Written by James Matsuoka
Last month, WWII history enthusiast James Matsuoka sent his expert review of various companies that run World War II tours in Europe, the Pacific, Africa, and the US. He followed up with some travel hacks, especially for those heading to Europe.
Book Back-to-Back Trips: Whenever possible, I try to book my WWII tours back-to-back (they don’t have to be with the same company) with only one or two days between tours, to save on my international airfare. I have been pretty successful at it, with about a quarter of my tours taking this way.
Piggyback on Viking: Another thing I look for is if Viking River Cruises has a cruise that I can take back-to-back with a WWII tour. On some of the Viking River Cruises, they’ll offer free international airfare. You have to book your own intra-European airline flights.
As an example, I took the National WWII Museum’s Megastructure tour with Viking’s Budapest to Bucharest Cruise. Viking paid for my ticket from San Francisco to Munich. I bought my own ticket from Munich to Hamburg to join the tour. The tour ended in Warsaw and I bought a ticket from Warsaw to Budapest to join the cruise. I paid a couple of hundred dollars for both flights. When the cruise ended in Bucharest, Viking paid for my trip home, Budapest to San Francisco. Also note, Viking charges you $100 fee for a flight deviation. So far i’ve been able to do three cruise/tour back-to-backs.
Use TracesofWar.com: With the extra day(s) either before or between tours, I use the tracesofwar.com website to visit other WWII related museums, memorials, or sights on my own or with other people on my WWII tours. When you go to the website, type in the city you’re going to. It will list the local independent tour guides. In their short bios, they give their tour specialties, what they charge by the car load or per person, half or full day tours, etc. This might be especially useful if you have a lot of places to go from the tracesofwar website, especially if they’re far apart. It might be easier and/or cheaper than a taxi cab.
Pack an Old Gift Card: If you have a couple of old plastic gift cards or old hotel card keys, bring them with you. At most European hotels, your hotel key turns on the power to your room. By bringing your old gift card/hotel card key, you can insert it into the power on slot so you can recharge the batteries to your camera, cell phone, etc., while eating dinner and/or breakfast. Sometimes two business cards will also work. Warning, in 2023, in Italy, I stayed at a hotel that has a chip in their room key, requiring their hotel room key to keep the room’s power on.
Pack a Wash Cloth: Some European hotels do not offer face towels so you might want to bring one or two with you. I also bring my own bar soap as I find the European hotel’s liquid shower soap hard to rinse off. Some of the hotels will give you a small bar of soap for the bathroom sink.
