Great War centenary tours launched

Great War centenary

With this year marking the 100th anniversary of World War I, a travel company has launched a new range of Great War Centenary tours.

The Cultural Experience’s tours are led by historians who provide background context, expert analysis and intimate battlefield geography while accommodation is in centrally located hotels in each destination.

Sarajevo: Assassination & Siege, June 26-29

The tour is timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand which sparked the outbreak of the First World War. The story will be told by Major General John Drewienkiewicz who served in Sarajevo in the 1990s and from 2002 to 2005.  He was Chief of Staff to the NATO mission and then later Commander of the NATO support operation in Zagreb.

Flights will depart from London to Sarajevo via Vienna and the tour cost is £1195 including four star hotel accommodation, breakfast and three course dinners with drinks each evening

The Classic Western Front, August 3-10

This trip is  led by World War 1 expert and academic Dr Bruce Cherry and includes trips to the battlefields of Mons, Ypres, Neueve Chapelle, the Somme, Arras, Cambrai, and the Kaiserschlact.

The tour price is £1895 pp including departure from London via coach and crossing with Eurotunnel.

Opening Shots and Leadership Crisis, July 4-7

This tour looks at the contradictory strategic options surrounding the start of the First World War. It looks at the action around Mons and Le Cateau and is led by MP, historian and retired senior soldier Patrick Mercer. It focuses on the politics and rationale of high-level military thinking that prevailed at the beginning of the War with particular emphasis on the controversy surrounding Smith-Dorrien and his direct disobedience of orders.

The tour will depart from London via Eurotunnel and drive to Cateau where the cavalrymen of Major Tom Bridges’ C Squadron 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards made first contact with the German Imperial Army. Ironically the last British shots of the Great War were also fired there.  The tour party will stay at a four star hotel in Mons and the inclusive cost is £825.

Ypres and The Christmas Truce December 12-14

Again led by Patrick Mercer,  the tour allows visitors to experience the climatic conditions and the short daylight hours that both sides had to endure in and around the Salient during the four winters of the war. 

The tour includes a visit to the Flanders Field Museum and Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ypres but also examines the creation of the Salient as a consequence of the ‘Race to the Sea’.  Based in the centre of Lille visitors will also be able to take advantage of the wonderful Christmas market held within close proximity of the hotel. The tour price is £725 pp and includes return coach from London via Eurostar, four star accommodation, breakfast and three course evening meals plus an expert historian and all entrance fees.

See www.theculturalexperience.com