There are places in the world where history whispers. Then there are places like the Ypres Salient—where it echoes.

Stretching in a rough semicircle around the town of Ypres in Belgium, this small area saw some of the heaviest and longest fighting of the First World War. From 1914 to 1918, soldiers from all over the British Empire, France, Germany, and beyond fought and died here in unspeakable conditions. And though the war ended more than a century ago, the Salient still holds a powerful presence.

At Visit Flanders Fields, our private tours from Bruges are built to help you feel this presence. This isn’t battlefield tourism in the commercial sense—it’s remembrance, discovery, and understanding, guided by experts who live and breathe the history of this land.

The Salient today is peaceful—green fields, quiet woods, small farms. But below the surface, the land is still shaped by war. Trenches lie preserved in Bayernwald. The blasted earth of Hill 60 still shows its scars. The craters at Sanctuary Wood remind visitors of the constant shelling that once turned this area into a moonscape.

Why does the Ypres Salient still matter?

 Because it’s here that soldiers endured the mud of Passchendaele, the first use of poison gas, and the relentless stalemate of trench warfare. Because entire villages were wiped from the map. Because nearly every family in Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand had a loved one who served—and often died—here.

Our tours offer more than logistics. They offer context. We take you through front-line positions, dressing stations like Essex Farm where John McCrae wrote “In Flanders Fields,” and cemeteries large and small—each with its own message. You’ll hear stories of bravery, tragedy, and survival. You’ll see how the landscape still remembers, even when the world forgets.

Traveling privately means you can go at your own pace, ask your own questions, and reflect in your own way. Our tours are especially suited to couples and families tracing ancestral stories, or travelers who want to go deeper than a guidebook or audio app.

Come feel the echo. Join us in the Ypres Salient and let history speak to you.