Cycling Routes & Tours on the WW1 Battlefields
A popular way to visit the battlefields is to do it by bicycle. Guides and maps for recommended cycling routes are available from publishers or from tourist offices. Guides and battlefield tour companies listed here also offer a variety of tours by bike to suit all abilities.
Cycling Routes for WW1 in Flanders
fietsroute.org
Email: mail@fietsroute.org
Website: www.fietsroute.org
Fietsroute.org is a popular website offering cycling trail routes in Belgium. For the Great War centenary a special page has been created for cycling trails in the Westhoek area covering Ypres (Ieper) and the surrounding area including the battlefields of the Yser and the Ypres Salient. The routes vary in distance and an itinerary of the key locations you will cycle to is provided for each route. The information is available in English on the website, and has links to purchase cycling maps of Flanders online from Stanfords, the well-known map stockist.
Visit the website for further information:
Website: www.fietsroute.org WW1 Cycle Routes
Cycling Tours of the Battlefields
Biking Box Cycletours
2014-18 Remembrance Partner Flanders Fields
Telephone: +32 477 592 382
Email: info@bikingbox.be
Website: www.bikingbox.be
Guided tours visiting the Great War Western Front battlefields by bike for a half day, a full day or over several days. Probably the best way to witness the landscape and try to understand what happened one century ago. With Biking Box Cycletours you can also develop your complete bike-holiday for 3, 4, 5 or even more days as a guided tour or self-guided tour (all logistics are included).
- Rent a bike: A large choice of bikes to rent in classic tour bicycles (21 gears), E-bikes, kids bikes, kidscar and also some road bicycles. Suggestion: ask for a rental GPS (Garmin) including booklet with information about the sites you are visiting.
- Groups & Teambuilding: For groups and companies Biking Box Cycletours offer customized programs, where work & fun go together… Inspiring and rich in oxygen!
- The ‘Great Picknick’: A unique formula if you choose to taste local products of Flanders during a guided tour.
- Meeting point in Ypres: Newspaper & souvenir shop ‘t IEPERTJE, Menenstraat 12, located between the historic market square & the Menin Gate Memorial.
Your guide Kurt Titeca grew up Hill 60 close to Ypres where he went to college. Hill 60 was where three generations of his ancestors have lived. At the beginning of the 20th Century the family became refugees during the Great War, only returning from France after the Armistice. Stories of the two World Wars surrounded his whole youth. It led to a life on a bicycle (active sporting, then a cycling journalist, later also creating his own biking events, now developing historic guided tours). It fed also his hunger to understand history (he has a Masters in Political & Social Sciences). There is no doubt that you will be in good hands!
For bookings, reservations, rental tariffs and any enquiries contact Kurt by email:
Email: info@bikingbox.be
Biking Box Cycletours is the business name of APP-Tours Ltd.(Active People Performing); VAT: BE 0890759908
Cycling the Western Front
Somme Battlefields Partner
Telephone: (Belgium) + 32 (0)4 75 81 06 08; (France) +33 (0)7 88 24 59 01
Email: carl.ooghe@gmail.com
Website: www.cyclingthewesternfront.co.uk
Qualified guide Carl Ooghe established his battlefield tour company in 1987. He specializes in tours to the battlefields of Flanders, The Somme, The Aisne, The Marne and Meuse-Argonne.
Carl publishes cycling guide books in Dutch, French and English. A range of cycling tours is available:
- self-guided tours
- single day tours
- multi-day tours with overnight accommodation
- tailor-made tours
- ANZAC tours
- Bike & Barge cycling tours
- Mixed terrain sport cycling battlefield tours
For prices, arranging a bespoke tour to visit places of special interest to you, assistance and arrangements for travel to main rail destination stations in Belgium and France, visit Carl's website:
Website: www.cyclingthewesternfront.co.uk
Carl also offers guided tours by minibus for up to 7 people. See Carl's tours The Western Front Revisited on our page:
Green Jersey French Cycling Tours
Member of the Travel Trust Association No. Q0937
Telephone: +44 (0)1300 350555
Email: info@greenjerseycycling.co.uk
Website: www.greenjerseycycling.co.uk
Green Jersey French Cycling Tours is a highly experienced, specialist tour company offering a wide variety of cycling tours in France and Belgium. The company is based in the United Kingdom but all tours start and end in France or Belgium.
Regularly using some of the best guides in the business, such as Andy Robertshaw, riders gain a real insight into the events of a century ago.
We offer various tours of the Western Front and for 2017 will be adding a new tour concentrating on Passchendaele and the Ypres Salient. We have also added the unforgettable Verdun battlefields to our itineraries both as a 3 day centre based tour, and as a ‘Verdun and the Somme’ tour looking at the two battles together.
Groups and requests for bespoke tours are welcome as well as charity rides; the company has recently organized rides for ABF The Army Benevolent Fund and the Rifles as well as many small private groups.
Our popular WW1 ‘Flanders and the Somme’ tour starts and ends in Lille. It includes 6 nights’ half board, transport of luggage, full back-up support at all times and experienced guides. For more detail of the daily itineraries, dates for this tour and information about getting to Lille visit the website page at:
Website: www.greenjerseycycling.co.uk Great War Battlefields Tour
Further Reading
Riding the Routes of the Great War: In Northern France & Belgium, Nord, Pas-de-Calais, Somme, Aisne (Paperback)
by Carl Ooghe
Recommended guide for touring the WW1 battlefields of northern France and Belgium by bike. English; Publisher: Ouest-France (23 April 2014); ISBN-10: 2737363187; ISBN-13: 978-2737363184
Cycling & Walking Route Maps
For recommended maps for cycling and walking on the Western Front battlefields, see our page:
Maps for Travel to the WW1 Battlefields
Related Topics
Visiting the WW1 Western Front Battlefields
Advice and useful information about travelling, accommodation and tourist information for visitors to the Western Front battlefields:
Visiting WW1 Western Front Battlefields
Battlefields of the Western Front
Pages on the battlefields by area including comprehensive listings and locations of military cemeteries, main memorials, battle remains, museums and accommodation:
Yser Battlefields & the Belgian Coast The Ypres Salient, Flanders, Belgium The Ypres Salient, Flanders, Belgium French Flanders and Artois The Somme, Picardie, FranceInternational Guild of Battlefield Guides
The International Guild of Battlefield Guides is for guides with a specialism in battlefield history, providing an organization where guides can meet one another, share information and approaches to the subject. Members of the Guild can take part in an accreditation programme to become a “Badged Guide”. Visit:
Website: www.gbg-international.com
Battlefield Tours
Battlefield Tour Companies and Guides (from the United Kingdom)
Battlefield Tour Companies and Guides based in Belgium and France
Cycling Routes & Tours on the WW1 Battlefields
Self-drive Itineraries & Tours of the WW1 Battlefields
Motorcycling Tours on the WW1 Battlefields
WW1 Battlefield Tour Companies for Students & School Groups
Acknowledgements
Photo of cyclist at Ploegteert Memorial courtesy of Carl Ooghe.