The Ardennes
Slouching like a great grey dragon high on Bouillon's central rocky ridge, Belgium’s finest feudal castle-ruin harks back to AD 988, but it's especially…
Must-see attractions in Wallonia
Wallonia
This 11th-century church was part of one of Europe’s foremost abbeys, founded in 648. It's 102m long with a soaring multilevel western facade topped with…
Wallonia
Set on the grounds of a former Cistercian Abbey, this 65-hectare park is home to more than 5000 animals (including pandas, koalas, gorillas and lemurs)…
The Ardennes
This highly recommended modern museum takes you into the heart of WWII, with an audio guide featuring four imagined voices of civilian and military…
Wallonia
This superb museum mostly covers Mons' experience of the two world wars, though the constant sieges of this town's turbulent history are also mentioned…
Namur
Dominating the town, Namur's mighty fortress covers a whole hilltop with ramparts, tunnels and grey walls. What you see now is more 19th and 20th century…
The Ardennes
For one of the best industrial-experience tours you'll find anywhere, don a hard hat, jump in the cage lift and descend through a pitch-black moment into…
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…
Wallonia
The inventive and touchingly nostalgic Hergé Museum celebrates the multitalented creator of comic-strip hero Tintin with an engaging, inventive and…
Wallonia
The world’s tallest ship lift (completed in 2002), raising or lowering gigantic ‘baths’ 73 vertical metres, is on a pharaonic scale, as was the €150…
Wallonia
Dominating Tournai’s skyline are the five spires of its remarkable cathedral, which survived WWII bombs only for a freak 1999 tornado to compromise its…
The Ardennes
Some 10km north of St-Hubert towards attractive Nassogne village, Fourneau St-Michel is a superb open-air museum featuring around 50 historic buildings…
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…
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
South of Liège's centre, this excellent gallery hosts many high-profile temporary exhibitions but always shows elements of its own fabulous art collection…
Wallonia
Founded in 1242, this is Belgium’s only medieval convent-farm-hospital complex to have survived reasonably intact. Laboriously restored, it demonstrates…
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…
Wallonia
Inaugurated for the 2015 bicentenary, this showpiece underground museum and visitor centre at the battlefield gives some detail on the background to…
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…
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…
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…
The Ardennes
The scenery west of Bouillon reaches a memorable climax at Rochehaut, where a long balcony surveys a glorious view down across a perfect river curl…
Wallonia
Tournai’s gorgeous triangular main square is ringed with cafes in fine gable-fronted guildhouses merrily flying guild banners. Kids play in ‘dare-you’…
Namur
Baudelaire reputedly described this remarkable baroque church as a ‘sinister and gallant marvel’. With purple marble columns, black stone arches,…
The Ardennes
The once-gigantic church of the Stavelot-Malmédy prince-abbots was destroyed in the aftermath of the French Revolution. But behind the archaeological…
The Ardennes
One of the world's best-known glassworks in the 19th and 20th centuries, Val St-Lambert has made lead-crystal masterpieces within this former monastery…
Wallonia
Nestled in a pretty wooded dell are these extensive, ivy-clad ruins. Once one of Belgium’s biggest monastic complexes, Villers was never rebuilt after the…
Domaine Provincial de Chevetogne
Wallonia
Around 12km north of Rochefort, this 550-hectare park is a wonderland for families. Chevetogne is set with forest trails, a natural-history museum,…
The Ardennes
Hidden beneath partly wooded hills 1.7km southwest of Hotton, the Grottes de Hotton are some of Belgium’s most awesome caves. Sculpted grottoes sprout…
Wallonia
The Lesse tunnels underground for some 8km to form a magnificent cave system that is the region’s biggest tourist draw. Guided visits (English often…
The Ardennes
Few of Belgium’s numerous castles have an interior that beats the memorable Château de Modave. The most arresting of the well-preserved 1673 stucco…
Liège
Built in 1888, this palatial building has a deep-eyed bust of Darwin on its central pediment, best spotted from the river-ferry as it approaches the Pôle…
The Ardennes
A possible starting point for hikes, this impressive information centre 200m west of the Eupen–Bütenbach road has a big hooded fire hearth, a cafe serving…
Wallonia
Chimay’s world-famous Trappist beers have been brewed since the 1860s at austere Abbaye Notre-Dame de Scourmont, 9km south of Chimay. There are no brewery…
The Ardennes
About 4km west of Durbuy, the photogenic Château de Petite Somme is a 13th-century structure with appealing neo-Gothic additions. However, touring the…
The Ardennes
Some of the Ardennes’ best beers are brewed by rapidly expanding La Chouffe ('The Gnome'). The name, and hence the cartoon figures on each label, is a…
Basilique des Saints-Pierre-et-Paul
The Ardennes
This impressive grey stone church has a netting-draped late-Gothic interior with fine 1733 oak choir stalls topped by cross-headed stags. The stag symbols…
