EASY SCHEDULES FOR TWO DAY SKY TOURS

Extending your sky tour of the Normandy Liberation Coast allows you to see much more than during a single day, however well planned. The costs of staying overnight and touring for a further day or two are much less than you might imagine and a bargain compared with staying in Central London for the same number of days and nights. Because you are spending more than a day with us, both aircraft flights and the touring in Normandy are offered at a discount price.

 Some families/groups of friends wish to travel by ferry as well as by aircraft and we can arrange this providing you give us enough notice - we have control over booking our aircraft but not the ferries which become quite busy in summer! The same goes for the Channel Tunnel. We are always happy to provide quotes. When you compare our quote with the price of hotel rooms in Central London during summer and then add on the cost of eating out - just once a day properly - we offer a bargain.

Normally we make provisional reservations at hotels in France and then ask our clients to confirm directly with the hotel. This avoids our having to ask for a deposit. We can tell you how much to allow for your room, dinner and breakfast. We find that clients prefer to keep control of their own hotel bills. If you would like us to confirm your hotel reservations then we would ask for a deposit which is customary in France. 

Visiting Normandy with our sky tour is one of those trips of a lifetime. We strongly urge that you plan to stay in Britain for at least a week to allow for catching good weather for a one day tour. Spending an overnight or two in France allows us more flexibility over when we take the aerial part of the tour. Remember that D Day was cancelled twice because of storms after a scorching May. 

As with the single day tour, we arrange the programme to suit the visitors, and given below is the most popular two day programme with American visitors.

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 The Longest Day - Overlord Tour

Chauffer pick up with comfortable car at your Central London hotel - time arranged with you but we recommend an early start, certainly no later than 8am.

Arrive at Biggin Hill Airport, welcomed by your captain and guide, board our comfortable aircraft. Take off around 9.30 am 

Once airborne from Biggin Hill you will see Chartwell, Sir Winston Churchill's home, also Hever Castle and other sites. We brief on D Day and the liberation of Europe during the flight. We also serve coffee and croissants plus soft drinks.

Approximately 10.30 am we reach the mouth of the River Orne on the Normandy coast.

After circling over the British and Canadian landing grounds we return to the coast and fly the whole length of the Allied invasion beaches. Your guide will point out the sites and their significance as we fly alongside the invasion beaches. We will pass over the wreck of the surviving Mulberry Harbour.

After flying alongside Omaha Beach and the Pointe du Hoc, Utah Beach and the American landing grounds, we land at Cherbourg Airport. The time in France is 12.30pm.

We meet our French colleague and set off by road through the very pretty bocage countryside for Saint Mere Eglise. On arrival we visit the American Airborne Museum and also visit the famous church which still has a replica paratrooper dangling from its tower. Depending on the groups' consensus we either take brunch in the town or later on a lunch beside Utah Beach.

South from the town we drive over the drop zones, fields and rivers where the 82nd and 101st US Airborne Divisions landed during the night of D Day and fought throughout several weeks.

We leave the main road and head towards the coast and the pretty village of Mont Saint Marie du Mont. Beyond, across the fields, lies Utah Beach.

There is an excellent museum and all around lies debris from Hitler's Atlantic Wall.

The drive from Utah Beach to the ancient city of Bayeux takes just over an hour. We arrive with enough time to take a stroll around the beautiful old city before dinner. We spend the night at one of the fine hotels in the heart of the small city or else at a small chateau in the surrounding countryside. Miraculously the city  survived virtually intact. Despite fierce battles following D Day, Bayeux was taken so quickly that almost no fighting took place within its environs and the Germans retreated inland swiftly, leaving the city beyond range for their artillery; moreover to keep military traffic away from the old houses the Royal Engineers built a dirt by-pass around the town which serves as its ring road to this very day.

Bayeux Cathedral and the River Aure flowing through the city centre.

The Bayeux Tapestry depicting William the Conqueror's invasion and victory in 1066.

Next morning we will visit the Museum and see the 70 metre long tapestry that is now nearly 1000 years old. We'll also take a look at the Cathedral which is Gothic on the outside but has the most splendid Norman nave in the Romanesque style. There are countless wonderful old houses and during summer a market along the main street.

From Bayeux we drive north to see the big gun battery at Longues-sur-Mer where there is one of the finest views along the Normandy Coast. From Longues it's possible eastwards to see all the British and Canadian Beaches, most of the Mulberry Harbour wrecks, and westwards all the American Beaches.

 Normandy's apple juice, cider, calvados and other apple based drinks are famous throughout France and Continental Europe. Because we have more time, depending on the group's wishes, we can also visit one of the finest orchards and taste the local specialities.

Around 2pm we arrive at the American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach. On the 6 June this year the new American Normandy Visitor Center opens alongside the cemetery.

After visiting the cemetery and visitor center we drive down one of the draws leading onto the beach where old pill boxes still menace the shore.

We walk over the same sands where thousands of young men struggled ashore, climb the same bluffs overlooking the beach. Your guide explains not only what took place but why particular crises happened, why decisions were made on both sides, right and wrong, thereby giving deeper understanding of the countless heroic acts on that fateful morning, how the appalling situation was turned around.

We take a late lunch at a very welcoming restaurant with very good food. Afterwards we visit the Pointe du Hoc where the Rangers climbed the cliffs and captured a vital heavy gun battery. Around 5pm, having explored the deeply cratered point and discussed the crucial role of the Rangers, we return to Cherbourg Airport around 7pm and fly back across the Channel.

When we land at Biggin Hill it's only 7pm in England and our chauffeur returns you to the front step of your London hotel by 8.30pm.

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For more ideas about taking time with overnights in Normandy click here

For our D Day virtual tour click here.

NEW FOR 2008

A VERY SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY

We can now combine our Normandy Tours with a further day in Cambridge.

Churchill College is home to the Archives of Sir Winston Churchill and Baroness Margaret Thatcher. We can make an appointment for you to have a tour, guided by one of the senior staff who will show you the actual archives. We would also have a walk around the charming old university city of Cambridge. 

Not far from the college is Madingley American Cemetery and only a few miles south is the magnificent collection of aircraft - from SE5s to the ultrasonic Blackbird - at the Imperial War Museum Duxford.   

The journey is made by road but the Mayfair Dove is available if any party would like to see - from the air - the legendary flat fields of Eastern England, once home to the 8th USAAF. Many old airfields are clearly visible.

For more information it's worth browsing - Stop Press, Churchill College Cambridge, the Special Relationship, Operation Overlord,

Twelve o' Clock High and Our Finest Hour

You can make enquiries and arrange a trip by e-mail, fax or telephone to our representative – Air & Marine Travel Limited of Brewster, New York or to our UK Operations Desk.

Easy Sky Guide

Easy One Day Schedule

PLEASE MAKE BOOKINGS AND ENQUIRIES HERE