These are UK-based specialist tour operators, travel agencies, and companies offering self-drive or expert guided battlefield tours to military sites and battlefields worldwide, but mostly World War I & II, and Napoleonic war sites in Europe.
Research Tips (below) also lists specialists in battlefield experiences that don't quite fit the parameters for this list. In particular there are a number of battlefield guides who are based on the continent near the sites they visit.
See also History and Archaeology tours |
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| Anglia Battlefield Tours |
01245 231991 |
Schools & groups battlefield tours to Europe. A range of different tours covering different conflicts, including poetry tours to WWI sites such as the Somme & Ypres studying the works of Siegfried Sasson and Wifred Owen. |
| Bartletts Battlefield Journeys |
01507 523128 |
Bartletts specialise in WW1 battlefield sites in France and Belgium, but they also covered the 60th anniversary of the WW2 Normandy Landings in 2004. |
| Battlefield Tours |
0121 430 5348 |
Operating name for the War Research Society which specialises in taking pilgrims, veterans, widows and children to visit the battlefields, memorials and last resting places of the fallen, combined with guided historical tours of the areas of the First and Second World Wars in Northern France, Belgium, and Italy. |
| Cooper's Waterloo Tours |
01277 890214 |
Tours led by expert, Graham Cooper, to Napoloeonic battlefield sites across Europe (his speciality), and also WW1 and WW2 (Normandy) battlefield sites. |
| Dr Thomson's Tours |
01227 455922 |
Small-scale (one-man) tour operator. Dr Thompson is a historian & guide based in Canterbury, he takes private tours to battlefield and historic sites on both sides of the Channel Tunnel, ie. Kent & Sussex (castles, gardens, history), Northern France & Belgium (WWII & WWII) battlefield sites. In 2004 he has two 'space & rocketry' coach tours going to Peenemunde, Berlin, the European Space Technology Centre (ESTEC) at Noordwijk, and the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) at Darmstadt. |
| European Military Tours |
01473 787160 |
Small group tours to WW1 & WW2 sites in Europe for American, Australian, British, Canadian and other Commonwealth Forces and Families, Friends, History Buffs etc. Part of Ipswich-based Destinations Europe. |
| Flanders Tours |
01480 890966 |
WWI (mostly) and WWII battlefield tours and remembrance visits. |
| Galina International Battlefield Tours |
01244 340777 |
Battlefield tours in Europe focused on WWI & WWII but also Agincourt & Waterloo. |
| Holts Battlefield Tours |
0800 731 1914 |
Well-established (25 years) operator, and probably the best known, specialising in history & battlefield tours with expert guides. A huge range of expert-guided battlefield tours worldwide. Holts was a small independent specialist until Sept 03 when it was aquired by Titan Tours. Holts has now been merged with former competitor, Midas Tours. |
| Kingshead Adventures |
01689 837736 |
Kingshead specialise in tailor-made or scheduled group tours to European battlefield sites in 4 x 4 vehicles, which can get off the beaten track and visit sites such as WW1 & WW2 tank trails that are not so easy for other tours to reach. |
| Leger |
0800 018 9898 |
Small programme of 1st & 2nd WW battlefield tours in Europe. |
| Matt Limb Battlefield Tours |
0870 74 814 74 |
Matt Limb OBE is himself a Commanding Officer of a specialist Territorial Army regiment. He takes battlefield tours to 1st & 2nd WW sites on the Continent. |
| Midas Tours |
0845 375 0400 |
Longstanding specialist with a wide range of battlefield tours throughtout Europe and further afield, now incorporated into Holts (see above). |
| Middlebrook Hodgson Battlefield Tours |
01205 364555 |
Small group tours to 1st World War sites |
| Old Country Tours |
01747 828719 |
Anglo-American specialist tour operator offering history and battlefield tours in Europe and the USA. |
| Perception Travel |
01844 290635 |
Tour planners/organisers for visiting the WW2 Normandy landing sites. They also operate air tours of the area by private light aircraft. |
| Richardson & Gray |
01584 878914 |
Specialise in group tours to WWI & WWII battlefield sites, also for visiting American, Australian and Canadian groups. |
| Skylark Battlefield Tours |
01354 696779 |
WWI & WWII battlefield tours for colleges, schools and small private groups. They also offer 'Living History' presentations to school classes in the UK. |
| Remembrance Travel |
01622 716729 |
Remembrance is the Royal British Legion's specialist agency operating two kinds of tours: pilgrimages to cemeteries, memorials and war graves in Europe, Africa and the Far East, and battlefield tours to Europe and South Africa (Boer War sites). They have also been calling themselves 'Poppy Travel' in 2007, though the Remembrance name stays on their website. |
| Somme Battlefield Tours |
01202 880211 |
Expert-led and self-drive tours of the Somme & Ypres WWI battlefields. |
| Soverign War Tours |
01323 472066 |
A range of small group (max 6) tours to WWI & II battlefield sites in France, Belgium, Holland and North Africa, and tailor made tours for groups of 5 plus. (Soverign spelling is not a typo! -Ed) |
| Spider Holidays |
0845 373 3015 |
Small programme of mainly WWI & II battle site tours in Europe but also a Waterloo tour and Falklands war tour. |
| Tours with Experts |
01226 734301 |
Wide range of battlefield tours with experts in Europe Africa & the USA. |
| Travel & Learn |
01789 263 000 |
Guided battlefield tours for schools. Travel and Learn is The Royal British Legion’s specialist organiser of visits for schools to battlefields and war cemeteries in many parts of the world, currently their programme features Ypres, The Somme, Normandy, Arnhem, Monte Casino and Berlin. |
| Waterloo Battlefield Tours |
01962 712595 |
Specialist guided tours to Waterloo. |
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| Research Tips: | * | Battlefields Experience, The (not based in the UK) operates WW1 & WW2 battlefield tours in Northern France & Belgium. |
| * | Caravanserai Tours who act as agents for tours to Libya (using Libya-based Arkno tours. See Libya) can organise tours to visits WWII Desert Rats & 8th Army battlefield sites and cemetaries in Libya. |
| * | Battlefields Review magazine is an invaluable source of historical and contemporary information about battlefield sites worldwide - unfortunately none of it online. You have to buy the mag!. |
| * | Civil War Traveler is a useful website detailing historical self-drive tour and trail information to civil war sites in the USA. |
| * | French-Tours offer chauffeur-guided tours of WWI & WWII battlefields sites in France. |
| * | The Three Whales travel agency in Russia offers tours of major Russian World War 2 battlefield sites such as Kursk and Stalingrad. |
| * | The Salient Tours offer twice daily guided WW1 battlefield tours at Ypres and the Somme for independent travellers who have made the own way to the battlefield areas. |
| * | Travel Talk is a well-established operator based in Turkey, specialising in guided adventure tours to the Mediterranean region for Brits, Aussies and New Zealanders in the 20 to 35 age group. They offer an ANZAC Day "pilgrimage of culture, history & remembrance" to the beaches, trenches and memorials of Gallipoli. |
| * | Martin Randall Travel have a Poets and the Somme tour led by Andrew Spooner, which runs on specific dates and was favourably reviewed in the Telegraph (Jan 08). |
| * | Trench Map Tours. Battlefield guide, Iain McHenry, takes individuals and small groups to WWI sites.
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| * | Abercrombie & Kent are planning two expeditions aboard the small, 118-passenger Clipper Odyssey that will journey to some of the most bitterly fought WW2 naval campaigns in the South Pacific. Highlights will include tracing John F. Kennedy's path through the Solomon Islands, visiting Guadalcanal, and Chuuk Lagoon where guests can see some of the 50+ Japanese naval and merchant ship wrecks and 100 aircraft in the shallow waters of the lagoon. |
| * | Kirker Holidays' India specialist, Darren Odell is currently (May 08) working on plans for small group tours to battle sites of the Indian Mutiny and WW2. Call Kirker (020 7593 2287) and talk to him if you are interested. |
