Five Day Small Group Tour of Walloon and Southern Belgium

• Add to my wishlist

Want to tour the back roads of Belgium's Walloon region but don't want to join a large coach group? Looking for a little flexibility and spontaneity in your itinerary? Do you have a few days to really get deep into the countryside?

Belgium's southern, French-speaking provinces are a real undiscovered gem. Within an amazingly short distance (Belgium is not much more than 200 kilometers from border to border), you can visit scenic attractions that vary from gentle undulating farmland to river valley and forests. See chateaux as sumptuous as those you'd see on the Loire, gardens to rival any in the world, castles and forts, medieval towns and the quaintest villages. There are major war sites from the Napoleonic, First and Second World Wars, museums and art galleries and fine shopping.

To cap it all, the food and wine is as you'd expect in a region with strong Gaullic influences - the French tradition abounds - but with the distinctly Belgium additions of beer and chocolate.

With a maximum group size of 11 and a university educated guide/driver, you are sure to have a memorable and personal experience.

Five Day Small Group Tour of Walloon and Southern Belgium

• June 23
• August 04

Day One:

Your tour begins at London's Eurostar terminal where you board the train for Lille. A short drive from Lille brings you to the first stop, Beloeil Castle. This stately, fortified chateau, home to the Princes of Ligne for hundreds of years, boasts a sumptuous interior (with over twenty-thousand volumes!) and the largest garden in the country. Lunch here before carrying on to Mons this afternoon. Mons is mostly remembered as the point at which the British Army first encountered the Germans in 1914, and as the first Belgium town liberated by US forces in the Second World War. There are several interesting monuments and museums to be see. What the city is not instantly associates with is the particularly fine contemporary arts museum, Grand-Hornu. This remarkable design center is set in a former 19th century colliery, built as a village by the socialistically inclined Henri De George (following the paternalistic tradition of early entrepreneurs like Wedgewood, Lord Lever and Robert Owen).

Day Two:

Today you will explore the Valley of the River Meuse, beginning with the pretty town of Dinant, with its citadel dominating the hilltop, lovely church and traditional shopping street. One of your taste treats of the day will be the Dinant biscuits. Also on today's itinerary will be another taste treat with a tour of one of Belgium's famed small breweries. If you thought you knew beer (or even that you don't like beer), prepare to think again! The day also includes a boat cruise on the Meuse, a descent into one of the many cave complexes that the region is famed for and, depending on time and group interests, the gardens of Les Jardins d'Annevoie.

Day Three:

The Ardennes and province of Luxembourg provide today's focus. This wild, rugged landscape of river valleys and deep, wooded canyons is sublimely beautiful. In addition to wonderfully scenic touring you also have three major towns of interest. Firstly, there's Bastogne, remembered as the site of the Battle of the Bulge, La Roche en Ardennes, one of the most attractive towns of the region (also with its Battle of the Ardennes museum), and St Hubert with its Italianate basillica.

Day Four:

More time in the Ardennes, but today the northern region with stops at the impossibly pretty Durbuy (claimed to be the world's smallest town), Namur and Huy. The ladies will love this day as there is a tour of the Guy Delforge Parfumery, the only perfume house outside of France. Your visit will include seeing how perfumes are made and a sampling. During the day, you will also be seeing an unusual topiary and, if time permits, visit Modave Chateau. The taste treats for the day will be the lovely wild game sausages and regional cheese.

Day Five:

The drive northward brings you to the ruins of the Villers Abbey. This incredible ruined Cistercian abbey nestles in a lovely wooded dell. It will remind all who have been to Wales' Tintern Abbey of that, yet it's much larger and quite breathtakingly beautiful in its setting. Next to refight the Battle of Waterloo! It was here on June 18th 1915 that the ambitions of Napoleon Bonaparte finally came to an end. This is an impressive site with the Butte de Lion monuments, an effective interpretation center and the nearby HQ of Wellington.

The final highlight of your Walloon and Southern Belgium tour is the medieval city of Tournai. This fine, and under-explored city, certainly provides a fitting climax to your tour before you rejoin the Eurostar in Lille and return to London.