The Ypres Salient

A visit to the city of Ypres (Ieper, in modern Dutch) and the surrounding area offers you the opportunity to explore the five battles that took place here, three of which have become legendary.

As it is so close to the channel ports, Ypres is a great place for an introductory visit, as a lot can be packed into just a couple of days. A longer visit will give you time to explore more of this fascinating area.

As well as a wide range of cemeteries, memorials and battlefields, itineraries for visits to the Ypres Salient can include:

• Sir Reginald Blomfield’s magnificent Menin Gate memorial to the missing where you can attend the nightly Last Post ceremony

• Tyne Cot cemetery, near Passchendaele, the biggest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in the world

• Christmas Truce sites

• The site of the first gas attack on the Western Front

• The remains of trenches, and sites of craters

• Langemark German cemetery

• Where the first tourists flocked to in the early 1920s, including Hill 60 and the last remaining prefabricated houses erected in 1919 as temporary dwellings for the returning population

• The rebuilt medieval Cloth Hall in Ieper, Europe's largest secular gothic building, containing the In Flanders Fields Museum

• Belgian beer, Flemish stew and Belgian chocolate

Example itinerary

Day 1

• Morning: Lijssenthoek Cemetery en route to Ieper

• Afternoon: In Flanders Fields Museum; Ypres Reservoir Cemetery and the Menin Gate; walk along the ramparts to Ypres Ramparts Cemetery

• Evening: Dinner in restaurant in Ieper; 8pm Last post ceremony at Menin Gate

Day 2

• Morning: Hill 60 and trench remains; Perth (China Wall), Tuilleries and Churchyard cemeteries in Zillebeke

• Lunch at Hooge Crater Museum café

• Afternoon: Ploegsteet for Hyde Park Corner Cemetery and Ploegsteert Memorial; walk into Ploegsteert Wood to visit Toronto Avenue, Ploegsteert Wood, Rifle House, Mud Corner, Prowse Point cemeteries; Christmas Truce sites

• Evening: Dinner in restaurant in Ieper

Day 3

• Morning: explore and/or shop in Ieper; Zonnebeke to see Belgian soldiers’ plot in the communal cemetery; walk to Tyne Cot Cemetery and memorial

• Lunch in Zonnebeke

• Afternoon: Canadian memorial at Vancouver Corner, St Juliaan; Langemark for German cemetery

This is just an example. I will put together a bespoke itinerary for your group based on any particular interests. See my specialist battlefield themes below.