The Ardennes
Playing a 21st-century Willy Wonka, one of Belgium’s foremost chocolatiers has turned his modern factory into a superb interactive museum experience. Walk…
Must-see attractions in Belgium
Bruges
Towering 83m above the square like a gigantic medieval rocket is this fabulous 13th-century belfry. There’s relatively little to see inside, but it’s…
Wallonia
This classic fortified farm is around 20 minutes’ walk southwest of the Butte du Lion. Had Napoleon broken through here early in the battle, everything…
Liège
Splendid Grand Curtius unites four disparate museum collections in the former mansion-warehouse of a 16th-century Liège arms dealer. The building's red…
Ghent
Ghent’s Unesco-listed 14th-century belfry (91m) is topped by a large dragon weathervane: he's become something of a city mascot. You’ll meet two previous…
West Flanders
This is an unusually light-hearted WWI attraction. Reverend Philip ‘Tubby’ Clayton set up the Everyman’s Club here in 1915 to offer rest and recreation…
Northeast Belgium
One of Europe’s largest open-air museums, Bokrijk Openluchtmuseum offers a nostalgic look at Flanders’ past, with over 100 old buildings originally…
Ghent
Styled like a Greek temple, this superb 1903 fine-art gallery introduces a veritable A–Z of great Belgian and other Low Countries' painters from the 14th…
West Flanders
Probably the most-visited Salient site, this is the world’s biggest British Commonwealth war cemetery, with 11,956 graves. A huge semicircular wall…
Museumtuin Kasteel van Gaasbeek
Belgium
Originally built to guard the medieval Brabant–Flanders border, 14km southwest of Brussels, angry locals burnt down this castle in 1388 in response to the…
Ostend
Ostend’s most striking historical building features beautifully ornate twin spires, a rose window and a gloomy neo-Gothic interior. It was consecrated on…
Leuven
This idyllic, village-like corner of Leuven would make an ideal film set for a medieval drama. The lantern-lit cobbled streets are lined with step-gabled…
Northeast Belgium
Centred on a 14th-century church and sporting a few artists’ studio-galleries, this picturesque village-within-a-village is a five-street grid of lovely…
Wallonia
One of Europe’s biggest and most impressive photography museums, it has an engrossing collection of historic, contemporary and artistic prints. Don’t miss…
Wallonia
Started in 1785, this tiny affair is Belgium’s last traditional steam-operated brewery. This wonderfully authentic family enterprise is best known for its…
Langemark Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof
West Flanders
The Salient's largest German WWI cemetery is smaller than Tyne Cot but arguably more memorable, amid oak trees and trios of squat, mossy crosses. Some 44…
Antwerp
Styled as a 16th-century town house, this superb place was actually constructed in 1904 as one of the first museums in the world built around a single…
Northeast Belgium
Hidden behind big wooden gates, one of Belgium’s loveliest begijnhoven loops round a long, narrow garden set with a grotto, church and religious statues…
Northeast Belgium
Originally founded in 1258, this Unesco site is one of Belgium’s prettiest 'street' begijnhoven, a picture-perfect grid of cobbled lanes lined with…
Wallonia
Originally set out in the 17th century by the dukes of Arenberg, the Parc d’Enghien incorporates vast stands of woodland, fountains, statues, a tiny …
Liège
Arguably Liège's most fascinating church, this architectural hotchpotch was founded in 1015 and retains a heavily patched-up 1170 west end whose…
West Flanders
The unusual 1950 IJzertoren is built of drab purple-brown brick and topped with power-station-style windows. This colossal 84m-high ‘peace’ tower is at…
Brussels
A not-for-profit gallery in a former banana warehouse, founded in 1989 to promote video art that engages with politics. In addition to changing temporary…
Ypres
Every night at 8pm, traffic through the Menin Gate is halted while buglers sound the Last Post in remembrance of the WWI dead, a moving tradition started…
Wallonia
This cave system has fewer stalactites than nearby Han, and handling the 626 relatively steep steps is more physical. However, the small-group visits give…
Liège-Guillemins Train Station
Liège
Liège's main train station, around 2km south of the centre, is an incredible 2009 icon designed by Santiago Calatrava. Great for semi-abstract landscape…
Bruges
Just east of the Markt, the less theatrical but still enchanting Burg has been Bruges' administrative centre for centuries. It's in this area you'll find…
Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917
West Flanders
Within the grounds of Kasteelpark Zonnebeke you'll find this polished WWI museum charting local battle progressions with plenty of multilingual…
Northeast Belgium
With 7000 sq metres of dolls, teddies, toys, games and other pastimes, the wonderful Speelgoedmuseum has lots to keep the kids busy. Meanwhile, adults can…
Ostend
The impenetrable, pentagon-shaped Fort Napoleon is an unusually intact fortress dating from 1812, though there’s comparatively little to see inside. The…
Brussels
Wonderful old engines gleam in the low light of this imaginative and beautiful museum, located in the renovated 1887 Schaerbeek station: exhibits include…
Bruges
Around 10km south of Bruges, Kasteel van Loppem is a mid-19th-century brick castle-mansion which had its moment of fame at the end of WWI when it was…
Belgian Coast
This superb museum occupies the house and studio of Paul Delvaux (1897–1994), one of Belgium's most famous surrealist artists. What appears to be a…
Bruges
Bruges’ delightful begijnhof dates from the 13th century. Despite the hordes of summer tourists, remains a remarkably tranquil haven. Outside the 1776…
Namur
Baudelaire reputedly described this remarkable baroque church as a ‘sinister and gallant marvel’. With purple marble columns, black stone arches,…
Ypres
A block east of Grote Markt, the famous Menin Gate is a huge stone gateway straddling the main road at the city moat. It's inscribed with the names of 54…
Brussels
The Kuumba Cultural Centre organises tours of the district, plus excellent events featuring Congolese bands, dance workshops and food.
Ypres
One of Ypres' most attractive military graveyards, this Commonwealth War Graves Commission site is found 1km south of the Grote Markt.
Brussels
When opened in 1847 by King Léopold I, the glorious Galeries St-Hubert formed Europe’s very first shopping arcade. Many enticing shops lie behind its…
The Ardennes
A Cistercian monastery since 1132, Orval's abbey complex was wrecked in 1793 by anti-religious French Revolutionary soldiers. Rebuilding only started in…
