Wm

After we complete a two-week Tanzania/Kenya tour, we want to stop on our return to the west coast of US and spend time in Belgium.We are interested in architecture, culture and cuisine as well as the scenic beauty of the country. We need this to be a relaxing time so would like suggestions on home-base areas in the countryside. We will have 10 days and a car. We aren't much interesting in the large cities as much as the small towns and countryside. Your suggestions would be most appreciated. BTW, we will spend a couple of days in Amsterdam (our second visit) to take in the newly renovated art museum.

PalenQ

After biking for years thru western Belgium - there is no countryside or at least the countryside you may be thinking of at home or in other countries - one of the densest countries population-wise in the world - good luck finding a proverbial small town that is romantic IME. Maybe some kind of farm stay - well sorry to give a dismal report but that is my take after spending ten years leading bike tours around the area.

Amsterdam has two newly renovated art museums - the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk Modern Art museum, near each other - which one are you talking about? Curious.

Wm

PalenQ, we were planning on visiting both museums.

Hope someone can help us find a nice little country inn near a town like Delft, Denant, Mechelen or Voeten from which to explore the area. We want to visit Ghent and Bruges as well.

PalenQ

topping for someone who may be able to recommend a country inn like Wm says? But again offhand from biking thru there for years there seemed to be few country inns - maybe airb'b or some kind of bed-and-breakfast schemes will work - or contact the tourist offices in those places and ask them. Good luck on what may be a quixotic quest IME.

Now the Belgain North Sea Coast may well have these types of country inns - between the seaside resorts and they are not far from Bruges or Gent, etc.

PalenQ

http://www.bedandbreakfast.com/belgium.html

check out the Vila Catalpa - seems like a rural area and small town.

Tulips

Maybe Damme, close to Brugge and to the coast. It's a village with a lot of restaurants. You can easily visit the Dutch province of Zeeland from there as well, which has some nice towns (Middelburg, Veere). Not so much scenic beauty though. It has it's charms, but it's pretty flat and bare.

What time of year is this? Belgian Limburg is pretty in spring, with lots of fruit trees. Look at smaller towns such as St Truiden and Tongeren. This close to the lovely town of Maastricht. Tongeren has a well known antiques market in the weekends.

PalenQ

Damme, yes that might be your cup of tea - faded grandeur of old Flemish facades when Damme was one of the busiest ports in Europe, being the port of Bruges but when the access silted up the port action moved to Antwerp - leaving it, like Bruges, to slumber along - today a small backwater, for Belgium, good suggestion. Close to Gent, Antwerp, and of course Bruges.

ribeirasacra

I would suggest somewhere in the Ardennes.
Limbourg http://www.ville-limbourg.be/page,To...risme,263.html
Dinant http://www.citadellededinant.be/en/tourism
Bouillon http://www.bouillon-tourisme.be/en
should all hold some interest for you.
However avoid Charleroi
http://vimeo.com/116462642
Although after watching this I have some fascination to stop and see it rather than just driving through it next time..

PalenQ

Yes western Belgium in the Battle of the Bulge area is really wild country much of the time - hills and forests - perhaps Spa, home to the famous water of the same name, would make a nice low-key smaller town base.

Wm

Thanks to all of you for your help. We're thinking a few days in Damme then on to Spa to take in that area. We are traveling in mid-September. This was dictated by our time on 'safari.'
'

Tulips

Mid September could be very nice. Hopefully still nice weather, and school holidays have ended.
Go and visit Knokke, cycle along the seafront, visit the Zwin nature reserve and stop somewhere for mussels & frites. Or cycle over the border to Cadzand, and have lunch at Pure C.

ribeirasacra

The sea front in Belgium is not the best place to go.
http://www.eupedia.com/belgium/belgian_seaside.shtml
It is said the tram ride is ok, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_Tram_%28Belgium%29 but the rest....Yuk.
http://cortez2linkebeek.blogspot.com...hs-part-1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knokke
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blankenberge

PalenQ

The sea front in Belgium is not the best place to go.>

Have you been there in depth - I disagree - rather than the usual day trips from Bruges of Gent or Antwerp to each other consider a novel day out on the coast.

I have biked along the Belgium coast and found it very unique - one of the best places to go to get off the tourist track - foreign tourists that is - Belgian flock here. Knokke is neat - Oostende fascinaing - Blakkenberge super - the tram ride is neat too - can take it all the way to the French border - goes thru all those towns - the last vestige of Belgium'sonce vast Vicinal inter-urban tramways.

Tulips

'The sea front in Belgium is not the best place to go'

I agree that it is lined with many ugly buildings. But the beach is huge, it is easy to cycle along the seafront, there are plenty of good restaurants. Knokke has luxury shops, but also a pretty village with white red-roofed villa's, and a nature reserve known for its storks. It's a popular place for all watersports, lots of kite surfers. It's mostly Belgians who visit.

ribeirasacra

Please do not attack the messenger. Instead please read the criteria of the OP
***We aren't much interesting in the large cities as much as the small towns and countryside.***
If I am wrong please point the exactly to locations which are not the Benidorm type of strip development fit this?
Again I will say is is not the best place to go.
These are online photos of Knokke;
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...okke_Plage.JPG
http://www.destination360.com/europe...s/s/knokke.jpg
Moving on to "De zwin" The park is closed due to renovations, maybe you could tell us when it is open again?
http://www.knokke-heist.info/ontspanning/natuur/15

Tulips

The Zwin is partly closed until the middle of 2015. You can still take guided tours.

You're talking about the Zeedijk in Knokke, which is a small strip along the sea, with ugly apartment buildings. There's more to it than that.
There are cycle routes through dunes and polders. Here is one that includes Damme, Knokke, Sluis:
http://www.vlaanderen-fietsland.be/f...ute.php?id=187
unfortunately in Dutch only.

"If you think it's like Benidorm, you either have not been there, or have only visited Knokke Heist, and not Knokke le Zoute.
This is from an FT article:
The 1,100-hectare Zoute district of Knokke-Heist includes a golf course, a nature reserve and winding lanes of whitewashed, green-shuttered mansions. At weekends and in the summer holidays, these homes are largely the preserve of Belgium’s industrial, banking and media elite – plus various members of the country’s royal family. The homes nestle behind neatly trimmed hedgerows; there are no walls or fences. “Everything is open,” says Demeyer.
Designed by German architect and urban planner Josef Stübben at the beginning of the 20th century, Zoute combines some typically Flemish architectural flourishes; there are gabled roofs with a layout and atmosphere that lies squarely in the English garden-city tradition."

We love spending time there, as do many Belgian people. I would not have recommended it otherwise. If you want a picture-perfect place overrun with tourists, go to Brugge. If you want a relaxed place, popular with locals, with good restaurants, Knokke is not a bad choice.

PalenQ

"If you think it's like Benidorm, you either have not been there, or have only visited Knokke Heist, and not Knokke le Zoute.>

Yes you have obviously never gone along the Belgian coast - not the urban sprawl you have in your mind - have you been along the coast - if not why comment - if so where did you go to find Benidorms anywhere - any comparison to Benidorm is just plain silly - go there and find a Benidorm - there ain't none but fairly sophisticated if fading seaside resorts interspersed with a lot of wild dunes and beaches in between the small towns.

ribeirasacra

"as do many Belgian people"
But with just 65 kilometre of coastline and 15 resorts. It is bound to be very busy and overcrowded. Yes I have been to the Belgium coast. It does not suit the OPs requirements (and I have stated that before).

I watch Vlaanderen Vakantieland. They influence my tastes a lot. A lot of inland of the country is much beauty going for it.

PalenQ

IMO and this is subjective of course - the inland Belgium 'counryside' is blah - I spent years biking thru it guided tours - but again beauty is in the eye of the beholder - to me flat terrain with towns always in sight - one of the world's densest places - Belgium Flaners - there is really no countryside as Americans think of it anyway in western Belgium.

Anyway I understand why you hate the Belgian Coast - different strokes and different tastes for different folks - to me the coast is a very interesting place full of character lacking in the Flanders countryside.

ribeirasacra

I never said I hated the coast, I have never said it is built up like Benidorm either.
Please read what I put down, in writing, on this forum and not add what you think I say.