Two days in northern France. The first day works south from Calais through Loos, Vimy Ridge and Arras; the second is the ground of the first day of the Somme.
£300per household
This tour covers more than the Somme, and the catalogue card used to undersell it badly. The second day is the famous one: Thiepval, Lochnagar Crater, Beaumont-Hamel, the ground of 1 July 1916. The first day is spent getting there properly rather than driving past it, which means Loos, Vimy Ridge, the tunnels under Arras and the tank at Flesquières.
That first day is the part people are surprised by. Vimy is the best preserved ground on the whole Western Front and the memorial on top of it is one of the great ones; the Arras tunnels are a different experience again, because you go underground into them. Neither is on the Somme, and leaving them out to keep the title tidy would be the wrong trade.
Unlike the Salient, the Somme does not have one obvious base. Albert is a small town in the middle of the battlefield and Amiens is a city half an hour further off with more to eat and more to do in the evening. Peter has stayed in both and the pack lists both, with the trade-off spelled out rather than a single answer imposed.
The honest difficulty of the Somme is that most of it is farmland again. Without something to tell you what you are looking at, a great deal of it is a view over beet fields. That is what the pack is for, and it is why Lochnagar and Beaumont-Hamel carry so much weight in the itinerary: they are the two places where the ground still says it itself.
No. One of the two days is, and it is the reason most people come. The other works down from Calais through Loos, Vimy Ridge and Arras, which are worth a day in their own right.
Albert puts you in the middle of the battlefield and within a few minutes of Lochnagar and Thiepval. Amiens is a proper city with far better eating and a cathedral, at the cost of a longer run out each morning. The pack recommends places in both.
Yes, and there is a four-day pack that does exactly that for less than the two two-day tours bought separately.
Some, and it is worth it. Beaumont-Hamel and Vimy are both preserved battlefield parks where the point is to walk the ground, and Lochnagar has a path round the rim. None of it is difficult, but take boots in winter.
Not in this pack. Family research belongs to a custom tour, where Peter will try to find where a man is buried or commemorated and plan the visit around it.
Reviews
These are from travellers Peter has guided in person. The packs are the same itineraries, written up so you can drive them yourself.
“Pete Jefferies delivers a professional WW1 tour. He has a great passion for the subject and his knowledge is very in depth. He organised an excellent itinerary which covered all the main topics and sites of WW1. His choice of hotels and authentic Flemish restaurants were great. The whole experience was unforgettable.”
“I have been on a tour organised by Pete Jefferies and thoroughly enjoyed it — I am booked again for 2027. The itineraries have been well organised and could be changed if required but never rushed. Visits were well planned, whether it was a museum, a graveyard, the Menin Gate or the Thiepval Memorial.”
“I have been on several WW1 battlefield and cemetery tours with Pete Jefferies, covering areas in Belgium and France. The tours are well organised with itineraries that fill the days perfectly, including stops for lunch, and they can be adapted to take any weather or traffic issues on board at short notice. His knowledge and enthusiasm are very obvious too.”
“An excellent battlefield tour of Ypres and the Somme. The itinerary covered an impressive range of sites throughout both of these locations. The whole experience was informative, engaging and thoughtfully put together, bringing the history of these remarkable places to life. Peter knew so much information about each location.”
“I recently paid a visit to the Somme battlefield with Pete’s Battlefield Tours, as I have a relative buried there. Unfortunately, my great uncle is one of the 72,000 with no known grave. Pete did, however, manage to find him commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, which I was able to see — a very personal moment. Pete’s knowledge of the First World War and the Battle of the Somme was excellent and informative. On a lighter note, on Pete’s recommendation we went to an excellent French restaurant in the main square at Arras, where we had a superb meal to finish the day.”
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