European battlefield tours or guides...

[Left Seater]

Any of you donkeys have recommendations on European WWII tours or tour guides?

My father in law is turning 70 in Aug and the wife and I want to help him check an item off his bucket list. He wants to see the WWII battlefields and cemeteries. We aren't looking for an escorted tour, rather multiple private daily tours or one multi day private tour.

Any topical info is appreciated, first hand knowledge is really appreciated.


The rest will have to be tolerated.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Much closer to home, you should book a tour to smackaholic's back yard.

Makes Dien Bien Phu look like Puerto Vallarta.

:|

[Jerkovich]

[mvscal]

Any of you donkeys have recommendations on European WWII tours or tour guides?

My father in law is turning 70 in Aug and the wife and I want to help him check an item off his bucket list. He wants to see the WWII battlefields and cemeteries. We aren't looking for an escorted tour, rather multiple private daily tours or one multi day private tour.

Any topical info is appreciated, first hand knowledge is really appreciated.


The rest will have to be tolerated.

Here you go.

http://stephenambrosetours.com/

My dad and I took the D-Day tour back in 2002. It looks like the same basic itinerary. They offer other tours as well. I guess it depends on what you are most interested in seeing. It was a great time. Definitely an unforgettable experience. Normandy is both beautiful as well as awe-inspiring. You also see London & Paris as well as Arnhem, Luxemberg and some of the Bulge battlefields. It looks like their next tour is June 1 to June 13 next year. That is about the same time of year that we went and I would highly recommend it.

[smackaholic]

Never been to Normandy and I am sure it is THE battlefield to see. I have been to a number of places along the Riviera and I do recall going to some sort of WWII monument. Don't recall where it was though.

[Goober McTuber]

I spent 6 years in New Guinea (my grade school years). I had a tremendous collection of WWII amunition. We would pull the heads off of the cartidges with a pair of pliers and see if we could get the powder to ignite.

On my desk I've got a framed photo of my older brother and I climbing on a Japanese Zero crashed in the jungle. Once found a bomb (close to 3 feet long) in the tall grass behind our house.

[molly]

I would love to do this someday. And concentration camps.

[Dinsdale]

Once found a bomb (close to 3 feet long) in the tall grass behind our house.

There was an elementary school next to my uncle's house in Southern England (which some call "The South"), and a bomb hit the soupy mud next to the paved outside play area. It stuck beyond the detonator, and didn't go off. So since they had so many thousands of UXB's to deal with, they just left it there, and put up a 3' chain-link fence around it.

But they finally got around to dealing with it -- in the late 90's. Sat there 50+ years.

Aside: Band Of Brothers was filmed in the park/estate across the road from my uncle's house (in Lemsford Village, Herts). Apparently, the local managers were quite clear that the film crews needed to run metal detectors before they did any digging... then they didn't.

Big boom one day -- fatalities. I guess the locals weren't joking.

[Dr_Phibes]

We aren't looking for an escorted tour, rather multiple private daily tours or one multi day private tour.

While it is guided, if you can wait till September you can actually go with David Irving himself

http://www.fpp.co.uk/wolfslair/application.html