Battlefield Tours by Coach

For the last 40 years or so I have been involved in coach travel in some shape or form - from 70 seaters to 16 seater coaches, vans and buses. This all first started when I lived in Newcastle upon Tyne, in the North East of England, way back in the 1980s when my passion to follow Newcastle United football club was unquestionable. I was struggling for money back then to go to the games and was introduced to the world of football stewarding on the coaches. It was fantastic! I could travel around England for 9 months a year as a steward on a football coach, learning the ropes of what is called now a Tour Manager - a brilliant intro to what life would turn out to be.

Travel England Coach Tours

Fast forward 40 years.... My travels since then, from those innocent days, have taken me all over the world, living and working in some of the most beautiful and hostile locations known to mankind. Take that experience now and implement it into coach travel for Battlefield Tours with 50 plus people - it's a perfect fit. Travel England Tours (or TET) have toured with our coach operator to The Somme battlefields, Americas Normandy D-Day landings, Ypres Salient Western front, Verdun and Dunkirk to D-day tours.

I ran my first Normandy battlefield tour 25 years ago for some friends out of London England and we visited the Normandy D-day sites for 5 days. My love of battlefield touring began then and the seed was planted. I also run about 12-14 private battlefield tours a year in my V class 7 seater Mercedes van. When touring with a full coach it is full on, and I absolutely love it to be fair.  We would normally travel from England to France with pick up points en route to collect our clients and then arrive at the docks. Passport control, on and off the coach, getting on board the ferry or ship depending what port in France we are sailing to - whilst keeping every body reliably sober!  then getting back on the coach and the crossing from Dover is around two hours or five hours from Portsmouth. Then the head count, every body back on board, the coach back through French customs and we are off to our destination.

We actually lost someone on a crossing from Dover to Calais, who ended up very drunk ending up in the hull of the ship! We got him back after an hour of waiting in the car park, after the ship docked.... needless to say he was not the flavour of the month when he got back on the coach. 

Checking everybody into the hotel, I would normally ring ahead to have all the room keys and paper work ready for when we arrive. I allocate the rooms, then the check in job is done. Sometimes your work is not over though if people arrive back at the hotel a little drunk from there first night out. It can happen, but very rarely!

The Day's Touring by Coach

The first day of touring, depending on which tour it is, WWI or WWII, and the location we are in the tour can change due to time of year, topography and weather. We will always take packed lunches on board the bus for everybody, which will keep everyone together at lunch time.

For a full day's touring, the coach would normally have two drivers and two battlefield guides on board. Normally we would have between 30-45 minutes at each stand or location. When touring on a coach, the second guide will act as the tour manager and take command on the mic on the coach, relaying relevant information on the areas and locations as we drive through. The main guide would lead on the stands with his insight and knowledge on the action, or the battle that took place in this area, with lots of questions being answered along the way.

We arrange dinner at night in a hotel restaurant, pub or cafe - all organised by us at TET. Full itineraries are emailed to each person with the full tour, locations we will visit and hospital information if needed. We also suggest movies to watch and possible books to read to give a greater understanding on the locations we visit and the action which took place there.

The First Six Months of Touring in 2024

Hello and welcome to Travel England Tours and our new blog - starting with the first 6 months of touring in 2024. 

The winter months always are slow in the tour/guiding industry. We normally have November to February off touring and start back to work in March. The winter months are when we take new bookings, amend tours, the website etc… and develop your itineraries. 

The Start of the Tour Season

We started our 2024 season in January 2024 with a couple of battlefield tours. We travelled to Arnhem in Holland to follow the path of Airborne and land attack in Operation Market Garden, which was a private tour. We stayed in Brussels and started at Joes Bridge, travelled on the Hells Highway, Nijmegen and Eindhoven. We finished off in Arnheim Holland, where we spent 2 days and nights touring the battle locations and staying next to the bridge in Arnheim, which gives a sense of what would happen there in September 1944.

We then went up to the Ardennes forest in Belgium, where we toured for 3 days around the Battle of the Bulge in The Ardennes forest area. As we visited these locations in January, you got a real feel for the fox holes and positions where the allies dug in and the German counter attacks in the freezing cold.

Battlefield Tours in March

March is always a busy month for us - we run our yearly Battlefield tour from the North East of England to a different location every year. This year was Normandy D Day the 80th anniversary, where we had a 52 seat coach full. We stayed In Caen in Normandy and toured for 3 days around the 5 beaches, Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah.

We visited the numerous sites, villages and locations inland from the beach, in the British, American, and Canadian sectors in Normandy France, and had a brilliant time of it. Previous tours have been on the Somme battlefield, staying in Arras France and Ypres Salient and the Western Front staying in Ypres Belgium.  

A Busy April, May and June in Various Countries

April was a good steady month of touring, mainly in the Cotswolds and London this year. We changed our business plan in 2024, and opened new areas of business such as Northumberland, (Roman Wall) etc,  the Cotswolds and London.

May was a hectic month of touring and for transfers. Using four to five different tour guides on a daily basis -  we were completely booked out with tours in various countries - England, Scotland, Wales, France and Belguim. 

June was again full on - which you cannot complain about!  We had multiple tour guides out working and chauffeurs on throughout the month.

The areas mostly covered in England and Scotland were the Yorkshire Dales, Northumberland, the Lake District, Devon and Cornwall, the Cotswolds, the Scottish border areas and the Peak district, with LHR collections and drop offs from our chauffeurs. All these areas are well trodden paths for Travel England Tours. 

Numerous Great Tours in July

July we have also been very busy throughout the month. We have visited Blenheim palace and Sir Winston Churchill's grave on numerous tours this month.

The beautiful village of Castle Combe in the Cotswold is also popular with our clients. We have had a  couple of great tours to Normandy this month as well. We changed our accommodation this time and stayed at Ouistreham the port of Caen which was an excellent location to stay. 

We will be posting a monthly blog about our tours and the locations which we have visited over the previous months.

We have had a very busy few months so far this year, with lots more to come before we finish in November 2024.

Privacy Policy

Purpose of this privacy notice

To inform you how we look after your personal data when you visit our website, regardless of where you visit it from.

To inform you of your privacy rights and how the data protection law protects you.

To inform you how collect and process your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website when you sign up to our newsletter, use our contact us form, use our tour booking form, purchasing a product or service or take part in a competition.

We advise you to read this privacy policy together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy policy supplements our other policies and is not intended to override them.

This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

Data controller

Ian Rutherford is the controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as Travel England Tours, “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy policy). Our contact details are:

For all data control matters contact our Data Controller using these details: admin@travelenglandtours.com ,

Third-party links outside of our control

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy policy statements.

When using a third party link on our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of the third party website visited.

PERSONAL DATA INORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person is able to be identified.

We may collect, use, store, transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

• Identity Data including First Name, Last Name, Username, Title.
• Contact Data including Billing Address, Delivery Address, Email Address, Telephone Numbers
• Aggregated Data including statistical or demographic data which we may collect, use and share for any purpose. Aggregated data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does notdirectly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your usage data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect aggregated data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (eg race,ethnicity etc), nor criminal conviction or offences information.

If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect your personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

• You may give us your identity, contact and financial data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you enquire about or book our services
• Submit booking forms or contact forms via our website
• Subscribe to our service or publications
• Provide a review of our services either directly to us or via a 3^rd party website
• Enter a competition, promotion or survey
• Photographs whilst using our services on a tour (with your prior permission)
• Request marketing information to be sent to you

HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Usually, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• Performance of Contract: eg processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.
• Legitimate Interest: eg in interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law).
• Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation: eg processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.

Usually we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us via the contact details in the data control section near the top of this document.

PURPOSES FOR USING YOUR PERSONAL DATA

Below is a list all the ways we plan to use your personal data, with the legal bases we rely on to do so.

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

Marketing

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising.

We have established the following personal data control mechanisms:

Promotional offers from us : We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you.

You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased goods or services from us or if you provided us with your details when you entered a competition or registered for a promotion and, in each case, you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.

Third-party marketing : We will not share your personal data with any company outside of Travel England Tours.

Opting out : You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any point in time.

Where you opt out of receiving marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product/service purchase or other transactions.

Cookies: You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our Cookie Policy.

Change of purpose: We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

WHO WE SHARE/DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL DATA WITH

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table above.

• Internal Third Parties who provide additional services for our business, such as additional drivers or guides
• External Third Parties Services eg PayPal for invoice purposes, or attraction bookings if requested for us to prebook on your behalf.
• Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in the UK who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
• HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
• Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER OF INFORMATION

We share your personal data within the company. This will involve transferring your data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

Some of our external third parties are based outside the European Economic Area (EEA) so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the EEA.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by implementing safeguards.

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the EEA.

DATA SECURITY

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed.  Your personal data is only available to employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who only have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

If we suspect a personal data breach we will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

DATA RETENTION

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

By law we have to keep basic information about our customers for seven years after the relevant tax year for tax purposes

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data.  See below: Your legal rights

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

Unless subject to an exemption under the data protection laws, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

• The right to request a copy of the personal data which we hold about you;
• The right to request that we correct any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date;
• The right to request that your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary to retain such data;
• The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time, where consent was the lawful basis for processing your data;
• The right to request that we provide you with your personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), where applicable eg where our processing is based on consent or is necessary for the performance of our contract with you or where we process your data by automated means);
• The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing;
• The right to object to our processing of personal data, where applicable eg where processing is based on our legitimate interests (or in performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority); direct marketing or processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics).

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us using the contact details under the Data Controller section near the top of this document.

No fee required – with some exceptions

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable admin fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure meant to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVICY POLICY AND YOUR DUTY TO INFORM US OF CHANGES

This version was last updated on 13/05/19

Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current.

CONTACT FOR QUERIES, REQUESTS OR CONCERNS

To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints in relation to this policy or any other data protection matter between you and us, please in the first instance contact our Data Protection Officer on the above details.

If this does not resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, England, UK tel: 03031231113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ .