the excursions.

Cancellation/Refund policy

$500 USD non-refundable deposit is due on booking. (will be refunded if the tour is canceled due to not meeting the required minimum bookings)

If booking is canceled before June 1, a full refund (minus deposit) will be given.

If booking is canceled between June 2 and August 1, a 50% refund will be given

After August 1, no refund can be given

We meet our coach in the UK which takes us to our hotel in Ypres for two nights. En-route we stop at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery to begin our understanding of the British and Commonwealth approach to commemorating the dead, and here also look at the medical arrangements and role of women, visiting the grave of Army Nurse Nellie Spindler.

Today we look at the Ypres Salient where over four years more than a quarter of a million British and Commonwealth soldiers fell, along with men from many other nations including Belgium, France, Germany, and the United States. We visit Essex Farm to discover the story of Canadian Poet, John McCrae and see the original concrete Dressing Station bunkers. We travel via St Julien to Langemarck and visit the German War Cemetery here with more than 44,000 burials and a location that Adolf Hitler visited on his 1940 Battlefield Tour. We then visit Tyne Cot, the largest British and Commonwealth Cemetery, looking at the story of Third Ypres or ‘Passchendaele’. We have an included lunch at the Hooge Crater Café and have time to visit the museum here and see the reconstructed WW1 trenches. In the afternoon we travel down the Messines Ridge, seeing the German trenches at Bayernwald, where Hitler served in 1914/15 and where British troops captured

the ridge in June 1917. We end the day at Hill 60 seeing the mine craters here and looking at the War Underground. This evening, we attend The Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ypres.

We travel into Northern France and visit the impressive memorial at Vimy Ridge, which commemorates the capture of his high ground by the Canadians in April 1917. Here we also see the preserved trenches and mine craters. We then continue to the Somme battlefields of 1916, having an included lunch at Le Tommy Café which also has an incredible WW1 private museum. In the afternoon we look at mine warfare on the Somme and see the massive Lochnagar Crater, visit the Sunken Lane and Hawthorn Ridge at Beaumont-Hamel, the preserved trenches at the Newfoundland Park where the Newfoundland Regiment suffered such heavy casualties on the First Day of the Somme, and end at the Thiepval Memorial to remember the ‘Missing of the Somme’. We then continue to our hotel in Albert for an overnight stay.

We begin today on the Somme battlefields, walking up to the battlefield at Serre where the Northern Pals battalions went into action on 1st July 1916. Here we see the battlefield cemeteries, the memorials and preserved trenches and shell holes. We then travel to Compiegne for our lunch period and then visit the Armistice Carriage where the Armistice was signed in November 1918 bringing the Great War on the Western Front to an end. Later we see Belleau Wood, where the Marine Corps fought in 1918, seeing the memorials and the American Cemetery, and finish at the American Chateau-Thierry Memorial before continuing to our hotel near Reims for two nights.

We head to Verdun, a byword for the French experience of the Great War and begin at the superb Memorial Museum at Fleury, setting the scene for the 1916 fighting. We then visit the Ossuary at Douaumont, beneath which are the bones of more than 120,000 unidentified soldiers from the conflict. After lunchtime in Verdun, we look at the role of the forts in the battle, seeing the inside and outside of both Forts Douaumont and Fort Vaux. Both became pivotal points in the battle here and cost the lives of thousands of French soldiers.

Today we examine the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and tole of the American Expeditionary Force in the fighting in this region from September to November 1918. At Montfaucon we see the impressive American Memorial with its stunning views, look at the battle-damaged remains of the hilltop church and German bunkers, and then continue to the tiny village of Cunel, one of the most crucial and fought over places in the 1918 battles. We then visit the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, with more than 14,000 burials – the largest American war cemetery in Europe. We have an included lunch in nearby Romagne and visit the war museum here. In the afternoon we travel to Vauquois, a hilltop village literally blown off the map by huge mine explosions, and not a hill dominated by huge mine craters. We finish the day on the high ground at Main de Massiges in the Champagne Battlefields, visiting a massive area of reconstructed WW1 trenches and original mine craters, perhaps one of the most impressive battlefield sites on the battlefields today.

All good things must come to an end! We say goodbye to the Western Front and make the long journey back to London.