2024 ANZAC 4-Day Tour on the Western Front

Reference: 23Mcl

Inclusions

★  Services of an expert WWI Historian
★  Central Paris pick-up and drop-off plus the option to meet the tour in Lille
★  All excursions, scenic drives, and sightseeing as described in the itinerary
★  3 nights’ 3 to 4-star accommodation
★  Travel by comfortable air-conditioned coach
★  Breakfast daily, 2 lunches, and welcome dinner
★  All entrance fees as per the itinerary

Walk in the footsteps of the Anzacs on our most popular Western Front Tour – the perfect addition to any European holiday.

This 2024 ANZAC 4-Day Tour on the Western Front is our most popular battlefields tour!

This 4-day small-group tour provides the perfect opportunity to explore the Australian battlefields of the Western Front in comfort and convenience. We will walk in the footsteps of the Anzacs on all the main battlefield sites in the Somme, Flanders and the Ypres Salient. The itinerary has been personally designed by our experts and the historians who escort this tour have been hand-picked. The Western Front Explorer Tour is the next best thing to being there with Mat himself!

Either begin your tour in Paris or Lille, a great option if you are catching the Eurostar from London or travelling from elsewhere in Europe! With weekly departures between April and November, you are sure to find a tour date that fits perfectly with your plans.

2024 TOUR DATES HAVE BEEN RELEASED! See below.

This tour is available for weekly departures from April to November.

The journey may be over, but the memories will last a lifetime.

Please note: This itinerary is an indication of the sites visited on the tour. The order of each day may be adjusted to allow for local events, weather conditions, etc.

TESTIMONIAL April 2022

Hi Danielle,

We thought the four-day ANZAC TOUR was fantastic, due mainly to our guide Pete Smith who was superb. He was a mine of knowledge and couldn’t do enough to ensure the trip was a success.
After 4 days with him we thought of him as a friend, of course we were exceptionally lucky to be in such number on the tour.
A highlight was that I was selected to read the ode at the Menin Gate in Ypres on Saturday night, after Pete has put in a word for me with the Last Post Association, a tremendous honour.

It was an experience Lynne and I will never forget.
Kind regards,
Ron and Lynne C.

From A$2,400 Twin-share accommodation

Single supplement $650

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wwi battlefieldsmenin gate war memorial2

2024 DETAILED ITINERARY AND DATES

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CLICK HERE for the day to day itinerary
Day 1 > Paris to Ypres

Welcome to our Western Front tour! The tour group will assemble at the Holiday Inn Express – Canal De La Villette Hotel in Paris at 8.30am for a 9.00am departure. We will leave Paris and drive north towards the Belgian border. Our first stop is the very moving 1916 battlefield of Fromelles, where Australia lost 5533 men during its first action on the Western Front. While here we will visit the Australian Memorial Park, VC Corner Cemetery (the only all-Australian cemetery in France), the site of the Australian mass grave at Pheasant Wood and the Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Cemetery, where 250 Australian and British soldiers were laid to rest in 2010. We will also visit the Fromelles Museum which tells the story of Australia’s disastrous involvement in the battle of Fromelles in 1916. Our final destination is the town of Ypres, our home for the next two nights. Between 1914 and 1918 Ypres was completely destroyed by shellfire and came to symbolise the horror of the First World War. In the evening we will enjoy a walking tour with our Historian around the rebuilt town, before coming together for a welcome dinner. (Passengers joining the tour in Lille will be collected from our meeting point en-route to Fromelles.) (D)
STAR INCLUSIONS  ★ Central Ypres hotel ★ Welcome dinner

Day 2 > The Ypres Salient

The Ypres Salient was a bulge in the front line that curved around Ypres for most of the war. More than a million men were killed or wounded trying to gain control of this small patch of ground. Today we will explore the Australian battlefields in the Salient, places where the Anzacs made history in 1917. Our first stop will be the Passchendaele Museum, a provocative collection of relics and displays that chronicles the fighting in Flanders. We will then visit the 5th Australian Division Memorial at Polygon Wood, where we will see the graves of Private Hunter and Sergeant Calder, the two Australian soldiers who featured in Mat McLachlan’s documentary ‘Lost in Flanders’. Lunch is included at a local cafe. We then get a taste of the devastation caused by four years of continuous artillery fire at the cratered landscape of Hill 60, before visiting Tyne Cot, the world’s largest Commonwealth war cemetery. Tyne Cot sits in the heart of one of the most horrific battlefields of the war – Passchendaele. Our final stop today is at the German Cemetery at Langemark, where we will learn about the men on the other side of the line. As we drive back to our hotel, we will see the magnificent Canadian memorial at Langemark, marking the spot where poison gas was first used in the war. This evening we will visit the Menin Gate where the names of 54,000 missing British and Commonwealth soldiers are recorded, for the moving Last Post ceremony. The Ypres fire brigade has performed this bugle ceremony every day and in all-weather since the memorial opened in 1927. The only interruption was during the four years of German occupation during the Second World War – the ceremony recommenced on the day the town was liberated. Two passengers will be invited to lay a wreath on behalf of our group. (B, L)
STAR INCLUSIONS - ★ Passchendaele Museum ★ Polygon Wood  ★ Hill 60 ★ Tyne Cot Cemetery ★ Langemarck Cemetery  ★ Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate

Day 3 > Ypres to the Somme

Today we leave Ypres and travel south towards the battlefields of the Somme. Our first stop is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Experience – a unique new attraction that allows visitors to take a look behind-the-scenes at the work that is required to commemorate the 1.7 million Commonwealth casualties from the First and Second World Wars. Next is the battlefield of Bullecourt, where Australia lost 10,000 men in two great battles in 1917. We will pay our respects to them at the Slouch Hat memorial in the centre of town and the Australian Memorial Park on the site of the German front line. In the afternoon we will visit Pozieres, scene of the most costly battle in Australia’s history. 23,000 men were killed or wounded here in six weeks of fighting and we will pay tribute to them at the 1st Division Memorial and the Windmill. We will then see Mouquet Farm, where the Australians fought a bitter campaign against the Germans in August 1916. Our final stop is the imposing Thiepval Memorial, which commemorates more than 70,000 British soldiers missing from the Somme fighting. After checking in to our central Somme hotel we will have free time to enjoy dinner. A packed picnic lunch is included today. (B, L)
STAR INCLUSIONS ★ Fromelles ★ Fromelles Museum ★ Bullecourt ★ Pozieres ★ Mouquet Farm ★ Thiepval Memorial ★ Picnic lunch

Day 4 > The Somme to Paris

Today we will explore the killing fields of the Somme, where Australian troops performed magnificently in 1918. Our first visit is to Adelaide Cemetery, where Australia’s Unknown Soldier lay before being reinterred in Canberra in 1993. We will then visit the Victoria School in Villers-Bretonneux where a sign entreats that the schoolchildren ‘Do Not Forget Australia’. We will also visit the excellent Franco-Australian Museum at the school. We then travel to the Australian Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, where the names of almost 11,000 Australians missing in France are recorded and also visit the new Sir John Monash Interpretive Centre, which tells the story of Australia’s achievements on the Western Front. Our next stop is the Australian Memorial Park at Hamel, scene of a great Australian victory orchestrated by General John Monash on July 4, 1918. We then farewell the battlefields and drive back to Paris, arriving at the Holiday Inn Express – Canal De La Villette Hotel at approximately 5pm. (B)
STAR INCLUSIONS  ★ Villers-Bretonneux  ★ Adelaide Cemetery ★ Victoria School Museum ★ Franco-Australian Museum ★ Australian Memorial  ★ Sir John Monash Centre ★ Australian Memorial Park  ★ Hamel

PLEASE NOTE: A mobile device with the Sir John Monash Centre App installed is required to fully experience the Centre.
Use of the App is required for the majority of the exhibits inside the Centre and allows visitors to tailor the experience to their own interests.
We strongly recommend all visitors bring their own fully-charged mobile device and headphones to get the most out of their visit.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

LUGGAGE: Passengers are limited to 1 x suitcase & 1 x piece of hand luggage per person

RELATIVE REQUESTS: Please ensure you have advised Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours of any grave/cemetery visit requests before departure. Whilst we will do our best to accommodate, these visits cannot be guaranteed.
2024 TOUR starting and finishing dates
NOTE - Monday, 24 April to Thursday, 27 April 2023 - This tour includes the ANZAC Day ceremony in Ypres
Saturday, 29 April to Tuesday, 2 May 2023

Saturday, 6 May to Tuesday, 9 May 2023

Saturday, 13 May to Tuesday, 16 May 2023

Saturday, 20 May to Tuesday, 23 May 2023

Saturday, 27 May to Tuesday, 30 May 2023

Wednesday, 31 May to Saturday, 3 June 2023

Saturday, 3 June to Tuesday, 6 June 2023

Saturday, 10 June to Tuesday, 13 June 2023

Saturday, 17 June to Tuesday, 20 June 2023

Monday, 26 June to Thursday, 29 June 2023

Monday, 3 July 2to Thursday, 6 July 2023

Saturday, 8 July to Tuesday, 11 July 2023

Monday, 17 July to Thursday, 20 July 2023

Saturday, 22 July to Tuesday, 25 July 2023

Saturday, 29 July to Tuesday, 1 August 2023

Saturday, 5 August to Tuesday, 8 August 2023

Saturday, 26 August to Tuesday, 29 August 2023

Saturday, 2 September to Tuesday, 5 September 2023

Sunday, 10 September to Wednesday, 13 September 2023

Saturday, 16 September to Tuesday, 19 September 2023

Wednesday, 20 September to Saturday, 23 September 2023

Wednesday, 27 September to Saturday, 30 September 2023

Wednesday, 4 October to Saturday, 7 October 2023

Wednesday, 11 October Saturday, 14 October 2023

Monday, 16 October to Thursday, 19 October 2023

Sunday, 22 October to Wednesday, 25 October 2023

Monday, 30 October to Thursday, 2 November 2023