Bring a real-life context to WW1 with a visit to the battlefields and memorials of the Ypres Salient and participate in the moving Last Post Ceremony at Menin Gate to pay tribute to fallen soldiers with no known grave.
Fresh with ideas and visits from a recent research trip to Ypres, we have updated our sample itinerary and have added a wider range of excursions and visits to our battlefields school trip in Belgium. Each of these has been chosen to support WWI aspects of the History curriculum including military tactics, trench warfare and key battles.
Give your students the opportunity to experience first-hand the battlefields and memorials of the Great War. Visit sites of significant tactical warfare, such as Hill 60, and key battles such as Passchendaele. Experience preserved and reconstructed trench systems and vast collections of militaria as your group explores the world on the Western Front. Take in the vast, poignant memorials to lives lost and observe, or participate in, the moving tribute: the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate.
All of our tours can be customised to suit your syllabus and students' needs. This WW1 tour can be organised as a short history trip, or combined with a tour of the Somme battlefields in France for another in-depth exploration of the Western Front.
Feel your group is too small? Team up with your French department and include a day trip to the Ypres Salient from our 3* Moulin aux Draps centre in Northern France.
This is a suggested itinerary, please contact us if you would like to change visits to suit your learning and curriculum.
Arrive by coach in Ypres and visit the In Flanders fields Museum in the town centre, a great starting point from which to capture the students’ attention from the outset.
Check into accommodation
Evening meal
Start your day early, have breakfast and collect packed lunches.
Tyne Cot Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world and includes the servicemen who died in the Battle of Passchendaele.
Passchendaele Museum 1917 - Focussing on one of the bloodiest battles of WWI, this museum offers a fully immersive student experience.
Evening meal at local restaurant
Last Post Ceremony - This poignant tribute to Unknown Soldiers takes place every day at 8pm.
Breakfast and collect packed lunches.
Yorkshire Trenches and Dugout - A section of original WWI trench, carefully excavated, preserved and restored by archaeologists.
Travel back to school
We have a long-standing relationship with local hotels and hostels who will do their best to sort out all your particular requirements like special diets, disabled facilities or single rooms.
We tend to recommend Menin Gate Group Accommodation centres in Ypres for our school groups as their team is experienced at looking after our school groups and their hotels are well located.
This WWI memorial is on the site where the British Army suffered their worst ever casualties in a single day. A bronze Caribou monument stands as the emblem of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment.
© David Nicholls
The largest British war memorial in the world is known as the "Memorial to the Missing". A moving tribute to the 72,000+ servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme in WWI.
© Timothy Shawn Hack
The striking Canadian National Vimy Memorial is dedicated to the memory of the Canadian servicemen who lost their lives in WWI—particularly in the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
© Tristram Biggs
At The Carrière Wellington museum in Arras, students can walk the same network of WWI tunnels which were utilised by the British troops in a surprise attack on the Germans.
Explore WWI as it happened while you journey through the museum in chronological order. A range of immersive films, artefacts, scriptures and photographs help to bring history to life.
Visit this British Frontline museum and walk through a series of well-preserved trenches. Discover how casualties were tended to during the first battle of Ypres.
At the biscuit manufacturer, Jules Destrooper, you’ll see—and taste—everything! From the old family recipes from 1886 to the latest production processes, you're sure to enjoy this tantalising tour.
Boasting, among other things, the highest water chute in Europe, Bellewaerde Park is just outside Ypres, close to the French-Belgian border. Enjoy thrilling rides, marvel at exotic animals and explore the park.
A site of a great tactical significance for both the Allies and German forces, with hellish mine battles taking place here over the course of WWI.
An expansive private collection of WWI militaria, including an original ambulance and true to size reconstructions, gathered by passionate local residents. Developed with education in mind, the museum and its experts offer a range of options for school groups.
The largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world, with 11,961 servicemen from the First world War buried or commemorated here.
A section of original WWI trench, carefully excavated, preserved and restored by archaeologists in the 1990s. The narrow and oppressing trenches offer a grim reminder of the conditions servicemen faced during their arduous battles.
Focussing on one of the bloodiest battles of WWI, this museum offers an impressive collection of artillery, reconstructed trenches and dug out for an immersive student experience. New for 2024 is a 360° cinema experience: Passchendaele 1917.
Our Ypres WWI battlefields school trips include:
Extras to budget for:
These ready-made trip resources are designed to reduce your admin and help speed up the process of planning, promoting and getting approval for your Paris trip:
WWI history trip to the Somme Battlefields, Northern France
Bespoke WW1 history tours of the battlefields of the Western Front, staying at our 3* Moulin aux Draps residential centre in Northern France
D-Day & WWII history school trip to Normandy
WWII history tour of Normandy to see important D-day landing sites first hand
WWII history school trip to Auschwitz & Kraków
Uncover the societal and cultural effects of WWII and the Holocaust
