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
Playing a 21st-century Willy Wonka, one of Belgium’s foremost chocolatiers has turned his modern factory into a superb interactive museum experience. Walk…
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…
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…
