John P. Moore Posted 9 March , 2019 Share Posted 9 March , 2019 (edited) Surely no better Leger guide than Paul Errington, SME (Subject Matter Expert)! Edited 9 March , 2019 by John P. Moore Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshire22 Posted 10 March , 2019 Share Posted 10 March , 2019 Since Flanders Fields, Holts have disbanded, I’ve used Leger. I can’t find fault with any of the Tour Guides, drivers. Ok, sometimes the hotels have been out of the way, but if you follow the 7 P’s, then you will have a wonderful battlefield tour. one trip, the guy sitting next to me, at times wouldn’t move when we got to specific points in the tour. At one point, I had to forcefully asked him to move, so I could get off the coach. On another trip, the guy next to me, every time we get on the coach, he started to read a book. These two occasions, didn’t stop me from enjoying myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshire22 Posted 10 March , 2019 Share Posted 10 March , 2019 23 hours ago, John P. Moore said: Surely no better Leger guide than Paul Errington, SME (Subject Matter Expert)! So you haven’t done a tour with Paul, Gary, Tim, Clive just to name a few. Each guide, will bring their own unique style and experience to the tour. A good tour will consist of 3 elements an experienced and authentic guide. Drivers who are happy, always smiling and have a good banter with the passengers. Fellow passengers, who are able to interact with each other, not just in the bar at night. Also who have a good knowledge of the area being visited and who are not afraid to pass on their own knowledge to the guide and the other passengers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judy7007 Posted 23 October , 2019 Share Posted 23 October , 2019 I’ve just returned from my 12th? Battlefield tour (maybe more) with Leger. I had a very special reason to want to visit Bremen and the U-boat memorials. The tour was really great (as they all have been). My only gripe is that, once on tour, an ‘optional’ is to purchase a museum package which includes a detailed (16 page or more) booklet of the whole trip. Don’t take the optional - don’t get the booklet. On this recent trip to Bremen I chose to purchase the museum package because I hadn’t been before, but on a recent trio to Versailles when I didn’t buy the museum package (because I had recently visited all but one of the museums and was willing to pay for just that one, I was denied the opportunity to buy just the tour booklet. Seems strange that you are denied the opportunity to get the background information of the tour unless you pay for the ‘optional” - €40 pp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 24 October , 2019 Share Posted 24 October , 2019 (edited) That seems pretty poor to be honest and rather 'jobsworth'. I guess they are a business and out to make money like every other business, but given how often you've used them it's not the best service I've seen. I went on the All Quiet on the Western Front trip a couple of years ago. Gary (him with the Merv Hughes tache) was the guide and I have to say it was brilliant. Very informative and interesting throughout. As has been mentioned before on here, it's what you put into it that decides how much you'll get out of it, that and a good tour guide. I've looked at other Battlefield tour operators and Leger still seem about the most cost effective. I'll definitely be going again at some point. Edited 24 October , 2019 by Guest Correction Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Filsell Posted 24 October , 2019 Share Posted 24 October , 2019 As a former Leger guide I had a lot of time for the company fellow guides and low costs. However having done two recent tours with Battle Honours I reckon they're now the top people in the business. More expensive than some but they know their stuff. I wouldn't go with or recommend anyone else now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KIRKY Posted 24 October , 2019 Share Posted 24 October , 2019 This is turning into Trip Advisor!! Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squirrel Posted 24 October , 2019 Share Posted 24 October , 2019 I am booked on two Leger tours next year and hope they live up to expectations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshire22 Posted 24 October , 2019 Share Posted 24 October , 2019 22 hours ago, judy7007 said: I’ve just returned from my 12th? Battlefield tour (maybe more) with Leger. I had a very special reason to want to visit Bremen and the U-boat memorials. The tour was really great (as they all have been). My only gripe is that, once on tour, an ‘optional’ is to purchase a museum package which includes a detailed (16 page or more) booklet of the whole trip. Don’t take the optional - don’t get the booklet. On this recent trip to Bremen I chose to purchase the museum package because I hadn’t been before, but on a recent trio to Versailles when I didn’t buy the museum package (because I had recently visited all but one of the museums and was willing to pay for just that one, I was denied the opportunity to buy just the tour booklet. Seems strange that you are denied the opportunity to get the background information of the tour unless you pay for the ‘optional” - €40 pp. judy, I echo your points on the optional extras. I don’t like the Leger extras, especially the extras the tour in July, when we had to pay 2 lots of museum fees. over the years, the booklets are still black and white. I see from the new Leger battlefield tour guide, the CWGC tour in 2020, which they are only running 1 tour but executive, silver service and a luxuria all on the same dates that 2 packed lunches are included in the price but it still states entrance to Museums, places of interest and optional excursions are at extra costs. I wish that would be in the main costs and not mentioned in the travel orders. I always have a single room, due to some serious problems sharing a room with other people in my early days touring the battlefields. You would think, they would reduce the costs of the single supplements jamie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithmroberts Posted 24 October , 2019 Share Posted 24 October , 2019 (edited) I mostly travel alone on the Western Front, relying on a book or few, and following my own inclinations and pace. I have always felt comfortable driving in France and Belgium so generally travel with my caravan behind to provide creature comforts rather more cheaply than hotels. I definitely cover a lot less ground on a daily basis, and miss out from the expertise of I'm sure the majority of guides, but I can explore at my own pace, and if I feel like it take a day out should I be so inclined. Having said that, I did a short tour with Clive and Battle Honours in Italy, and it was indeed well organised and a great success, but I was never going to drive to Italy for a short expedition into territory that I had only read a little about. My visits to Gallipoli and the Macedonian front have always been guided, with either young Mr Hart, or with Alan Wakefield and the Salonika Campaign Society; although I am beginning to think about an independent expedition in what is now Northern Macedonia, as some of my reading is leading me further away from the beaten track. The SCS visits in the Autumn normally do break some new ground, and some increasing familiarity with the geography is making me slightly bolder despite the language challenges. I might be able to fit in a couple of days in the wine country as well. I always book a single room, having been accused by family members of shall we say loud breathing at night. Keith Edited 24 October , 2019 by keithmroberts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muerrisch Posted 24 October , 2019 Share Posted 24 October , 2019 Mrs M and I were privileged to have two separate tours of duty in 1980s and 1990s at JHQ Rheindahlen, near the German/Netherlands border. We could, by rising early and getting home late, have a day on the Somme at our own pace, with primitive Battlefield guide books in hand and the Michelin CWGC overprints. These day trips morphed into the "Battlebus" [sometimes "Bottlebus"] where I hesitantly guided a minibus of colleagues on the Somme and the Salient. We used 3 star hotels and went at our own pace, which was slow and occasionally overhung. I am sure that we missed a great deal of expertise and facts. I am equally sure that we stood solemnly and in silent awe on many occasions. Rifle Wood, the Caterpillar, Hawthorn Crater the hard way, the tunnels at Vimy Ridge with a power cut ..................... Age,infirmity and deaths have eroded our number and we go no more, but there is a place for DIY battlefield touring, letting the facts and the enormity of the sacrifices spring out to jerk a tear and eternal gratitude, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Mackenzie Posted 27 October , 2019 Share Posted 27 October , 2019 (edited) I have had some excellent tours with Leger in the past and they are a great way of visiting the battlefields and meeting like minded people - people I met on Leger trips 20 years ago are still friends today. The quality of the trip depends on having a good guide and a driver who is prepared to be a bit flexible - some were fantastic and some rather less so! Overall I found them a good company with which to start my battlefield holiday trips but, as time has gone on then (like Keith), I have wanted a bit more flexibility and am now more likely to organise my own. Leger do seem to try and keep their headline prices as low as possible. There is nothing wrong with that but it does mean there are usually additional add on's. Again that is fair enough if they really are optional and if there is something else to do if, for example, you decide not to go to a museum you have already visited. The issue comes when the 'optional extras' are not really that optional. For example, I know people who have been on trips where there was an optional packed lunch but, in reality, they were never near anywhere at lunchtime for an alternative to be practical. Edited 28 October , 2019 by Neil Mackenzie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judy7007 Posted 27 October , 2019 Share Posted 27 October , 2019 After my first WW1 battlefield tour with Leger in 2008 I did quite a few more tours with them before my husband and I branched out on our own. We found their tours were always a great introduction with very good guides. We have enjoyed them all. After a break of some years, for various reasons, we have begun travelling with Leger battlefield tours again. We have been to so many of the WW1 museums so many times that sometimes we don’t want to pay for the museum package. If there happens to be a museum we really want to see, we will, of course, pay our own way to go in. What I most object to is that if you don’t buy the entire ‘optional’ you aren’t given the opportunity to purchase the 18-20 page guide to the tour. I would happily buy it for, say, €5.00. I don’t quite see that when you buy a Leger battlefield tour you are denied the background information to the tour unless you buy a €40 pp ‘optional’. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan24 Posted 28 October , 2019 Share Posted 28 October , 2019 (edited) Upon a recommendation we have just booked our first Leger Tour for Easter 2020, having previously organised our own tour to other parts of the Western Front. It was quite refreshing that they give 50% discount to under 17s in the school holidays...what other 'holiday' company would do that?! Looking forward to it and will bear in mind the 'optionals'. Alan. Edited 28 October , 2019 by Alan24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshire22 Posted 29 October , 2019 Share Posted 29 October , 2019 Another optional extra, what use to be called Drivers Perks. the drinks card, which the prices are not set by Leger or the drinks supplied by them. But the card has Leger written all over it. Why to have a drink you must have a card or the can lad doesn’t like it. If you wish to purchase an alcoholic drink in the uk, you must purchase a card. That’s what happened on my last feed coach going to Dover Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judy7007 Posted 29 October , 2019 Share Posted 29 October , 2019 Well actually I’ve always found on Leger that no alcoholic drinks are served till Europe. But I have heard others say differently.. Yes, it’s definitely a drivers’ perk but honestly I don’t mind sitting back and ordering a drink or two on the coach after a long day out. At the the end of the day I find it makes for a relaxing and pleasant trip back to the hotel. In my mind this is one important factor in placing Leger ahead of its competition - but of course the quality of guide and itinerary comes first. Just object to the museum and lunch optional which includes the tour notes - sell the notes separately please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshire22 Posted 29 October , 2019 Share Posted 29 October , 2019 I’m lucky as I live in the midlands and my pick up time is around 7 to 8 am. But I know some people have travelled as far as Scotland, Newcastle, york over night. but they do have a luck of the draw or a lucky dip. In the type of feed coach that you get pick up on your first day of your holiday and also your feeder coach on the way home. the trip I did in July, was executive to Dover, silver service tour coach and luxuria for the journey home. but you take the chance, I was lucky in 2016, when my two feeder coaches and my tour coach was a Luxuria. but what gets me that, if you want the front seats you must pay a fee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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