Explore Belgium on the coast from place to place

This route takes you through Nieuwpoort and the surrounding area. A tour full of nature, cultural history and old friendly Belgian towns. Allow a whole day for it, because there is plenty to see and experience along the way.

When you emerge from the dunes of Westende, you will see a special structure at the IJzermonding: the Nieuwpoort Lighthouse. The nineteenth-century lighthouse was destroyed at the end of October 1914 during the Battle of the Yser. It was rebuilt in 1923, but blown up with dynamite in 1944 by the retreating Germans. The current light tower dates from 1949.

The route takes you through seaside resorts such as Westende, Oostduinkerke and Koksijde where you pass Ten Duinen Abbey Museum. You will not find a dusty affair here, but a unique archaeological site where you will discover the role of the Koksijd Duinlords within the Order of Cîteaux, a European project avant la lettre.

Between Oostduinkerke and Koksijde you drive through the De Hoge Blekker nature reserve. This dune area owes its name to the Hoge Blekker, at 33 meters the highest dune ridge on the Flemish coast. You will see drifting dunes with sparsely distributed marram grass clumps and thickets consisting of, among other things, sea buckthorn, common elder and blackthorn. Just below De Panne you drive through the beautiful Calmeynbos.
Veurne is a picturesque old fortified town. The city was fortified in the fourteenth century, but the fortifications were dismantled in the eighteenth century. Yet there is still plenty of rich history to see. For example, around the Grote Markt there are several Gothic buildings from the heyday of the cloth trade in the thirteenth century. During the First World War, the headquarters of the Belgian army was located in Veurne. This region contained the so-called Belgian Sector, a small part of Belgium that managed to hold out against the Germans with the help of the Allies.