Belgium-WW I sites (Flanders field, Ypres)- want recommendations

Ginger, A rental car would probably provide you with a bit more flexibility in getting around that area, and you wouldn't have to rely as much on the timing of public transit. For a tour of the important sights, I would highly recommend hiring a local Guide, as you'll learn FAR more about the history than if you just wander around on your own. I was there last year, and the local Guide Jacques was outstanding, and an encyclopaedia of historical information! I believe he works with This Tour Company, but I'm not sure - the tour was arranged as part of a RS tour. Happy travels!

Ginger, We just got home today from our visit to Belgium and France. We spent 3 nights in Bruges and took the Quasimodo tour of Flanders Field. We went on their Triple Treat Tour and liked it so much that we asked if they had room for us on the Flanders Field Tour the next day. While obviously different in tone, both were excellent. The Flanders Field tour is actually a bit haunting..... http://www.quasimodo.be/

Thanks, Vernon and Paula for your helpful suggestions. It's great to be part of a community of enthusiastic travelers! Ginger

My husband and I arranged a private tour with Salient Tours earlier this month. They were very quick in communications. The man who runs Salient was busy on the day we wanted to tour, so he arranged for another guide to take us. The guide was great. We would never have been able to find many of the various stops on our own (like a recently turned-up shell laid up against a lamppost, waiting for the bomb disposal unit to come by at some point), and his descriptions and period photos really helped us visualize what happened. After the tour, we picked up a copy of Major and Mrs. Holt's Battlefield Guide to the Ypres Salient and Passchendaele. I really wish I had the map that came with the book during the tour. If you're going to try to do something yourself, this type of guide would be invaluable.

The only thing you could reasonably see on your own without a car or tour is the city of Ypres itself. Everything else it spread out too far and wide. If you're out of other ideas, there's a TI located in the cloth hall on the main town square. I'm sure they could provide information about tours in the area.

I agree that without a car, the only thing you'll be able to see is Ypres itself (which does have the Menin Gate). We did a tour with the company Ken links to above and while I liked the tour and learned a lot from it, I think you can do this area on your own with a map of cemeteries, a good read on the history, and a visit to the Hill 62 museum. Unlike Verdun, the area has been re-built and there isn't much to actually see. And it's much different than the Normandy area, where there's just so much to see and lots of hidden stuff for a guide to point out. Hill 62 was a huge highlight for us, but other than that, I would rank the area behind Verdun and Normandy.

"Unlike Verdun, the area has been re-built" ... which reminds me, let me give a shout-out to Ypres on this matter. Usually, "post-war rebuilding" in Europe means you get careful restoration of a few key landmarks, and the rest of the city is reconstructed in a relatively unattractive functional style (see Mannheim, Liege, Essen, Hannover, for example). Looking at Ypres without any historical context, you would never guess the entire city was virtually leveled by artillery and fire. Perhaps the difference is that it was rebuilt after WWI, not WWII?

-Thanks to everyone for the suggestions and comments. We made a reservation with Quasimodo tours since they will pick us up in Bruges and return us after a full day of travel from site to site with commentary. One of the museums is closed for renovation until mid-June 2012 so we have an excuse to return. -We visited Normandy and the D-day beaches several years ago. The military museums in the UK also bring history to life. The Imperial war museum in London has a recreation of trench warfare - minus the mud. -I just read "Some Desperate Glory" by Edwin Campion Vaughan - a well written diary of a young British officer for 9 months of the war in Flanders Fields. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_Desperate_Glory I'm looking forward to walking the same fields and viewing the countryside after the land has healed.
Thanks again! Ginger

How true....Essen and Hannover do show that obvious early 1960s reconstruction style, so do Duisburg and Kiel.