Visiting The Battlefields of World War 1 With Kids- A Tour Of The Somme

A Memorable Family Trip Touring Trenches, Memorials, Tunnels, Museums, and Blast Craters That Can Be Seen From Space

The Somme is not a place that pops up first a vacation destination for most Americans, especially not for Spring Break. But it turned out to be a fascinating trip to learn more about a war that is often overshadowed by WW2 in American history books.

In my pre-trip research about what to see and where to go, I came up a little empty to my surprise. Not about World War 1 in general- there are libraries full of books, movies, blogs, and academic papers detailing the causes, effects, the soldiers, the weaponry, etc. of this pivotal moment in world history.

But as far as travel to the Somme? I couldn’t find much in the big-name guidebooks. And not that many helpful websites and travel blogs. I was starting to get worried- does no one go to the Somme or is it just not that great of a destination?

Not to worry- visiting the Somme turned out to be a great vacation and the kids loved it.

After our trip, I can definitely tell you that this part of France was somewhere I could return to again and again and probably find something new each time. Despite some super iffy weather (hurricane force winds that the kids still talk about), the Somme was a fantastic place to explore. The kids were engrossed, happy, and left more knowledgeable about an important part of history. That’s about all you can ask for in a vacation, right?

Arras was the perfect place to make our base for the trip as it was near everything we wanted to see. Walking to dinner at one of its many awesome restaurants in its beautiful town square was a great way to leave the battlefields behind for a bit and enjoy France in the now.

The Somme was, in short, an awesome family vacation destination.

Heads Up: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning we may get a commission if you make a purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you. We don’t do sponsored posts, free trips, or accept items for reviews. We only link to things we like and use personally. Read more about our philosophy.

Why The Somme?

The idea started when we found very cheap flights to London from the States. (Price is often how we decide on our vacation destinations, practically speaking.) Since it’s a short trip on the Eurostar from London to lots of places in Europe, we often fly into London if the price is right and then head elsewhere.

If you want to know more about this travel hack, read: Travel to London as a cheap way of getting to Europe.

We decided on northern France and the Somme because it was a part of France none of us had spent much time in and we thought learning a bit of World War 1 history would be good for the kids. Lille is an easy 1.5 hour Eurostar journey from London and is a good starting place for touring many World War 1 sites, such as the Somme or Ypres.

Finding A Personal Angle

We picked the Somme specifically out of potential WW1 sites to visit because we had family that died here and we knew where their graves were located. That made the visit so much more interesting to the kids as we told them what we knew about their great-great-great uncles and their lives before we left on the trip.

I would definitely recommend looking up possible family members to anyone visiting the Somme as it gives the kids something tangible to look for among the almost ungraspable number of names and graves. There are fields upon fields of white grave stones scattered all over the countryside, some large and some small. It boggles the mind when you sit and think about how many people that they represent.

There are a number of websites that can help you locate graves, but the best is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission if your relative wasn’t American. They keep listings for the 1.7 million Commonwealth men and women who died in World War 1 and 2. Their database is searchable by as little as a last name and encompasses all the countries in the Commonwealth- U.K, Canada, Australia, India, etc.

The American Battle Monuments Commission does the same for all American soldiers buried overseas and their database is also searchable by as little as a last name.

Our 2 Day Somme Itinerary With Kids

This itinerary is by no means a complete tour of the Somme which could take you weeks to see everything. Two days was about all we had to spend and it was actually a good amount of time for the kids (ages 10- 14) who were about battlefield-out’d by the end of the second day (we did cram a lot into those 2 days.)

Luckily everything is fairly close together and you can easily drive between sites on these rural roads without much traffic. We found driving ourselves to be easier than taking a tour so we could go at our own pace.

Start With The Remembrance Trail

Follow the Remembrance Trail– a 92km long driving route that incorporates some of the most important sites from the Battle of the Somme. There are 10 sites along the trail which stretches from Perrone at one end and Albert at the other.

While nothing on the trail is that far from anything else, try to take at least 2 days to do it because you will want to spend more time than you think at each stop.

See the official Visit Somme website for an overview of the Remembrance Trail and their recommended Top 10 sites. I will tell you though, that I found the official website a little confusing. One part of the website talks about the 8 remembrance sites, then right below that, the website talks about the Top 10 sites on the trail with links to each one. And on another part of the website, I found a guide to the “Sites of the Somme” that included 21 places, stretching to Amiens and beyond. So obviously, there isn’t a definitive list.

Part of that is because there are cemeteries and battlefields just about everywhere you look in this part of France. As you drive around, you will see the distinctive white crosses in corners of farmer’s fields and along roadways. The fighting here lasted from 1915 until 1918, with each side building massive trench networks and using huge amounts of artillery to pound the other side in between mounting offensives.

There are so many parts to WW1 that played out in the Somme that whole books are written about just this place. It makes sense that trying to figure out what should be included on the Remembrance Trail differs depending on who you ask.

And many sites are dedicated to a specific country’s troops and are operated by the country that erected it. So for instance, the Ulster Tower is operated by the Irish, Beaumont-Hamel is run by the Canadians, and so forth. So you really need to check the website for each site to find out the details.

For our purposes, we stuck to the most common iteration of the Remembrance Trail and the 9 sites between Albert and Perrone. And over 2 days we only made it to about half of those sites.

The 9 sites on the Remembrance Trail between Perrone and Albert:

1. The Historical Museum of the Great War in Perrone
2. The Chapel of Remembrance in Rancourt (largest French cemetery in the Somme)
3. Delville Wood and the South African National Memorial
4. Pozieres (British and Australian memorials and a war animal memorial)
5. Museum and Memorial to the Missing in Thiepval (names of 72,000 Commonwealth soldiers who are still missing from the Somme Offensive)
6. Ulster Tower at Thiepval (Irish memorial)
7. Newfoundland Memorial at Beumont- Hamel
8. Lochnagar Crater at La Boisselle- remnants of the crater caused by tunnelers that dug under the German lines and laid explosives
9. Somme 1916 Museum in Albert

Our Favorite Stops on the Remembrance Trail

1. Lochnagar Crater
2. Australian Memorials and War Animal Memorial in Pozieres
3. Beaumont-Hamel (and nearby Hawthorn Ridge Crater which isn’t on the official list for the Remembrance Trail)
4. Ulster Memorial Tower in Thiepval
5. Memorial To The Missing In Thiepval
6. Somme 1916 Museum in Albert
7. Bonus stop- Carrington Tunnels in Arras (also not part of the official Remembrance Trail)

Go to Ulster Tower (in Thiepval) first to inquire about the guided tour of the Thiepval Wood if you weren’t able to get in touch with them through their website before your trip (see the description below). This was maybe our favorite stop but only because the tour was so fantastic and you must arrange that ahead of time.

*Pro Tip- I recommend doing a little pre- trip scouting on Google Earth. Lots of these memorials are fairly small, many of the roads are narrow, and the signs are in French so it is nice to familiarize yourself ahead of time with what you are looking for. Still, be prepared to do a little backtracking and circling occasionally to find the correct entrance to some of these stops. Driving was not difficult on these quiet rural roads.

Our Favorite Sites on the Remembrance Trail

If you are short on time, you could hit almost all of these sites in one day if you start early and don’t stay too long at each one. And don’t go in any of the museums.

Lochnagar Crater at La Boisselle (and Hawthorn Crater near Beaumont- Hamel)

These craters are two remnants of incredibly large explosions set by British tunnelers underneath the German trenches. Lochnagar is better preserved of the two craters, with a boardwalk and sculptures around the edge and is listed on the official Remembrance Trail.

Lochnagar Crater is near Pozieres just off of the D929 and has a parking area and lots of informational signs around its aforementioned boardwalk.

Hawthorn Crater is one I found out about as I was doing some reading about the tunneling technique that becomes popular in WW1 as a way to disrupt enemy lines. I am fascinated with how the special troops spent weeks tunneling in complete silence, lest the enemy troops, which were also tunneling right by them, heard them and detonated their explosives.

Hawthorn Crated isn’t as well developed as Lochnagar, but you can walk down into the crated itself, which the kids really liked. The crater is located just outside the village of Beaumont- Hamel, not far from the Newfoundland Memorial there. It is marked on Google Maps.

*Tip- I recommend checking Hawthorn Crater out on Google Earth first so you can see where you park which is across the road from the entrance to the crater. Park at the Memorial for the 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders which has a large Celtic cross and can be seen from the road.

Ulster Memorial Tower in Thiepval

Ulster Memorial Tower is a memorial to the Ulster Divison of Northern Ireland who eventually captured the German position that occupied where the tower is today. The tower is a replica of an Ulster landmark and is meant to be a symbol of one of the last sights of home the men buried here would have seen before sailing to France.

We received a guided tour of the Thiepval Wood which is located across the street from the Ulster Memorial Tower. The woods are adjacent to the Connaught Cemetery where many of these men are buried. This is a must do if you can get the tour.

Our fantastic guide took us through the recreated trenches in the private woods which are owned by the Somme Association. He brought the soldier’s experiences to life with stories and mementos that fascinated the kids (and adults). He did not sugar- coat the facts but he had funny anecdotes to go along with the death and destruction that surrounded the Thiepval Woods during the Battle of the Somme. He was a wonderful storyteller and we were glued to his every word.

The tour through the Thiepval Woods was hands- down the kids favorite part of the Somme. Contact the Visitor to book a tour Center through the link on the website (scroll down below “Thiepval Wood” to find the link). Or go early in the day and inquire at the cafe at Ulster Tower about availability.

The tour is free but they will ask for a donation towards the restoration and upkeep of the Thiepval Woods.

The cafe at Ulster Tower has basic sandwiches (cheese, ham, or cheese plus ham for those who like to go fancy) as well as good coffee and other drinks. For the tea drinkers among you, they make a proper cuppa according to the Brits in our family.

Newfoundland Memorial at Beaumont- Hamel

The Newfoundland Memorial at Beaumont- Hamel is a poignant memorial to the tragic history of the Newfoundlanders on July 1, 1916. You will want to spend some time here walking around the maze of trenches still visible and the small but informative museum.

Walk to the far end of the grounds to find the statue of the piper commemorating the 51st Highland Division. He overlooks the Y Ravine, where ferocious fighting took place in November of 1916.

It is mind boggling how many soldiers died in the 74 acres that encompass this memorial in just a few months of 1916. The Newfoundlanders suffered something like 90% casualties. I found this for some reason to be one of the most somber places we visited even though all of the sites witnessed horrific tragedies.

Newfoundland was a self-governing dominion of Britain during World War 1 as it did not join Canada until 1949. As such, it raised its own regiment that was sent to France to fight with the Allies. That is why this is a Newfoundland Memorial and not a Canadian Memorial.

Memorial To The Missing in Thiepval

The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing has more than 72,000 names inscribed on this massive arch, all Commonwelath soldiers whose bodies were never found or properly identified.

You think all you see everywhere as you drive around the Somme are cemeteries and gravestones but this memorial makes you realize that those graves are only some of the dead. You need to see Thiepval in person to get a visceral feel for just how many names are carved into its walls. It is mind-boggling.

You’ll find a museum near the car park that has a free part and a paid section. We only saw the free part of the museum and it was well worth a walk around. The paid section apparently has a large mural of the Battle of the Somme, a vintage plane, and multimedia exhibits of what the war was like for the Germans in the trenches as well as the civilians in the area. We were running low on time as well as the kids’ attention spans so we skipped it.

Somme 1916 Museum in Albert

In downtown Albert, the Somme 1916 Museum is entirely located in the tunnels underneath the town. It gives the kids an idea of the claustrophobic nature of trench and tunnel warfare and a pretty good history of the war.

The kids enjoyed the novelty of being underground and were surprisingly unaffected by the more graphic recreated scenes, such as the field hospital in all its gory detail. I guess it is a good thing that war is a distant idea to them but I hope that what they learn on this trip gives them some idea of what can happen.

Not on the Remembrance Trail but Super Close

The Wellington Tunnels (Carriere Wellington)

Located in Arras, the Wellington Tunnels (Carriere Wellington) were dug out by soldiers from New Zealand in order to launch a surprise attack on the German in April of 1917. 20,000 soldiers hid in these tunnels to pop up just meters from the German lines.

The tunnels are a massive piece of engineering and another kid favorite to visit. You have to wear hard hats for the tour so they were sold on it from the beginning.

For More Information About The Somme

Check out the blog World War Battlefields which has a great introduction to the sites of the Somme, a map, and other recommended resources, plus a short YouTube video of the area.

Where We Stayed

Arras

Arras is a pretty town about 20- 40 min from the majority of the sites along the Somme. It has a beautiful cathedral in one of its 2 large town squares and lots of good restaurants. Also, it has a TGV station with convenient trains to Paris and a Europcar rental place next to the station.

Holiday Inn Express Arras Located diagonally across from the train station, this hotel was a great find. We got 3 rooms on the top floor for our extended family group of 9 people (5 adults, 4 kids) and we had plenty of space. The rooms were very large with a double bed, sofa bed, large desk, and 2 chairs facing a TV.

The bar area downstairs had decent prices for wine and soft drinks so that, plus the free WiFi, made it a perfect spot to unwind after a day touring memorials and learning about WW1.

You can pay to park at the underground parking lot of the hotel (expensive) or park for free on the street on weekends. Even during the week, the street parking prices weren’t terrible. A large breakfast buffet is included.

Other Towns Around The Somme To Look For Lodging

Besides Arras, other nearby towns are Perrone and Albert, which anchor the two ends of the Remembrance Trail. Or you can look in Amiens if you want more of a city feel. Amiens is about 30-45 min away from the Remembrance Trail.

You’ll find lots of hotels in Amiens, a handful of hotels in Arras, and just a few in Albert and Peronne.

If you want a vacation house rental, look on booking.com, Airbnb, or VRBO around Pozieres or Albert if you want to be central. There are lots of options, ranging from small apartments in town to converted outbuildings on one of the many farms in the area. (These are often called gites in France and they are a great way to see the French countryside although you will need a car as they are usually out in the countryside, obviously.)

How To Get Around The Somme

We rented cars through Europcar and Hertz for the week and it was super cheap because March is the shoulder season in France for tourism. We picked up the rental car right in the Lille train station and were on our way to Arras by 2pm, stopping to see some sites along the way. We returned the car in Arras at the train station.

Driving in France was relatively easy but I would recommend paying for international data on your phone and using Google maps. The major sites of the Somme have pretty good signs but it can get confusing when you don’t see them or the signs are small. Like I said, some virtual driving on Google Earth before your trip will pay off handsomely.

Driving around the Somme is scenic, traffic-free, and I quite enjoyed it. And you won’t find tolls in these more rural areas, a rarity in France.