Northeast Belgium
Diest’s most charming hotel occupies a turreted mansion that was originally a medieval abbot’s retreat. Central yet very peaceful, it overlooks a canal junction, 200m north of the Grote Markt. Highlights are the superb breakfast room and the two high-ceilinged 'suites'.
Of the four less remarkable standard rooms, the best choice is number 16.
28.97 MILES
The inventive and touchingly nostalgic Hergé Museum celebrates the multitalented creator of comic-strip hero Tintin with an engaging, inventive and…
29.37 MILES
Built above and around the shrine of St Servaas (Servatius), the first bishop of Maastricht, the basilica presents an architectural pastiche whose…
16.95 MILES
Far and away Leuven’s most iconic sight, the incredible 15th-century stadhuis is a late-Gothic architectural wedding cake flamboyantly overloaded with…
25.1 MILES
This soaring, Gothic-vaulted cathedral features a 1723 monumental pulpit, a 1630 Van Dyck crucifixion scene in the south transept, and dozens more fine…
15.84 MILES
One of Europe’s largest open-air museums, Bokrijk Openluchtmuseum offers a nostalgic look at Flanders’ past, with over 100 old buildings originally…
17.31 MILES
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…
0.5 MILES
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…
23.97 MILES
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…
0.08 MILES
St-Sulpitius Church is built in two discordantly different colours of stone. Lacking a substantial tower, its exterior seems oddly thrown together, but…
0.5 MILES
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…
3.17 MILES
This 1609 basilica has a domed roof distinctively dotted with gilded seven-pointed stars that's visible for miles as you approach from the west. The…
10.18 MILES
Ringed by a reflective moat, picture-perfect, medieval Kasteel van Horst enjoys a delightful rural setting. The interior is undergoing long-term…
10.8 MILES
Partly dating to the 13th century, St-Leonarduskerk is topped with a fanciful tower reminiscent of a galleon’s crow’s nest. Miraculously, given Zoutleeuw…
10.82 MILES
Opposite St-Leonarduskerk, the old town hall building is a 19th-century faux-medieval delight with majestic pre-Raphaelite murals in the ground-floor hall…
12.95 MILES
This working collection of four 1930s mechanical wonders is charmingly old-fashioned if far too slow-paced for most modern attention spans. The highlight…
12.98 MILES
The 1258 Begijnhofkerk is fascinating for its wooden barrel-vaulted ceiling and the contrast between sparse elements of contemporary art and the 38…