Going to Belgium

Go to Belgium!

You should visit Brussels at least once to check out the splendid café-bars and the brewery museum in and around the Grande Place - see our Essential Brussels Guide for Beer Lovers.

We loved the countryside of Wallonia, especially near the Luxembourg border, but our special favourite is West Flanders – on each visit we discover yet more delightful bars and small breweries, and the food to accompany the beer is excellent – the Flemish take the task of enjoying life very seriously!  

 And here's the secret of our favourite Belgian hideaway – it’s De Oude Abdij hotel, in the quiet village of Lo (just an hour’s drive from the end of the Channel Tunnel) and is an excellent base for touring West Flanders.  If you’re into history, it’s a good centre for seeing the WWI battlefields, being quite close to Ieper (Ypres) and Poperinge - and here's the secret history of De Oude Abdij itself. 

If you're into Belgian beer, there are some great breweries and beer cafés in the area, and wonderful places to buy beers to take home with you - we reveal the details on our West Flanders page.  
 

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The approach to De Oude Abdij is impressive.

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The hotel has great character, with an ancient dovecote and small lake in its grounds.  Gertrud the swan has passed on since these pictures were taken but her place has been taken by a resident goose!

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  . . . and the greatest feature of the hotel is the owner, Anny Deman, who speaks excellent (and quite colourful) English.  Tell her John & Jeannette sent you, and you’ll be well looked after.

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Access the hotel's website www.oudeabdij.com

Hotel ‘Oude Abdij’,
 Noordstraat 3,
B-8647 Lo-Reninge, Belgium 

From UK
Tel:  0032 58 28 82 65
 Fax: 0032 58 28 94 07