WWII tourism?

Ideo

I've read a few web pages about companies that offer WWII tours of France and Germany, but I was wondering whether anybody here has actually been on one?

Somewhere down the line i was thinking about getting the ferry from rosslare to cherbourg with irish ferries and driving around the region, normandy and brittany etc. has any one here thought the same?

Cato

I know my history teacher back in secoundry did this, he recounted his visit to the Maginot line and described what Versailles (the mansion) was like, sounded impressive, i will be making a visit there when im old and i have time for that sort of stuff!

ojewriej

Yeah, definitely, was trying to get a group to do a weekend in Normandy for ages. I'm definitely gonna go at some stage, even if on my own.

I've done a bit of WWII related sightseeing in Poland.
Westerplatte - that's were the war started, it's great, it used to be a Polish Navy base, now turned into a museum,

Warsaw - everywhere you go, there is something related to the war, they also have a great Military Museum, it's huge, they have planes, tanks, etc. Went to few Concetration Camps, Gross Rosen, Auschwitz and few smaller ones. And the part of Poland I'm from - Lower Silesia, around Breslau, was very important during the war. My parents live 10 miles from the Ksiaz Castle, where Hitler used to stay. The mountains around are riddled with tunnels made by slave labour and POW. They were mostly weapon factories. We used to explore them, it was not uncommon to find german helmets, buttons etc.

WooPeeA

Great post ojewriej! You served the list probably best places to see.


I can recomend you 3 another great places:


Years ago I have been in Majdanek. It's Nazi concentration and extermination camp about 2,5 km from Lublin, eastern Poland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majdanek


Another great place is Wolfsschanze, Hiter's headquarters. Also in Poland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfsschanze


Noremberg in Germany, cultural capitol of III Reich and one of the favorite cities of Hitler.

Kaiser_Sma

I went to some place in france begining with an A... it was a school trip i don't remember it that well, butit had some of the remains of the coastal defence guns and every shop on the sea front seemed to have some degree of army surplus.

I also went to a german military hospital in gurnsey. So not much really.

FibbersON

I did the beaches a few years back, fairly creepy air about them, a day would do you, and from what I remember it was fairly easy geting from Paris via train. I'd say go for it, but research the areas you want to see, one of my mates was a WW2 nerd and had everything we needed.

ollaetta

I travel to Normandy each year for the D-Day anniversary and I've probably visited every museum, beach and related sight at this stage. It all depends on your level of interest but I would definitely recommend getting a decent guide book and doing it yourself.

There are many battlefield tour companies but they all tend to stick to the most popular (and accessible) attractions. The tourguides are usually very knowledgeable but, hey, they should be and their patter is well rehearsed. These tours are for people who want a general overview of what happened without getting into too much nitty gritty. Nothing wrong with that of course but there is so much more to discover with a little bit of advance planning and research.

Go for it, you won't regret it.

ojewriej

So wat would be the best way to get to Normandy? I was thinking about taking the farry, as car would give me freedom to explore? And is it easy enough to find accomodation over there?

mossym

did 3 days in Bastogne a few years back visiting the different areas of the area where major events took place..loved it...they ahve sherman turrets on every enrty to the town as a mark of respect to the americans who held the town

did the landing beaches when i was 16, but wasn't into ww2 then. will definitely be doing them in the next couple of years.

ollaetta

The bummer with doing Normandy from here is the lack of an easy way to get there. Aer Fungus had a flight to Rennes in Brittany but seem to have discontinued it. Paris is a little bit far away as is Brest where Conair fly to. They also fly to Dinard from Stansted which would mean a double hop and you would still be more than 100 miles from Normandy.

That really leaves just ferry crossings. Irish Ferries go to Cherbourg and Roscoff and Brittany Ferries do Roscoff only. Roscoff is lovely but it's also more than 200 miles from Normandy which may not suit if your only interest is the landing beaches. There is also a less well known company Celtic Link Ferries who do a Cherbourg run. It's cheaper than Irish Ferries but it's basically a truckers ferry that has room for a few dozen cars. I've used it several times and it's grand unless you are bringing children who need constant amusement.

Accommodation in Normandy is plentiful but it does get crowded in high season. I use gites myself but there are loads of budget hotels like Ibis and chambres d'hote (B&Bs).

The best time to go is anytime up to mid-June or after August. In high season it's almost impossible get parking in the more famous towns such as Arromanches and Bayeux.

Nuttzz

I did normandy recently. we stayed in bauex and drove from shamair's 'paris airport' about a 3 hour drive

we did 2 tours one a band of brothers one and the other was the american sectors
both long days but very good value at 60 & 80 euro repectively. The guides were very well informed and had a passion for it, indeed to work at your hobby must be fantastic

www.overlordtour.com
www.battlebus.fr

Funkstard

I visited the Normandy beaches in Febuary last year with my Dad, we spent 3 nights I think, perhaps 4, all staying in Bayeux.

As for getting there, we flew to Paris Beauvais with Ryanair. The airport is north-west of Paris so as for driving there we were able to avoid any big cities and headed straight there on the motorways. We did it in about 2 and a half hours, renting a car in the airport. That would be my advice on how to get there, we got a route off the AA route planner and it all worked out fine.

That time of year was mostly a good time to go. The place is not that busy at all, the only downside being that a few of the museums were closed due to it being the off season. However, the tours were still operating and we were able to see pretty much everything we wanted to see.

We did most of the sights ourselves; going to Arromanches, Gold Beach, Pointe Du Hoc, the guns at Longues Sur Mer, Omaha Beach & cemetary. All of these are natural sites and (apart from Pointe Du Hoc and the cemetary at Omaha beach - both of which were open) did not require them to be 'open' to the public, so it being off-season was not an issue. There was a museum at Arromanches which we couldn't get into, but seeing the Mulberry Harbours and the emplacements was amazing in itself.

For the last day we went on a tour, which company it was I forget now. The tour guide ended up being from Wicklow and it was just the two of us on it so it worked out great, he went to whatever we wanted to see. We got talking about Band of Brothers and he brought us to St. Mere d'Eglise and the museum there, showing us where the various squad members landed and what happened in the village. He also brought us to Brecourt Manor, where the famous 'textbook' attack on the 188 guns happened, a site which I imagine wouldn't be on most tours, so it was really special to see.

Apart from that he brought us to Utah beach and to another musuem on Omaha beach which was unfortunately closed - I did manage to wriggle into a Sherman tank which is in place in the carpark - the cranks for moving the turret still work 60 years later!

Going at that time of year was good because there was no queues anywhere, and alot of places we had to ourselves to roam around. I'd recommend going then, even being at Pointe Du Hoc for instance with no one else there was pretty sobering.

Amazing trip, should definitely be done for anyone who's interested in it - especially for us as it's so easily accessible.

Tabnabs

A great little bit of WW2 tourism I came across recently was a visit to the museum at 'des Invalides' in Paris (http://www.invalides.org/pages/anglais/infos_a.html). While I was there I was lucky enough to see the French army band belt out a terrific rendition of La Marseillaise, real lump in the throat moment. If you arrive just after opening (10.00) you'll pretty much have the WW1&2 sections to yourself. Some great stuff that I had never seen before and showed the two wars from the French perspective. The museum is huge and would take a whole day to go around all the exhibits, but the WW1&2 rooms were excellent.



Plus there is the tomb of a well known French soldier to visit too.

FiSe

Went to Normandy with Military Heritage Tours - http://www.militaryheritagetours.com/
they do tours to Belgium and France WWII and WWI and around Ireland as well...

Not the cheapest moneywise, but everything included in the price, so no complaints here. Perfect company, comfortable travel. We've stayed in bayeux and covered most of the famous Normandy military landmarks and museums and cemetaries.
Got on the bus/ferry/hotel with some of the Irish WWII veterans and had a great time.