Britain at War - June 27-30, 2025 TANKS AND PLANES

At 9 am, we meet at the statue of Winston Churchill located at Parliament Square, in front of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. From there we walk to the Churchill War Rooms steps from No 10, the Prime Minister's residence.
We follow a splendid guided tour of the War Cabinet Rooms as they were on VE Day, May 8, 1945. See where Churchill conducted the war during the Blitz.
After this tour we board our coach and head to Portsmouth on the English Channel, a lunch is provided as we head south on the coach.
Portsmouth was one of the major embarkation ports for the Allies. We proceed to tour the D-Day Museum.
In Portsmouth we then head over to the Spice Island Pub for dinner and enjoy the fantastic views of Portsmouth Harbour.
After dinner we drive to Bournemouth where we will stay at The Harbour Heights Hotel.

After breakfast we board the coach and have a short drive to Bovington.
TANKFEST 2025! We will spend the entire day at Bovington Tank Museum and watch the greatest display of moving armour in the world!
We will see over 60 tanks from WW2 to the Present Day driving through the Tank Museum's proving grounds.
We also get to see the permanent exhibits of tanks from WW1 onward.
TANKFEST is a MUST for the WW2 historian.
After this, we head to Winchester for dinner at The Wykeham Arms.
After dinner we board the bus one last time for a short drive to Abingdon and check in to The Garden Inn Hilton.

After breakfast we board the coach and head to Blenheim Palace, an 18th century masterpiece of architecture and design. It is also the birth place of Winston Churchill in 1874.
Here you will see unrivalled architecture, and also an exhibition of Churchill's life from childhood to Britain's greatest Prime Minister.
We will also have lunch at the Orangery at Palace, as this is not to be missed.
After lunch we head to Oxford for incomparable pubs and shopping.
Join Dr Geoff for a tour of Balliol College and the Bodleian Library, or tour Oxford at your own speed.
We will check in to The Malmaison Oxford Hotel at 3pm. This is a converted Victorian Prison. Your room is a set of three former cells all with the original steel doors and small windows. It is an experience not to be missed.
At 7 pm we will walk over to The Kings Arms Pub (17th century) for dinner and drinks.
Enjoy the twilight stroll back to the Malmaison Hotel, beside the 11th century Oxford Castle.

Option A

After breakfast we board the coach for a short drive to Milton Keynes.
There we will follow a guided tour of Bletchley Park, the famous code breaking centre for the Allies in WW2.
See the Mansion which was converted the HQ for breaking the Enigma Machine.
You will recognise the locations used in the filming of The Imitation Game (2014) starring Benedict Cumberbatch, who played the hero codebreaker, and mathematician Prof Alan Turing.
After our time at Bletchley Park we will drive to Cambridge for our a general walk about. For dinner, we will head over to The Eagle Pub - a famous haunt for members of the 78th USAAF Fighter Group and others. It was also here Crick & Watson announced their discovery of DNA in 1953!
After our day at Duxford we will board our coach and head back to London.

Option B

After breakfast at the hotel we board the coach and head to the Duxford Airforce Base and Museum, part of the Imperial War Museum.
This is an entire day of taking in the vintage and modern amazing aircraft in the sky.
WW2 planes that appeared in previous air shows include a B17, P51, P47, P38, P40, Spitfires, Hurricanes, and Me109s.
The Imperial War Museum has a fabulous permanent exhibition that is worthy of a visit in itself. Here you will see aircraft from WW1, WW2 to the modern age.
There is a section called the Normandy Experience where you recreate the experience of disembarking from a Higgins Boat at Omaha Beach.
Come and see the American Air Museum which has a Lockheed SR71 Blackbird - which flew at over Mach 3!
The collection of The Imperial War Museum at Duxford is simply fantastic.
After our day at Duxford we will board our coach and head back to London.
Back at Marylebone Station, we say our goodbyes, exchange final hugs and email addresses from one another, collect our bags and set off to our next destinations.