We’re a middle aged couple looking to visit WW1 battlefield sites/memorials and the D-day landing beaches in late May & early June 2022. We’d also like to visit Bruges.
We’ve got a tent and have booked our 12 night return ferry crossing but have no idea where we could stay in France and/or Belgium. We’re happy to visit different sites to see as much of the historical points of interest as possible but equally if there are good bases we could stay at for a few nights happy to do that.
We don’t need onsite entertainment/facilities as we’ll likely only be using the tent/sites for sleeping but electrical hookup is a must. We’re looking to keep costs down and don’t need anything super luxurious but also don’t want to rough it.
Is anybody able to let me have any advice please and is it advisable to book sites ahead of travel or is it generally feasible to turn up with no booking and pay for a night or two on the same day?
Can anybody recommend suitable sites that we could visit and/or book please or which is the best internet search site to use for these areas?
Many thanks.
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I have done these sites on a few occasions, and it is amazing, but I can only speak for Normandy, as it has been around 40 since I went to Flanders’s. I honestly think you will be able to turn up and pitch at that time of the year, I would certainly not book.
Must do: Merville Battery, Pegasus Bridge, all the museums/HQs and battery’s along Sword, Juno and Gold, a stop/stay at Arromanches is a must. Then onto Omaha Beach and Colleville Sur Mer, then to Pont du Hoc. If time permits, visit Carentan and Utah Beach.
The whole experience is fantastic, indeed life changing. I hope this does not sound to corny, but watch Saving Private Ryan and the whole of Band of Brothers before you go. It really puts you in touch. 👍👍😀
For WW1 there is a good municipal at Ypres where you can walk into town for the nightly ceremony at the Menin Gate, which is very moving.
The museum in the town is well worth a visit. From Ypres you can visit a lot of the battlefields and museums. Some nice restaurants in the town.
It's worth booking the site online as it fills up quickly.
There are loads of sites in Normandy for visiting the landing beaches.
We can recommend the site in Bayeux, its very good and a reasonable walk into town for restaurants etc. A good base for touring the beaches. There are some excellent museums all along the coast, including one in Bayeux. Memorial museum in Caen is excellent.Also the museum at Pegasus Bridge. There are campsites close to there too.
I am very interested in military history, as we are both ex RAF. My grandfather's regiment served at Paschendale so,it was very moving to visit. The number of cemeteries makes you appreciate the sacrifices made by previous generations.
------------- DS-There's more to life than football!!!
We are a funny (perhaps weird!) bunch of old gits (but still too too young to be directly involved and no family links!) who have no direct link to the Normandy Landings, but have an acutely aware enormous debt of gratitude and acknowledgement to those that did take part, to that end, whenever we visit Normandy (on our way to/from Le Mans 24 hour motor race), we visit some aspect of the event in our travels.
We stay at Campsite Les Capucines camp site because of both it's quality and convenience of location.
There is a overwhelming amount of locations/museums in the area, that in our case never fail to bring pretty hardened old men to tears, Arromanches has a number of museums/attractions, and if you have the imagination just standing on the beach and looking at the last remnants of the Mulberry Harbour can bring the horrors of the challenge flooding to mind, we're generally a pretty 'robust' irreverent jovial un-PC bunch of blokes, but inevitably leave the area quite silent and absorbed in personal thought at the bravery, sacrifice and downright horror of the event! The 360 degree cinema brings an immersive experience, but perhaps thankfully doesn't deliver the entire horror of the reality of being there (perhaps if the experience were a little more realistic, we wouldn't be so keen on invoking war today!!!!!!), but to our minds, horrifying enough!
Memorial de Caen is perhaps a different kind of museum in as much as to what it invokes in your mind as much as what is presented as 'exhibits', if you have an interest in the period I can highly recommend, but it does tend to drag you back to the period with no concessions to being 'tolerant' of the activities of the Germans (and why should they/we!)) ! To their credit (IMHO) the French (of the region) do not forgive and forget the atrocities reigned upon them by the Germans, and equally appreciate the sacrifices made by the Allies to liberate them, that is very much the theme of the region.
I almost implore you to visit the local tourist information offices/kiosks, they will welcome you (in English!) and positively bombard you with leaflets/information on D-Day relevant attractions.
War related matters aside, Normandy is a lovely region with warm and lovely people who have over decades always made us feel welcome and valued visitors.
Sadly Covid has got in our way of planned visits to Ypres and more WW1 related themes, so can't comment on those!
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As others have already pointed out, there's an overwhelming choice of sites in Normandy which would be suitable you could keep the costs down by using the ACSI Scheme you'll be travelling at the right time to enjoy the discounts.
The Commonwealth War Grave at Bayeux is hugely moving and is recommended, they have a big parade there on the 6th of June to commemorate the landings and remember the sacrifices made. There's a museum nearby which is wort a visit. Arromanches is also worth a visit, Devonatheart has given a good list of sites to visit and TBH, you don't have to go too far to find something to do with D-Day and subsequent actions. If you're going to Pegasus Bridge there's a very good museum but take the time to cross over to the marshy area where the landings actually occurred also, make sure you visit Café Gondrée over the bridge, it was the first place liberated, Madamme Gondrée the owner was a mere baby on the night, she's a formidable character.
We have a family connection with the landings, the airborne troops at Pegasus Bridge were from the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, not the Parachute Regiment. This was my grandfather's regiment although he landed on the beach in the same landing craft as Lord Lovatt's Piper and they were in the big push to meet up with the airborne troops at the bridge.
In Flanders we've stayed at Camping Jeugdstadion in Ypres, it's a short walk along the canal to the Menin gate where they have the very moving ceremony at 8pm every night. The site itself is unmanned but is clean and well looked after (at least it was when we went).
You also mentioned Bruges, we stayed at Camping Memling which is on the outskirts of the city, you can catch a bus from nearby which takes you into the city. It's a good clean site, there's a supermarket nearby.
Marktelford, the WW1 battle sites are about 200 miles away from the WW2 D Day landing beaches. Do you want to cover both areas? Going out to Calais and returning from Caen or Cherbourg would be a reasonable travel plan
We’ve got a DFDS crossing Dover-Dunkirk and returning Calais-Dover as Dunkirk was somewhere on our list of places to visit.
This is a once in a lifetime trip so a 200 mile journey between both areas is fine. I have been considering visiting the U-boat pens on the Bay of Biscay but that probably is a bit too far.
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Was also wondering what nightly price I should budget for a grass electric pitch for 2 adults on an average site in Normandy/Somme/Flanders type areas with and/or without an ACSI card? Thanks
ACSI gives reduced prices you pay for the sites in the scheme, I am waiting for my books to arrive (they have been dispatched) so am not sure what the prices are for 2022. It will easily pay for itself very quickly. We have stayed on sites charging € 30 or more and paid €16!
Hope you have a great trip, we are in our 60s and still get tears in our eyes visiting the cemetaries and memorials.
We have visited Ypres twice, both times they had a pipe band which marched to the Menin Gate for the last post played by the firefighters.
People can arrange to lay wreaths on specific days at the ceremony. It was good to see the number of children showing their thanks at the ceremony.
There are a couple of places in Ypres main street who do battlefield tours
------------- DS-There's more to life than football!!!
Quote: Originally posted by marktelford on 31/12/2021
Was also wondering what nightly price I should budget for a grass electric pitch for 2 adults on an average site in Normandy/Somme/Flanders type areas with and/or without an ACSI card? Thanks
The front of the ACSI book is showing prices ranging from €12 to €22, if you limited yourselves to the €12 sites you can make quite a saving, bear it mind that price includes EHU and access to amenities (shower blocks etc), it doesn't include local tourist tax which is usually in the region of €1 per person.
The ACSI card works out of the high season and can save you the cost of the book in one night, we stayed at a Castels site which are usually at the upper end of the price bracket for less than a third of the price we'd paid to stay in high season a few years before.
One thing with using the ACSI scheme outside of the high season is that sometimes, not all of the facilities are available (e.g. bars, restaurants etc), but the book will give an indication of this.
The ACSI scheme works all over Europe so you should be able to find sites between the extremes of your journey if you didn't feel like doing too much driving.
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Quote: Originally posted by Netherton on 31/12/21
The campsite at Ypres does not give discount with an ACSI card
The campsite at Ypres is Camping Jeugdstadion, link: http://www.jeugdstadion.be/E/index.php
For tents it seems it's 5 Euros per tent plus 5 Euros per person. Couldn't see any mention of costs for EHU.
We've stayed there many years ago and it was an excellent site for getting into Ypres on foot, definitely worth a visit.
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: WW1 Sites & D-Day beaches
via mobile 30/12/2021 at 10:13pm
