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)…
Must-see attractions in Wallonia
-
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…
-
Wallonia
The inventive and touchingly nostalgic Hergé Museum celebrates the multitalented creator of comic-strip hero Tintin with an engaging, inventive and…
-
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…
-
Wallonia
Founded in 1242, this is Belgium’s only medieval convent-farm-hospital complex to have survived reasonably intact. Laboriously restored, it demonstrates…
-
Wallonia
Inaugurated for the 2015 bicentenary, this showpiece underground museum and visitor centre at the battlefield gives some detail on the background to…
-
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’…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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
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
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…
-
Namur
Baudelaire reputedly described this remarkable baroque church as a ‘sinister and gallant marvel’. With purple marble columns, black stone arches,…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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
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…
-
Wallonia
For 22 days in 1940 the Nazi leader commanded Western Front operations from forest here, 8km south of Couvin. The chalet where he lived has been…
-
Wallonia
Within this lofty, airy, 15th-century Gothic church you'll find the golden reliquary of Ste-Waudru (hanging above the altar) and the fanciful 1782 Car d…
-
Wallonia
Sitting in an artificial lake within a vast manicured park, the Château de Belœil is a regal country palace-house that's packed with classical furniture…
-
Wallonia
Opposite the church and tourist office on the main road in Waterloo itself, this former inn is where Wellington stayed before the battle. The museum,…
-
The Ardennes
The very picturesque Château de Reinhardstein was built in 1354 and restored to archetypal fortress appearance in 1969. Entry is by 75-minute guided tours…
-
Wallonia
This sizeable complex occupies a mine site where a horrific accident killed 262 miners in 1956. A gripping multilingual video commemorates that; admission…
-
Namur
In its later guises, the fortress moved the majority of its key installations underground. Fascinating visits, by tour only, walk you through some 500m of…
-
Wallonia
Waterloo’s most arresting sight is a steep, grassy cone topped by a massive bronze lion. It commemorates, incredibly, not victory nor the glorious dead…
-
The Ardennes
Well worth the 1km detour if you're driving between Eupen and Verviers (turn south at Dolhain), Limbourg is one of Belgium's most delightful historic…
-
Wallonia
Though sparse on sights, this vast, unadorned 1818 citadel looms menacingly on its clifftop, offering toe-curling views high over town. The entrance price…
-
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…
