Visit Juno Beach, where Canadian forces landed on D-Day, and see a Canadian war cemetery in Normandy. The coastal setting helps you picture the challenges faced by troops coming ashore on 6 June 1944.

At the cemetery, take time to read the headstones and reflect on the individual lives behind the campaign. The two visits offer a Canadian perspective on the landings, pairing the ground where the assault began with a place of remembrance.

Experience a Paris cabaret for an evening of staged entertainment in the French capital. The performance offers a lively alternative to the tour’s daytime focus on historic sites and wartime remembrance.

Cabaret has long been part of Parisian nightlife, combining music, dance and theatrical spectacle. The particular venue and programme may vary, so ask your Travel Director for the details available during your stay. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour.

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

• London: See London’s iconic sites with a Local Specialist. 
• Amiens: Visit Vimy Ridge Memorial and see the place that is dedicated to the Canadian soldiers who fought in battle during 1917. 
• Dunkirk: Explore Operation Dynamo, the place that saw 330,000 Allied troops evacuated to Britain when you visit Dunkirk. 
• Fromelles: Discover the rich history of the British troops and the Australian Imperial Force when you visit Fromelles.
• Paris: See the site of the Australian soldiers who lost their lives in WWI when you visit Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.
• Paris: Visit the memorial that honours the 72,337 unknown graves of the British and South African men who fought valiantly.
• Caen: Discover the significance of Normandy and how it changed World War II when you visit Memorial de Caen. 
• Omaha Beach: Join an emotive journey tracing the story of the D-Day landings and visit Omaha Beach. 
• Paris: Join a Local Specialist to discover the hidden squares and secret lanes of Paris.

• Deluxe coach travel
• Selected hotel dinners plus a locally hosted meal
• 4-star stays

Trafalgar

Explore Dunkirk’s wartime story through its war museum and the beaches associated with Operation Dynamo. Stand on the coast from which more than 330,000 Allied troops were evacuated to Britain in 1940.

The museum and shoreline give physical context to an operation carried out under extraordinary pressure. Looking across the Channel, consider the scale of the evacuation and the role played by naval vessels and smaller boats in carrying troops away from France.

Witness the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ypres. Gather beneath the memorial’s arch as the bugle call honours those who died in the First World War.

The gate bears the names of more than 54,000 Commonwealth soldiers who have no known grave. Its nightly ceremony turns a monumental roll of names into a living act of remembrance, giving visitors a quiet, shared moment to reflect on the lives behind the inscriptions.

Visit the Thiepval Memorial on the Somme to see the names of 72,337 British and South African servicemen who died in the area and have no known grave. Its vast arches rise above the former battlefield.

Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the memorial gives a visible scale to loss that can otherwise be difficult to grasp. Spend time among the inscriptions and consider how one place preserves the names of so many whose burial sites remain unknown.

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over a hearty local meal in London. The hosted dinner brings the group together around the shared theme of Britain, Belgium and France’s wartime history.

It is a chance to hear what draws others to the battlefields and memorials of the two World Wars, while settling into the capital where this journey begins.

Explore central London with a Local Specialist on a half-day introductory tour. See Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace as you take in the landmarks of Britain’s capital.

These familiar buildings form a meaningful backdrop to the tour’s wartime story: London was a centre of national decision-making and civilian resilience during both World Wars. The specialist-led sightseeing gives you context for the city beyond its celebrated skyline.

Visit the Imperial War Museum in London to encounter the personal and national stories of conflict from the First World War to the present. Explore exhibits drawing on the museum’s extensive collections of objects, archives and recorded testimony.

Look for a Spitfire that saw action in the Battle of Britain. Aircraft, documents and firsthand accounts bring the human experience of war into focus, from those who served to civilians whose lives were changed by it.

Discover Brussels with your Travel Director and see three of its best-known sights: the Atomium, Manneken Pis and the Grand Place. The city’s contrasting landmarks range from a playful fountain figure to the striking structure built for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair.

At the Grand Place, admire the ornate guildhalls surrounding a square shaped by centuries of civic and commercial life. This introduction reveals a Belgian capital with a character distinct from the battlefield landscapes elsewhere on the tour.

Visit Fromelles to learn about the 1916 battle fought by British forces and the Australian Imperial Force. The battlefield marks the site of the first major Australian action on the Western Front.

The attack brought devastating losses and is remembered as the worst 24 hours in Australia’s military history. Seeing the landscape where it unfolded places those losses in a specific setting and gives voice to a chapter of the war that remains deeply significant in Australia.

Visit the Canadian National Vimy Memorial at Vimy Ridge, where Canadian forces fought a defining battle in April 1917. See the imposing memorial dedicated to Canadians who served and died in France during the First World War.

The ridge and its monument help explain why the battle holds such a powerful place in Canadian memory. Take time to consider both the military achievement and its human cost in the landscape where the fighting took place.

Explore the Ypres Salient, a heavily contested area of the Western Front, with visits to sites including Tyne Cot, Langemark and Vancouver Corner. The battlefield landscape and its cemeteries show the breadth of the fighting around Ypres.

At Essex Farm Cemetery, remember the servicemen buried there and the association with John McCrae, who wrote In Flanders Fields nearby. Each stop offers a different perspective on remembrance in a region marked by years of war.

Visit Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 in Zonnebeke to explore the history of one of the First World War’s most costly campaigns. Examine exhibits on the fighting around Ypres and see a replica trench that helps convey soldiers’ conditions.

Passchendaele is closely associated with the mud, artillery fire and immense losses of 1917. The museum gives those familiar images a local setting, connecting battlefield history with the people who lived and fought in this part of Belgium.

Visit the Australian National Memorial near Villers-Bretonneux, overlooking the Somme countryside. The memorial honours Australian soldiers who died on the Western Front and commemorates those with no known grave.

Villers-Bretonneux has a lasting place in Australian remembrance because of the fighting here in 1918. Take in the surrounding fields and the memorial’s names, which connect a broad battlefield landscape to individual lives lost far from home.

Walk through an original British trench at Ocean Villas WWI Museum in Auchonvillers. Explore recovered battlefield artefacts and visit its private Remembrance Wall as part of a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience on the Somme.

Founded by Avril Williams to preserve wartime memory, this locally rooted museum offers a close encounter with the ground soldiers occupied. Your visit supports the preservation of this heritage and contributes to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11, focused on sustainable cities and communities.

Explore Rouen on an orientation tour through this historic Normandy city. Discover the setting of its old streets and landmarks while learning about a place whose history long predates the twentieth-century conflicts at the heart of the journey.

Rouen passed from English to French control in 1204 and later became closely associated with Joan of Arc. Its layered past offers a broader view of Normandy’s place in European history, beyond its D-Day coastline.

Visit the Mémorial de Caen to examine the Second World War and the significance of the Normandy landings. Museum exhibits place D-Day within the wider story of conflict, occupation and the struggle for peace.

Caen itself was heavily affected by the battle for Normandy in 1944. Learning about the campaign here adds depth to a visit to the landing beaches, linking military operations with the lives of people in the towns and countryside around them.

Trace the American D-Day landings at Pointe du Hoc and Omaha Beach. See the cliffs scaled by US Rangers under fire and walk the shore where American troops faced fierce resistance on 6 June 1944.

At the Normandy American Cemetery, pause among the rows of white grave markers overlooking Omaha Beach. Together, the cliffs, beach and cemetery connect the terrain of the landings with the people who fought and died in the campaign.

Meet the Ferrut family at their working equestrian centre in the Normandy countryside near Bayeux. Share a homemade lunch prepared by Pierre, a trained pastry chef, and hear about the family’s history and daily life on the farm.

The setting offers a personal perspective on rural Normandy, with views towards the sea and Bayeux Cathedral. Conversation around the table makes this hosted meal distinctive: it is an opportunity to meet local people, not simply dine in the region.

Walk through Paris with a Local Specialist to discover hidden squares and lanes in one of the city’s oldest neighbourhoods. View the church of Saint-Sulpice and follow streets that reveal a more intimate side of the capital.

The guided walk focuses on places woven into local life rather than only the city’s grand monuments. It concludes in a square favoured by Parisians, giving you a sense of how historic streets remain part of everyday Paris.

Join your Travel Director and travel companions for dinner in Paris. This included group meal offers a chance to share impressions of the memorials, museums and battlefield landscapes visited across the journey.

Set in the French capital, the gathering brings a convivial close to a tour devoted to difficult and significant history. Conversation around the table allows space for personal reflections as well as the pleasure of a final evening together.

Enjoy a traditional British afternoon tea near Kensington Palace in London. Settle in for a hosted pause built around tea and the sweet and savoury accompaniments associated with this long-standing custom.

Afternoon tea became a fashionable social ritual in nineteenth-century Britain and remains a distinctive way to experience London’s hospitality. This is an Optional Experience at additional cost, bookable on tour.

Visit the Palace of Versailles, the former royal residence outside Paris. Explore the setting associated with Louis XIV and the French court, where ceremonial rooms and lavish decoration expressed the monarchy’s power.

Versailles offers a striking contrast to the battlefields and modern-war memorials elsewhere on the tour. Its history also extends beyond royal life: the Treaty of Versailles was signed at the palace in 1919. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Explore Les Invalides with a Local Specialist in Paris. See Napoleon’s tomb beneath the gilded dome and visit the Army Museum to examine France’s military history through its collections.

Originally established under Louis XIV to care for wounded soldiers, Les Invalides links centuries of service and remembrance in one landmark. The specialist-led visit adds context to its architecture and exhibits. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.