War Poetry Ypres Battlefields Visit 19th – 21st November 2025
2 Nov 2025
WAR POETRY IN YPRES
ITINERARY DETAILS
Weds 19th Nov 2025
05:00 Depart PVA Coach
10:00 Check-in Channel Port DFDS Dover
12:00 Channel Crossing DFDS Seaways
15:00 Arrive Channel Port DFDS Dunkirk
16:45 Approx Check-in to Accommodation Menin Gate School Hostel. Located in the city centre of Ypres, right by the Menin Gate, this school hostel is the perfect base to explore the Battlefields region!
17:00 At leisure Ypres!
Free to explore Ypres at your leisure after checking-in!
18:30 Restaurant Meal Dinner at a local restaurant
Thurs 20th Nov 2025
08:00 Meal Breakfast at accommodation
09:30 Guided Tour all about the major historical landmarks of the Ypres Salient on this guided tour! Approx. length: 5 hours.
Visit Essex Farm Cemetery. Built on the site of an Advanced Dressing Station, Essex Farm is the burial place of War Poet John McCrae and also of Rifleman Valentine Joe Strudwick, who was just 15 years old when he was killed.
Visit Langemark German War Cemetery. A striking contrast to Essex Farm, the sober, foreboding Langemark German Cemetery is one of only four German cemeteries in the Flanders region.
Visit St Julien Canadian War Memorial. On 22nd April 1915, the German Army launched the first large-scale chemical weapon usage in war with a chlorine gas attack here. The memorial commemorates
the Canadian soldiers who held the line. Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est vividly describes the suffocating power of gas attacks during the war; more than 7000 were injured during this first attack.
Visit Yorkshire Trench and Dugout
Visit a preserved trench, complete with reconstructed dugouts and fire steps, to gain an insight into trench life.
This is an ideal place to understand the setting of many of the best known war poems and the conditions the soldiers found themselves in.
15:00 Museum Passchendaele 1917 Memorial Museum. This fascinating museum commemorates the half a million casualties of the battle of Passchendaele. Uniquely, the museum features reconstructions of both British and German trenches.
18:00 Restaurant Meal Dinner at a local restaurant
20:00 Activity Last Post at the Menin Gate. Witnessing the nightly Last Post Ceremony is always a deeply moving experience. Participate by laying a wreath.
Friday 21st Nov 2025
08:30 Meal Breakfast at accommodation
10:00 Museum In Flanders Fields Museum. Visit the In Flanders Fields Museum, named after John McCrae’s famous war poem. Students will be given an interactive Poppy Bracelet which allows them to
learn about the stories of four real people.
12:00 Activity Chocolate shopping in Ypres! Enjoy some light relief with a visit to a well-known chocolate shop. No visit to Belgium would be complete without some souvenir chocolate!
13:00 Museum Hill 62 Sanctuary Wood Museum. One of few preserved trench networks around Ypres, Sanctuary Wood gives a feel of what it was like for the soldiers who fought and died here. A wide range of artefacts are on display at the museum.
16:00 Check-in Channel Port DFDS Dunkirk
18:00 Channel Crossing DFDS Seaways
19:00 Arrive Channel Port DFDS Dover
23:45 Approx. Return PVA