Ardennes (Bastogne)

Top things to do in Ardennes (Bastogne)

1. 01

   Bastogne War Museum and the Mardasson Memorial - the Battle of the Bulge

   history culture arts 👍 Popular

   The museum tells the December 1944 encirclement through four real people, a local schoolboy among them, and hands you a headset that follows each of them through the siege. Beside it stands the Mardasson: a huge star-shaped colonnade carved with the names of the American states, with a stair to the roof and the battlefield spread out around it.

2. 02

   Bastogne Barracks - McAuliffe's headquarters and the Nuts Cave

   history

   The army barracks on the edge of town holds the cellar where General McAuliffe answered the German surrender demand with a single word. Guided visits also take in a vast hall of restored wartime vehicles, tanks and half-tracks that the army still works on. Visits run at set times with a guide, so book ahead.

3. 03

   Bois Jacques - Easy Company's foxholes above Foy

   history ⭐ Highly recommended

   A block of pine forest a short drive north of Bastogne where the 101st dug in through the coldest winter in decades. The foxholes are still there, shallow saucers under the trees, marked and otherwise left alone. Twenty quiet minutes here lands harder than any museum, and the fields of Foy show through the trunks.

4. 04

   Chateau de Bouillon - Godfrey's fortress above the Semois

   history scenic 👍 Popular

   A long spine of stone above a hairpin bend in the river, first raised by the duke who mortgaged it to fund the First Crusade and rebuilt by Vauban centuries later. Rock-cut passages, a deep well shaft and a birds-of-prey display inside; the best view of the whole thing is from the belvedere on the far bank.

5. 05

   Grottes de Han - the river caves at Han-sur-Lesse

   nature wildlife adventure 👍 Popular

   The Lesse vanishes into a hillside and comes out the far side, and an old tram carries you up to walk back down through the chambers it carved: enormous halls, a sound-and-light finish and a boat out to daylight. A wildlife reserve of European bison, lynx and wolves shares the same estate.

6. 06

   Hautes Fagnes - boardwalks over Belgium's high peat bog

   nature wildlife scenic hiking ⭐ Highly recommended

   An open moor of heather, cotton grass and stunted birch on the plateau at the region's northern edge, crossed by long duckboard paths and topped by the Signal de Botrange, the highest ground in the country. Access runs on a fire-risk colour code and whole sections close in dry or high-risk spells, so check before driving out.

7. 07

   The Lesse - kayak down to Dinant

   adventure nature wildlife

   The classic Ardennes paddle: a bus up to Houyet or Gendron, then a slow, shallow float back through the woods to Anseremme, passing under the Chateau de Walzin on its cliff. Easy enough for families in summer when water levels allow, and closed outside the warm months.

8. 08

   La Roche-en-Ardenne - the ruined keep above the Ourthe

   history scenic

   A small town wrapped inside a hairpin of the river with a broken castle on the crag over it, reached by a lane of stairs. Kayaks launch from the bridge, a Battle of the Ardennes museum sits in the centre, and the ridge road north gives the best look back down at the loop.

9. 09

   Durbuy - the smallest city in the world

   history food

   A knot of grey stone lanes, a private castle and a jam works on a bend of the Ourthe, granted city rights in 1331 and never grown since. It trades hard on the title and fills at weekends, but early or late in the day it is genuinely lovely, with a topiary park on the slope above.

10. 10

    Orval and Rochefort - the Ardennes Trappist abbeys

    food history

    Two of the world's handful of Trappist breweries sit in these forests. Orval's ruined medieval abbey can be walked, with its legend of a wedding ring returned by a trout, while Rochefort's is closed to visitors and best met in a glass in the village. Neither runs a brewery tour.

11. 11

    Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps - Eau Rouge and the forest track

    adventure scenic

    The great road circuit of northern Europe runs through the trees at the top of the region, with Eau Rouge climbing hard away from the old Ardennes highway. Outside race weekends there are guided track walks and driving days, and the public roads that once formed part of the lap are still there to drive.

Getting to & around Ardennes (Bastogne)

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