Summer hols visiting the battlefields in Europe

[Skawesome]

Advise needed. Hubby wants to visit the battlefields of Europe this summer as his 50th birthday. We have 2 children (12 &10 when we go).
I fancy combining it with a Eurocamp or similar so we all have a good hol. Does anyone have some recommendations?

In / near Madrid you can see the civil war battlefields in Járama and there is also an excellent museum with very very knowledgeable guides.

It's nothing like the scale of the WW1 history in Belgium and northern France, and the civil war is still relatively untalked about (publically) in Spain but it's well worth visiting.

You can also visit the controversial Valle del Los Caídos here in Madrid.

That sounds like a great idea for a summer trip

I took our DC when they were early teens to Bayeux for a few days. We didn't stay in a campsite as just had a few days en-route further down south in France but we explored the region as much as we could.

We managed to visit Arromanches - allow a good few hours there, The Batterie de Longues sur mer, Bayeux itself has a large war cemetery and memorial. We also drove to Courseuilles sur mer which is where my grandad landed during WWII.

There are so many places in the Normandy and Pas de Calais area to visit.

Another time we were able to visit Thiepval memorial, Albert and Arras.

I can't suggest a suitable campsite as we didn't use one - but in France there are so many - some with the major companies, plenty more independents too.

If you don't get many replies on here take a look on Trip Advisor forums. the Normandy destination forum is very busy so you will pick up some ideas on there.

Can’t help with Eurocamp (we have our own van) but presume you are driving a car? No shortage of accommodation from Chambres d’Hote, hotels, self catering, votes and campsites across the Normandy and Belgian historical areas.
WW1: Ypres is a good centre for seeing the battlegrounds, memorials and museums. The Cloth Hall in the town centre was rebuilt after being virtually destroyed and is the main museum in the area, and you can join the nightly commemorative service at the Menin Gate. There is a good campsite within walking distance.
Arromanche is a must for the WW2 Normandy landings, as pp’s said, also Bayesian and Caen. There is a municipal campsite in Arrowmanche, five minutes walk from the beach and the museum, no frills but well maintained.
There is a lovely campsite at Honfleur, with swimming pools and play areas, restaurant etc called Les Briqueries which I would recommend.

You could book a short channel crossing or Eurostar one way, for Ypres and the Somme and a western crossing (Caen, Le Havre, Cherbourg) the other for the Normandy landing beaches.

I would get the map out and plan a route that hits the main sites on the outbound and inbound journeys and choose a campsite in a area that complements, like the Normandy or Brittany. I’d book hotels for the battlefield/memorial overnights if there wasn’t a suitable Eurocamp.

When planning a self-drive trip I've found it useful to look at itineraries for coach holidays - both Crusader and Leger have extensive programmes involving ww1 and 2 sites. You could devise a route from looking at these and deciding whether they are of interest, then marking on a map.
Dover crossing gets you to Dunkirk, then perhaps a return Caen to Portsmouth with perhaps a night there also gives the naval boat yard and Mary Rose etc if that might be an added bonus at the end of the trip.
In the holiday season it's hard to book single random nights, but I think most Eurocamp/AlFresco sites do Fri-Mon and Mon-Fri breaks, so with careful choice of a few sites you could travel out each day, or perhaps have a day by the pool.

That sounds great. I hadnt thought about Spain but my ds wants us to go to Spain so I think this might be a plan for 2020 depending on how things go this summer.

La Cote de Nacre is a campsite really close to the D Day landing beaches in Normandy. I think you can walk to one of the main beaches from the campsite.
This park is near Ypres and Dunkirk. www.sunparks.com/gb-en/holiday-park-belgium-oostduinkerke-aan-zee_OD-E_fp?hc=OD595&duree=2&dated=2019-02-06#left-content
There's quite a good theme park near Ypres.

I few years ago, I found that my GGF had died during WW1 and is buried in Boulogne.

We went to visit his grave and went to Vimy, which is easy to find because it’s off the motorway.

It also has trenches which my children liked.

We stayed at a campsite near Paris and went to where the armistice was signed and came back through Thiepval, which is very interesting.

Get a good guide book and work out where you’d like to go, it’s very interesting and the amount of little cemeteries that are in northern France is staggering.

Have a look at pierre et vacances sites, there are several along the Northern French coast. Does he want to ficus on ww1 or ww2? If ww1 Verdun area has several memorials, you can drive down throughthe Somme via Thiepval and return via Ypres, maybe taking in Strasbourg and Europa Park to break it up for your teens. Ww2 interest is more focussed on Normandy - around Bayeux, the beaches, Pegasus bridge - although there are obviously battlefields and sites elsewhere in France and beyond.