Bringing History to Life on our ANZAC Tours

Our Battlefield tours are packed with memorable experiences which allow you to fully immerse yourself in the history of the Great War. What’s more, our 2025 ANZAC tours are now ready to book – with four educational and emotive options to choose from. 

Are you ready to embark on a vivid journey of remembrance? Let’s take a look at just a few of the outstanding history experiences that feature on our Western Front tours... 

The mud-splattered, labyrinthine trenches are synonymous with the Belgian and French battlefields of the Western Front. Many of them have been preserved or replicated, allowing you to experience firsthand how soldiers would have lived and fought during WWI.  

One of the best examples of WWI trenches can be found at the Hooge Crater Museum in Ypres – a key stopping point on all of our tours. As well as browsing exhibits featuring unique artefacts collected from the Great War, you’ll have the chance to walk through a section of reconstructed trenches, imagining what they would have been like over 100 years ago. 

Naours is a major stop on our WWI Battlefields tour and a one-of-a-kind destination. Once an ancient limestone quarry, the so-called ‘Underground City of Naours’ is now a network of subterranean passages and caves which were visited by thousands of soldiers – with an estimated 1800 of them thought to have been Australian – throughout the Great War.  

Wander through some of Naours’ subterranean rooms on a fascinating guided tour, keeping your eyes peeled for the extraordinary graffiti engraved on the walls. It was left by soldiers of all nationalities who famously toured the underground caves when they were on leave from the nearby Western Front. 

Tucked away in the now peaceful village of Villers-Bretonneux in northern France is where you’ll find the Australian National War Memorial and Cemetery. It’s perhaps one of the most important pilgrimage sites for those who want to learn more about the ANZACs.  

The area is heavily associated with Australian soldiers in particular thanks to the fact two separate units fought in major battles in Villers-Bretonneux in 1918 – including in the very first tank-on-tank battle in the world’s history.  

Today, the area is a place of remembrance – especially for Australians who have relatives who fought across France during WWI. The memorial is engraved with the names of over 11,000 soldiers, many of whose bodies were never found nor buried.  

All of our Battlefields history tours take you to this poignant memorial park. However, if you book onto our ANZAC on the Western Front: Dawn Service tours, you’ll attend a moving ANZAC day service in Villers-Bretonneux on either day 5 or 6 of your chosen departure.  

Located just southeast of the town of Arras, the Wellington Quarries (or Carrière Wellington) are a lesser-known historical site – but a crucially important one for those with ANZAC relatives. 

Between November 1916 and March 1917, over 500 New Zealanders from the New Zealand Tunnelling Company excavated a vast network of tunnels beneath the earth’s surface. The purpose of these tunnels was to allow Allied soldiers to get as close as possible to the German front line and coordinate a surprise attack. 

About 80 metres of tunnel were dug per day, reaching a grand total of 8 kilometres by the time 24,000 soldiers passed through them to commence the Battle of Arras in early April 1917. On our ANZAC on the Western Front tour, you’ll walk in their footsteps during an intriguing guided tour which takes you 20 metres below ground.  

As well as discovering heroic tales and vividly explaining world-famous battles from soldiers' perspectives, our passionate Tour Leaders are always on hand to help you uncover your own links to the Great War. 

Our Battlefield tours of France and Belgium are made to be flexible – meaning we can accommodate special requests from those who want to visit specific sites where their ancestors may have fought or been buried. This allows you to embark on a more personalised history tour of the Western Front. 

Read our past guests’ highlights of their own personalised touring experiences: 

Highlight of ANZAC on the Western Front: ''Learning so much of the personal experiences my grandfather would have endured.'' - Carole 

Highlights from the WWI Battlefields: “Visiting the battlefields that my Grandfather had been to in WWI, living the history of what I have read over the years. Laying a wreath at Menin gate.'' - Cheryl 

Whether you want to observe the ANZAC Day Service at Villers-Bretonneux or listen to the haunting notes of the Last Post at Menin Gate, our Battlefield tours offer a one-of-a-kind opportunity to delve deep into Europe’s WWI military history. Will you join us?