Take a guided visit to the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux and explore the Sir John Monash Centre. Discover the story of Australian soldiers who helped defend the town and learn about their experiences through the centre’s interpretive displays.

The memorial honours Australians who died on the Western Front and have no known grave. Together, the site and museum illuminate the lasting bond between Villers-Bretonneux and Australia.

• 6 Dinner (D)
• 10 Breakfast (B)
• 1 Lunch (L)

• London: Explore one of the world’s leading museums of conflict, focusing on the impact of modern warfare on individuals and societies. Through powerful exhibitions, learn about the World Wars and their lasting effects, featuring personal stories, military artifacts, and immersive experiences.
• Zonnebeke: Discover the tragic history of one of the bloodiest battles of World War I. The Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 offers a poignant journey through the events of the Battle of Passchendaele, with vivid displays of war relics, reconstructed trenches, and interactive exhibits to understand the devastation and courage of the soldiers.  
• Zonnebeke: Pay your respects at the largest Commonwealth military cemetery in the world, where over 11,900 soldiers of World War I are laid to rest. The Tyne Cot Cemetery is a solemn and moving tribute to the fallen, offering an opportunity for quiet reflection amidst the rows of white gravestones and the impressive memorial wall.  
• Ypres: As evening settles over Ypres, gather at the Menin Gate to hear the Last Post sounded in remembrance of those who lost their lives in the First World War. In this deeply moving setting, take a moment to reflect on the human stories behind the conflict and the enduring importance of remembrance.
• Fromelles: Discover the remarkable work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and its enduring commitment to remembrance. Learn how the organization commemorates 1.7 million casualties of the First and Second World Wars, gaining insight into the care, dedication and responsibility involved in preserving their memory for generations to come.
• Amiens: Venture through the battlefields of the Somme, as your local historian explains how brave soldiers fought tirelessly for five months.
• Thiepval: Trace the stories of those who fought on the Somme as you visit the Franco-British Memorial at Thiepval, Lochnagar Crater and the South African and New Zealand Memorials at Longueval. These poignant sites offer a powerful perspective on the international scale of the conflict and the many nations whose soldiers are remembered across this historic landscape
• Paris: At the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, discover the story of the Australian soldiers who helped save the town. Continue to the Sir John Monash Center, where your visit brings their experiences into sharper focus, revealing the courage, sacrifice and lasting connection between Villers-Bretonneux and Australia.
• Sainte-Opportune-du-Bosc, Eure, Normandie, France: Step into the opulence of the Château du Champ de Bataille, a magnificent 17th-century estate in Normandy. This grand chateau boasts stunning gardens designed by renowned landscape architect Jacques Garcia, who has also restored the lavish interiors, offering visitors a glimpse into aristocratic life and French history.  

Sample a local Belgian beer in Ypres and discover a taste shaped by the country’s long brewing tradition. This hosted tasting offers a different perspective on a town often encountered through its wartime history.

Belgian brewing encompasses a wide range of styles and methods, from carefully balanced ales to beers with pronounced yeast character. A glass shared in Ypres brings everyday regional culture into the battlefield journey.

Visit the Château du Champ de Bataille, a 17th-century estate in Normandy, to discover its grand architecture, lavishly restored interiors and formal gardens. The château offers a view of French aristocratic life far removed from the region’s twentieth-century battlefields.

Designer Jacques Garcia has played a central role in restoring the estate and creating its gardens. Their carefully composed vistas draw on the tradition of French landscape design, adding another layer to Normandy’s history.

Pause at the Omaha Beach Memorial and spend time at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, overlooking the coast near Omaha Beach. Walk among the rows of white grave markers and reflect on the Americans who died in the Normandy campaign.

Omaha was one of the most fiercely contested landing beaches on D-Day. The cemetery’s position above the shore gives the act of remembrance a direct connection to the landscape of the invasion.

Explore the Imperial War Museum London through exhibitions examining how modern conflict has shaped individual lives and entire societies. Encounter wartime objects and personal testimony, from the trenches of the First World War to the Second World War and the Holocaust.

The museum places military history alongside the experiences of civilians and survivors. Its collections offer essential human context for the battlefield sites visited across Belgium and France.

Insight Vacations

• Business class coach with extended leg room
• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• 4 & 5-star stays

Discover central London on a guided sightseeing tour with a Local Expert. See the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace, where the Changing of the Guard may be seen if operating.

These landmarks bring together royal ceremony, parliamentary life and centuries of British history. The tour offers an introduction to the capital before the journey turns to the battlefields of Europe.

Choose a private chocolate truffle-making lesson and tasting with a master chocolatier, paired with a Brussels city tour led by a Local Expert. Visit the cobbled Grand-Place, framed by the Town Hall and richly decorated historic buildings.

Belgian chocolate-making lends a hands-on flavour to the capital’s architectural heritage. The Grand-Place, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, remains a gathering place for civic celebrations and cultural events. This is one of two included Insight Choice experiences in Brussels.

Choose to visit the Battle of Waterloo site with your Travel Director and explore its museum and underground visitor centre. A 3D film and monumental panoramic painting help bring the confrontation between Napoleon’s army and the allied forces of Wellington and Blucher into focus.

Fought on 18 June 1815, Waterloo ended Napoleon’s rule and reshaped Europe’s political order. This is one of two included Insight Choice experiences offered during the stay in Brussels.

Explore the Ypres Salient battlefields, including Hill 60 and Polygon Wood, and discover the story of the Battle of Messines and the fighting around Passchendaele. Visit the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 at Zonnebeke to see wartime relics and reconstructed trench settings.

This contested landscape saw years of fighting during the First World War. The museum’s exhibits and the surviving terrain reveal the conditions soldiers faced and the immense cost of the campaign.

Pay your respects at Tyne Cot Cemetery near Passchendaele, where long rows of pale headstones mark the resting places of more than 11,900 Commonwealth service personnel. Spend time among the graves and at the memorial to those with no known grave.

The world’s largest Commonwealth war cemetery stands on ground fought over during the Ypres campaign. Its scale gives a powerful sense of the human losses behind the battlefield’s familiar place names.

Gather beneath Ypres’ Menin Gate to hear the Last Post sounded in remembrance of those who died in the First World War. The evening ceremony creates a quiet moment for reflection within the town once at the centre of the Ypres Salient.

The gate bears the names of Commonwealth soldiers missing in the area who have no known grave. The continuing ceremony connects today’s visitors with a longstanding local tradition of remembrance.

Pause at the Fromelles Australian Military Cemetery to honour soldiers lost in one of the most devastating actions in Australian military history. Learn about the men commemorated here and the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in caring for war graves and memorials.

The Battle of Fromelles in July 1916 brought heavy losses to Australian and British forces. The cemetery makes that history tangible through individual names, graves and the continuing work of remembrance.

Visit the Canadian National Vimy Memorial and visitor centre, and walk among surviving First World War trenches on the ridge. The monument and preserved ground reveal the scale of the Canadian assault here in April 1917.

Vimy Ridge holds a defining place in Canada’s wartime memory. Standing within the former battlefield gives a sense of both the terrain soldiers confronted and the enduring significance of the victory at home.

Explore the Somme battlefields with a Local Expert, visiting the Franco-British Memorial at Thiepval, the vast Lochnagar Crater and the South African and New Zealand memorials at Longueval. Hear how soldiers from across the world fought in this landscape.

The 1916 Battle of the Somme lasted for months and left a profound mark on the communities represented here. Memorials and scarred terrain offer distinct ways to understand its international reach and human cost.

Visit the Ocean Villas WWI museum at Auchonvillers for a guided encounter with battlefield artefacts, original trenches and its private Remembrance Wall. Learn about the collection created by owner and founder Avril Williams, featuring finds from the site and donated objects.

Commemorating both survivors and those killed in action, the museum offers a personal perspective on the Western Front. The visit supports the preservation of local wartime heritage.

View Amiens Cathedral, the largest Gothic cathedral in France, and explore the canals, little bridges and colourful facades of the historic Saint-Leu district. These contrasting settings reveal both the city’s monumental architecture and its intimate waterside streets.

The cathedral’s soaring medieval design reflects Amiens’ historic importance, while Saint-Leu preserves the character of a neighbourhood shaped by waterways and former mills. Together they offer a perspective on northern French life beyond the battlefields.

Walk through Rouen’s historic centre to admire the exterior of Rouen Cathedral, pass beneath the Great Clock and reach the Old Market Square. Here, a modern church recalls Joan of Arc, who was executed on this site in 1431.

Rouen’s narrow streets and Gothic architecture evoke its medieval past. The cathedral’s changing light also inspired a celebrated series of paintings by Claude Monet, linking the city’s heritage with French art.

Explore the bunkers and Rangers Memorial at Pointe du Hoc, the cliff-top position assaulted by US Rangers during the D-Day landings. Look across the Channel from this exposed headland and examine the fortified ground they were sent to capture.

The site’s steep cliffs and surviving defences make the difficulty of the 6 June 1944 operation immediately apparent. It remains a place to consider the planning, courage and losses behind the Normandy invasion.

Discover airborne operations in Normandy at the D-Day Experience. Board a genuine 1943 C-47 aircraft for a simulated flight over the landing beaches, and visit the house known as Dead Man’s Corner, associated with the fighting and used in the filming of Band of Brothers.

The aircraft and exhibits offer an immersive way to examine what American paratroopers faced as they entered Normandy. The experience complements visits to the coastal landing sites.

Visit the Utah Beach Landing Museum beside one of the Allied landing beaches. Explore displays tracing the preparation and execution of D-Day, with the shoreline providing a direct view of the ground where American troops came ashore.

The museum places equipment, operational decisions and personal accounts within their coastal setting. Seeing the beach as well as the exhibits helps connect the invasion’s immense planning effort to the experience of the people who carried it out.

Discover the city of Versailles with your Travel Director, taking in its monuments, churches and elegant squares. This city orientation focuses on the streets and civic setting beyond the famous palace.

Versailles developed around the French royal court and retains a formal urban character in its broad avenues and historic buildings. The visit offers a sense of the city’s heritage without implying entry to the Palace of Versailles.

Explore Paris with a Local Expert, seeing the Eiffel Tower, the Luxor Obelisk at Place de la Concorde and the Champs-Élysées and Arc de Triomphe. Discover the city’s celebrated streets and landmarks from the coach and scenic vantage points.

From Napoleon’s triumphal arch to the grand square that once formed part of revolutionary Paris, these sights reveal different chapters of French history. Views around the Seine add a sense of the city’s riverside setting.

Join your Travel Director and fellow guests for a dinner with wine at a local Paris restaurant. Share French cuisine in the heart of the city as the battlefield journey draws to a close.

Dining together offers space to reflect on the people and places encountered across Britain, Belgium and France. The restaurant setting brings a convivial Parisian note to an itinerary centred on history and remembrance.

Step inside St Paul’s Cathedral to admire Sir Christopher Wren’s dome, and visit the Tower of London to discover its royal stories, ravens and Crown Jewels. This Optional Experience pairs two landmarks with very different roles in the capital’s history.

St Paul’s rose after the Great Fire of 1666, while the Tower has served as fortress, palace and prison. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Descend into the Wellington Quarry Museum in Arras to explore part of the underground tunnel network used by Allied soldiers during the First World War. Discover how troops prepared beneath the city before emerging for the Battle of Arras in 1917.

The quarry offers a perspective on warfare below ground, where concealment and engineering were central to the operation. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Taste Normandy’s regional cuisine during an optional evening dining experience. It is an opportunity to explore the flavours of a region known for its dairy produce, apples and coastal food traditions.

Sharing a meal brings Normandy’s living culture into focus alongside its historic towns and D-Day sites. The specific menu may vary, allowing the restaurant’s own approach to local cooking to lead the experience. This dinner is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Experience a Paris cabaret show for an evening of staged entertainment in the City of Light. Performance, music and theatrical presentation offer a lively contrast to days spent exploring historic sites.

Cabaret has long been part of Parisian nightlife, blending spectacle with the atmosphere of an evening out. The show is an Optional Experience at additional cost and bookable on tour; the venue and programme are not specified in the itinerary.

Visit Les Invalides to see Napoleon’s tomb and the Army Museum. Explore a major Parisian site dedicated to France’s military history, housed within the grand complex established under Louis XIV.

The tomb beneath the gilded dome and the museum’s collections place Napoleon’s era within a much broader story of conflict and remembrance. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Glide along the River Seine on an evening cruise and see Paris from the water. Bridges, riverbanks and landmark facades form a changing panorama as the city takes on its after-dark atmosphere.

The Seine has shaped Paris for centuries, linking many of its most recognisable districts and monuments. A cruise offers a distinct vantage point from a walking or coach tour. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.