Click here for our one day Normandy D Day Tour

WHAT OUR VISITORS SAY...

‘This was my third and most meaningful trip to Normandy. Seeing it by air really put things in perspective for me. You are a great guide and delightful people to spend the day with.’ ......

Visitor from San Antonio, Texas.

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* LOOK BEFORE YOU BOOK *

The Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach and the Mulberry Harbour are only 2 hours from London with our Normandy D Day Air/Land Tour

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TRAVEL TIPS FOR AMERICANS AND CANADIANS

The Mayfair Dove at her home airfield, Biggin Hill, Kent.

EASY WAYS TO PAY LESS - APART FROM THE BARGAIN POUND

A lady perusing our website, exclaimed, ' It looks wonderful but definitely expensive.'

Although taking a private ride in a small commercial aircraft is not cheap, we do our best to operate at prices which might tempt a reasonably comfortable family. How do we manage this?

Our safe, luxurious, twin-engine propeller driven aircraft are more versatile, smoother through bumpy skies, yet cost a great deal less to operate than small jets. Compare our prices with any private hire jet operator. Secondly, we charge only the actual cost of your tour, rather than Central London prices including hidden commissions. Our visitors pay simply the real cost of a family holiday exploring the magnificent landscapes of the British Isles and neighbouring Continent.

Private tours are the best way to travel. You can start when you want, see whatever you wish, travel as a family, special interest group or simply tour with friends, moreover have somebody extremely knowledgeable guiding your days. In Great Britain all properly qualified guides belong to the Institute of Tourist Guiding. Private guides are not cheap but will amaze you with their detailed knowledge.

Our guides served alongside many who landed by parachute and glider during the night or waded from the sea on the morning of D Day. Our guides also served with a surprising number of the team at 10 Downing Street who toiled - literally - around the clock for Winston Churchill whose eccentric hours and diet were legendary. This helps enormously when trying to bring alive that ' longest day ' through a tour of the Normandy D Day sites. We also draw upon never-ending research and personal experience of several wars and great political events during the last 40 years.

Less than hour after take off - young Americans approaching the Orne River Bridge and the Pegasus Bridge.

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GO NATIVE AND MAKE THOSE DOLLARS GO FURTHER

Overseas visitors arriving in London normally book private tours at their hotel front desk. Consequently almost every hotel guest pays double the real cost of their private tour. This is because the hotel front desk and the tour company split fifty per cent of the brochure price between themselves, leaving the balance to cover the guide's expenses and time. Guides who drive their own cars must cover the cost of petrol through tips - not so easy these days at $ 8 a gallon. Meals, museum and gallery tickets, also parking are charged as extras by the tour companies.

In fairness, the hotel front desks act as a sales force on behalf of the tour companies, thus your concierges deserve reward. They also have enviable, up-to-date knowledge of places to see, where to eat, and the best shows.

You do not always need a guided tour. You will find that the staff at places such as Saint Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London have a vast knowledge which they are happy to share with overseas visitors. Windsor Castle has a wonderful staff who know a great deal about the rooms and works of art throughout the castle - which the Queen looks upon as her real home. Don't be shy, ask questions.

London's busses and tubes are frequent and cheap with special deals for tourists. Buy an Oyster card and take it home after your trip - because you can top it up like a phone card ready for your next visit. The new mayor, Boris Johnson, continues the improvements started by Ken Livingstone, the first and previous Mayor of Greater London. Not to be confused with the Lord Mayor of the old City of London.

When the weather is fine the best way to see the heart of London is by cruising down the Thames on one of the many pleasure boats. You can reach Hampton Court along the river by pleasure cruiser although the trip takes as long as when Henry VIII made the same voyage. There is a regular water bus service from Westminster pier - beside the big wheel - down river to the Tower of London and Greenwich. Nothing beats cruising through London and passing under Tower Bridge. You will discover that a pleasure boat skipper matches any tour guide for knowledge combined with the gift of the gab. Again, not expensive, and fun for the whole family.

Londoners tend to walk everywhere in the West End and City. When I'm up in Town for an event at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, lecture at the Royal United Services Institute, or simply meeting somebody at my club, upon leaving the station I walk. And I'm typical. The grandest views in London can only be reached on foot, such as Buckingham Palace and the Horseguards Parade from the bridge over the lake in Saint James's Park.

OMAHA BEACH

The main cost of our tours is the flying - our aerial tour brings the D Day beaches into sharp perspective thereby significantly enhancing the ground tour. The same logic applies to all our tours.

We try to keep prices stable. Only dramatic alterations to the rate of exchange for the Euro and Swiss Franc or erratic fuel prices impact on our tour costs. We quote in pounds sterling and once you make a firm booking, short of the odd international crisis, we hold that quoted price.

Our track record on this front is good, despite bankers and politicians, we've managed to keep our tour prices steady for the last three years. Families book months in advance because they know the price quoted for a tour is unlikely to change.

Booking with us will save you hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars, compared with the prices charged by operators who attempt to copy our tours. Occasionally we still see people taking a copy tour for a thousand dollars more than we charge - same places, same planes, same pilots - but escorts rather than military veterans as guides. You can't teach experience.

For once the best actually costs less.

The white cliffs of Dover - as Julius Caesar first saw them but Napoleon and Hitler never did, not even as tourists - we also take small groups by sea and road with a very comfortable private bus. When the weather is good you can sit on deck for the whole sea crossing.

We can take you over to Normandy by ferry and road - this requires at least one overnight. We sail from Portsmouth or Dover - if from the latter we suggest two overnight stays in France, allowing time for visits to the battlefields of Agincourt and Crecy. Portsmouth is home for the Royal Navy and HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar.

We can extend your day tour of Normandy with overnight stays at a very reasonable price.

Our Normandy air tour brings the D Day landing grounds and beaches within a day trip from hotels in Central London. That's the second money saving advice - there's a lot of life going on beyond Central London.

Previously tours to Normandy required at least 3 to 4 days. Many families fly over to Normandy and the Channel Islands by private plane; what sets apart British Sky Tours is the spectacular aerial tour and the deeper understanding this gives our visitors. Apart from you enjoying a good holiday, our tandem purpose at British Sky Tours is to make travel and history fun, thereby helping all generations though especially the young to understand the past, how sometimes humanity's fate hangs in the balance. And there are lessons for today. Nothing is impossible - no matter how fearsome the odds - when good friends stick together.

TOUR PRICES ON THE INTERNET

Nowadays, more and more private tours are booked over the Internet long before arrival at any hotel in London.

Overseas visitors who book with London private tour operators via the Internet are charged the full brochure price. There is no saving for the visitor through booking on the Internet because the tour operator simply keeps the whole fifty per cent of the brochure price that otherwise goes to the concierge team on the front desk.

Many guides who belong to the Institute of Tourist Guiding work independently and take bookings over the Internet. These guides pass on the full benefit of booking over the Internet. For more information have a look at www.itg.org.uk

We never sell our tours across hotel front desks. We talk direct with you the client. Our tours are priced on the actual costs; aircraft, cars, guides and so forth. There is no ' across the desk ' price, thus you won't pay hidden percentages. There are no extras, no taxes, no tips. We buy you lunch, we pay for tickets at museums.

That's why we can take a group of four people on a day sky tour of Normandy for the same price as a tour operator charges when flying across two people with effectively, an escort rather than an experienced sky guide, sometimes only the pilot.

CHECK THOSE CREDENTIALS

You may see the term ' military expert ' used by tour operators. This term is a compliment when volunteered by the heavyweight media about an academic writer but otherwise treat with scepticism. Such guides often have no military experience let alone any exposure to combat. There are several excellent tour companies whose guides really are retired from the Armed Forces.

Some tour operators also claim to have ' trained ' their guides for aerial tours. To bring some perspective all involved with British Sky Tours were trained by the Armed Forces of Britain and the United States. We all spent many years putting our training into practise, sometimes under lively circumstances. Our pilots trained jumbo jet captains for British Airways.

Our backgrounds are given at our Air Adviser, our Guides, our Team. How we drew from our combined experience and created British Sky Tours is described at the Sky Tours Story which gives our credentials for taking you and your children flight-seeing and touring.

Our approach and sample prices are found at the Easy Sky Guide and Easy Aircraft Guide with links to sample tour schedules. We believe you must demand only the highest levels of competence before offering tours where a famous place or event first is explained from the air before exploring on the ground.

We know from all the people who have taken our Normandy D Day tour that it's a special trip, for many the trip of a lifetime, often to celebrate a treasured anniversary, a birthday or just a long nurtured wish. Only the best will do for such occasions.

We want our visitors to gain the most possible from their tours. You'll find lots of briefing on this website - we want you to know as much as possible before boarding the aircraft. Do read the pre-flight briefing pages about the planning of D Day. We want you to know as much as possible beforehand thus making your time with us all the more worthwhile.

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RED CARPET TREATMENT FOR YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS

While our air/land tours are not unique - we've seen such claims - we've been operating for ten years and like to think our team are second to none.

Once you set foot on these islands, British Sky Tours take care of your family and friends with the same kind of comfort, safety, convenience and relaxed efficiency that we provided for the Royal Family and Prime Ministers during our previous careers. So just relax and enjoying being treated like royalty.

We specialise in private air travel and tours designed for families, friends, staff, clients and academic institutions. We show you those places off the usual tourist trails, places we know from living in the countries over many years. You can book our services as a part of your holiday or just for a short trip. We can fly you wherever you wish in Europe, meet you in Normandy or Switzerland, whatever suits your plans.

Less than a morning from London though requiring an overnight - fly alongside the Swiss Alps.

More at our Tours and Touring pages.

We are sometimes asked about deposits. As a rule we do not take deposits - although you are welcome to pay one if you wish. Instead, once a customer has confirmed their intention to travel, we take a credit card details - although at that stage no money off the card - just to cover us against a last minute cancellation other than for reasons of force majeure.

Our USA agent is Barry Hyatt, whose company was established on Manhattan Island in 1932. Barry has many years experience in the travel business and we regard his representation of our tours as a great compliment.

Why not treat your family, your colleagues, your clients, indeed yourself.

Safe Hands

Bill Pritchard and Dave Frost are former British Airways jumbo jet training captains,

both own pilot's log books showing five years in the sky at the controls of big airliners.

You can make enquiries and book all our tours - air, Chunnel/ferry and road - through ourselves in Sedlescombe, East Sussex, UK and through our agent, Barry Hyatt CTC of Air & Marine Travel in Brewster, New York, USA.

You are very welcome to email post@britishskytours.com or airmartrav@suscom.net for more information.

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FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND OUR WEBSITE

Tours with overnight stays are offered by Channel Tunnel, ferry and road.

Our team, our guides and Air Adviser

How we operate is found at the Easy Sky Guide

For sample tour prices glance at the Easy Aircraft Guide

We always quote - please feel welcome to email for price quotes.

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ABOUT BRITISH SKY TOURS

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We're steadily adding history and opinion pages