Following an ancestor’s front line from a balloon
Many of our visitors from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand come to the Westhoek for one reason: a great-grandfather or great-uncle who served here. They have a name, a regiment and perhaps a date, and want to see the ground.
A balloon flight cannot take you to a particular trench, but it can show you the shape of the landscape he knew: the ridges, the low ground, the farms and the villages. Together with a visit on foot, it makes the history much easier to place. It is part of our balloon flight over the Ypres battlefields.
How to plan it
1. Find where he served
Service records, regimental war diaries and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database can tell you the unit, the date and often the sector.
2. Visit the place on foot
Go to the cemetery, memorial or stretch of ground. The In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres and the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 in Zonnebeke can help with context.
3. See the whole landscape
Fly early in your stay. Tell us which area interests you, and we will say honestly what is possible on the day.
What we can and cannot do
We can launch from Ypres, Poperinge or Zonnebeke, depending on the wind and your area of interest, and tell you which direction we are likely to drift. We cannot steer a balloon: it moves with the wind, at the altitude where the pilot finds a good wind. So we can never promise a flight over one particular spot.
What we can promise is a quiet, unhurried flight of at least 60 minutes over a landscape that still carries the marks of the war: crater ponds, faint trench lines, bunkers and cemeteries.
A gift for family abroad
A gift voucher is valid for 24 months and is ordered entirely online, so it also works for relatives who live abroad and plan to visit the Westhoek later. For a family group, consider a private flight so you can fly together. Shared flights cost €170 per person for 1–2 people and €165 per person from 3 people (children under 12: €130), including insurance, taxes, VAT and champagne after the flight.
- Briefing and guidance available in English
- Launch sites at Ypres, Poperinge and Zonnebeke, in the middle of the former front
- Flights shortly after sunrise or just before sunset
- Champagne after the flight, and a flight certificate as a keepsake
More detail on the landscape in trenches, craters and bunkers from the air and war cemeteries from a balloon.
A balloon drifts with the wind, so we cannot promise a particular spot. We can choose between launch sites depending on the wind and tell you honestly what is likely on the day.
Yes. A gift voucher is valid for 24 months and is ordered entirely online, so it can be given to someone who plans to visit the Westhoek later.
Yes. Our briefing and guidance are available in English.
