Learn more about our Battlefield Tours
We pride ourselves in being a little different in what we offer and how we conduct our tours, offering a menu of specialist themes which can act as the building blocks for your bespoke tour.
A typical 4 day battlefield tour
A tour including the highlights of the Western Front Battlefield areas over four days, including one of specialist themes from our menu of topics, is priced at £850 per person and includes the following:
• An experienced driver-guide for the duration of the trip
• A comfortable MPV or minibus for a larger group
• Two nights half board at one of two privately owned hospitality venues on the Somme
• One night B&B in Ypres
• Attendance at the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate
• Return Le Shuttle crossings and transportation costs
• Pick-up and drop off at Ashford International Station, Kent
Our speciality is to provide a tailor-made service for groups of four to twelve (with transport adjusted accordingly), aiming to cater for the interests of family groups or regimental/community associations and historical societies. We particularly welcome those who wish to conduct family research or trace regimental actions.
At #bespokewfbt we pride ourselves in being a little different in what we offer and how we conduct our tours, offering a menu of Specialist Tour Themes, listed below, which can act as the building blocks for your tour. We use privately owned, comfortable and informal accommodation when staying on the Somme.
How we operate in the field
For each trip, we will be staying at the very comfortable and traditional Picardy farmhouse accommodation, Orchard Farm in Combles. This location is in the heart of the Somme battlefields, and is owned and managed by one of the Bespoke Team. En-suite accommodation (or private bathrooms), continental breakfast and two course evening meal with wine, is included on every tour. Additionally, we have accommodation available at nearby Guillemont Halt: another very spacious and tastefully renovated farmhouse. Evenings on each tour where B&B accommodation is taken in Ypres will be in and around the city centre.
On each tour, we will ensure that well known locations in both the Ypres Salient and the Somme battlefields are visited as a standard inclusion, on our ‘Highlights of the Western Front’:
Ypres
- The Menin Gate
- Tyne Cot Cemetery
- Essex Farm Cemetery
- Vancouver Corner
- Hooge and Sanctuary Wood
The Somme
- Newfoundland Memorial Park
- The Sunken Lane
- Thiepval Memorial to the Missing
- Lochnagar Crater
- Devonshire Cemetery
Specialist Tour Themes
- Diggers on the Somme
- 1st July 1916 – The Opening Day of the Somme Offensive
- The War in the Air
- Behind the Lines – Medics and the role of the RAMC
- Third Battle of Ypres – the Legacy of Passchendaele
- Poets and Writers
- Tank Warfare*
- Boy Soldiers
- The Hundred Days – August to November 1918
- The Forgotten Front and Fromelles
- Loos
- The Christmas Truce
- The Big Memorials to the Missing – Menin Gate, Tyne Cot, Vimy, Thiepval and Villers-Bretonneux
- The Cité Souterrain at Naours*
- Walking the Battlefields – Somme / Ypres or Arras
- A half day in one of three cities affected by war (5 day trip only) – Arras, St Quentin or Amiens
- VC’s of the Western Front
- Behind the Lines – Talbot House in Poperinge and the role of the Padres*
- Tunnelling and Tunnellers
- Executions on the Western Front, ‘Shot at Dawn’
- Following in the Footsteps of Your Antecedents – Bespoke Family Research for Battlefield Visits
An asterisk (*) indicates that there is an additional admission charge to be paid
Orchard Farm
Orchard Farm is an English run bed and breakfast venue situated on the edge of the village of Combles, Somme that lays in the heart of the Western Front battlefields. It also offers self-catering accommodation within a converted stable block that comprises of two, two bedroom self-contained apartments. When in use for #bespokewfbt tours it will be exclusively for those guests.
Orchard Farm’s location lends itself to visiting many First World War commemorative sites, and WW1 cemeteries if you are tracing ancestors who served during the Great War. Within a convenient radius of Combles are sites such as Newfoundland Park at Beaumont Hamel, Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, Mametz Wood, the Ulster Tower, Villers-Bretonneux, the Lochnagar Crater at La Boisselle, and the site of Manfred von Richthofen’s (the Red Baron) fatal crash at Corbie.
Orchard Farm serves continental breakfast to our B&B guests alongside as much coffee or Yorkshire Tea as you wish to drink.
Combles lies behind what was the German third line in 1916, and evidence of German occupation still quietly lies within hedgerows in the village, where various bunkers still remain. It is walking distance to sites such as Leuze Wood, the Dickens memorial, Combles Communal Cemetery Extension and Falfemont Farm, famous for its field grave.
Guillemont Halt
Located in the village of Guillemont within the heart of the Somme battlefields area, Guillemont Halt is a self catering holiday home which can accommodate up to 11 guests in spacious and comfortable surroundings.
The house has a unique feature from the 1914-1918 war. An infilled German bunker has been discovered under the location of the original house, which was rebuilt after the 1914-18 war. The bunker and stairway were excavated during the renovations and a glass panel has been installed in the living room to show a small part of the dugout.
Facilities of the property include:
- Spacious Living Room, Dining room, Study/Library and Conservatory
- Fully equipped kitchen
- Four bedrooms, one of which has an en-suite bathroom.
- Family bathroom
- Downstairs Shower Room & Separate WC
Contact Us to Book Your Western Front Battlefield Tour
Please get in touch to discuss and book your tour with us.