What are the maps to the shown to the left and right of our pages (if you have a high resolution screen)?

The map shown is a copy of an original trench map (complete with oil stain...) showing the disposition of trenches on the Somme battlefield at Beaumont Hamel as at October 1916. The German trench system is shown in red and the British in blue. Trench maps are your 'window to the past' and feature greatly in our Self-Drive guides.

LATEST
BATTLEFIELD NEWS

Mine Warfare and the La Boisselle Study Group

Click here for more about the research being undertaken at La Boisselle (Somme)

To see a BBC news report click here

In Flanders Fields Museum closure (Ypres)
Nov 2011 - June 2012

Click here to find out more about the planned temporary closure of the above museum during extensive enlargement and renovations.

Have you any news you wish to show here? Just let me know and I'll be pleased to publish (if of general interest)

Ypres 'Cat Festival' 12-13 May 2012

If you are thinking of visiting Ypres in 2012 then bear in mind this festival, held every 3 years, will well and truly dominate the town centre and just about all hotels will be full.

Click here for details.

WARNING!
Ypres Car Rally
2012

If you are thinking of visiting Ypres in 2012 then please also be aware that an annual car rally will be taking place in and around Ypres/Ieper the week 14-16 June (should be clear by Sunday 17th). This rally tends to dominate the town and surrounding countryside (i.e. the battlefield!). We therefore strongly recommend that you avoid the above dates if you are planning a visit to the Ypres/Ieper battlefield.

BIRDSONG
(BBC January 2012)

Somme Battlefield Tours is pleased to have been chosen to work with the BBC in 2001 and subsequently on two further occasions over the past six years leading a production team from Working Title Films in connection with a possible feature film of Sebastian Faulks's acclaimed novel Birdsong.  We believe we are the only battlefield tour company to have been chosen to help with these productions.

DELVILLE WOOD MUSEUM

Visitors to the Somme battlefield should note that the Delville Commemorative museum is currently undergoing major
technical refurbishment. The scheduled reopening date for the public is
April 25, 2012. Delville Wood itself, the most important focus of any visit, remains accessible during this period.

In Flanders Fields

Lt Col John McCrae
'In Flanders Fields'
Spoken by Michael Haynes (click link)
(Superbly produced by  DesignVision.org.uk)

Please read this bit first - it will only take a minute or so but worth the time...

As you may already be aware, there are many companies offering battlefield tours.  However, we believes we are the only long-established, fully registered specialist WWI tour company in the UK with a proud achievement of national awards (Vanity Fair) and national press recommendations (Sunday Times & Daily Telegraph). Above all it is our many, many client testimonials (see right) which we value the most for they are your assurance of our reputation. They have not been 'weeded' in any way, shape or form.

Self-Drive Tours

People who wish to visit the battlefields of the Great War quite often think first of a conducted tour.  However, for those truly seeking to reveal the legacy of the Great War, nothing can beat the freedom of exploring the battlefields without the rigid timetable of a coach/minibus group dictating the pace.  How frustrating must it be to see the battlefields passing before your very own eyes without being able to stop wherever you want to stop, for however long you want to spend, exploring what you want to explore!  The freedom to explore the battlefields at your own pace is what sets our tours apart.

If you intend visiting the battlefield you need to be well briefed. Many visitors just turn up thinking all will be clear, which is certainly not the case.  This is where our Self-Drive guide expertise comes in to play in providing you with an abundance of friendly maps, plans, diagrams and easy to follow narrative and directions.  Our Self-Drive tour 'package' also includes your hotel accommodation and Channel crossing (for UK travellers) all dovetailed together so all you have to do is just pack and go - we make it as simple as that! 

PLEASE NOTE!
WE SUGGEST THAT YOU BOOK AS FAR IN ADVANCE AS
POSSIBLE AS THE FEW HOTELS WE PERSONALLY
RECOMMEND SOON BECOME  FULLY BOOKED,
 A PROBLEM WE HAVE ENCOUNTERED
MORE OFTEN THIS PAST YEAR

   James Power 
.
about me.
A  member of the
Guild of Battlefield Guides

and

Western Front Association