The Belgian Ardennes with kids: three areas, our days out and what they cost

The Belgian Ardennes with kids: which area suits your family? We stayed in the centre and the north and drove through the south. Per area what we did and what it cost.

We keep coming back to the Belgian Ardennes. In 2017 we spent a week near Houffalize, in 2019 near Somme-Leuze, in 2023 at Center Parcs Les Ardennes, and this year 4.5 weeks near Tellin, from 29 August to 30 September. And sixteen years ago, with the whole family-in-law, I was already in Bouillon once.

The Ardennes are big, and where you stay decides a lot of what you end up doing. That is why everything below is organised by area, with what each day out cost and how long it took.
 

Which is the best area of the Ardennes with kids?

That depends on what you are after. A day out that is an hour's drive away is simply one you do less often with kids than one around the corner.

The centre, around Tellin, Han-sur-Lesse and Redu, works well if you want to do a lot without much driving. The Caves of Han, Domaine de Chevetogne, Redu and Mirwart are all within 25 minutes, and two of the four were free.

The south, around Bouillon and the Semois, is the wildest part: deep valleys, a river looping through the hills, and narrow little roads. We did it as day trips from Tellin, which is an hour's drive.

The north, around Houffalize and Vielsalm, is where Parc Chlorophylle is. We stayed there in 2023 at Center Parcs Les Ardennes. Further east, by the German border, we once spent a week in the Belgian Eifel.
 

The centre: around Tellin, Han and Redu

This year we stayed at Sandaya Le Clusure in Tellin, in a lovely valley by a stream (the Lomme), with plenty of walks straight from the campsite. We paid about 75 euros a night for a cottage, thanks to a decent long-stay discount. Note: without the premium option there is no wifi in the cottage. We had Starlink with us. I am writing a separate story about the campsite itself.

What makes this area great is how close everything is. From the campsite you are in Mirwart in 10 minutes, at the Caves of Han in a quarter of an hour, and in Redu or Chevetogne in 25 minutes. This is what we did there.
 

The Caves of Han: the highlight, and the most expensive day out

The Caves of Han were our highlight, especially the wildlife park. The PassHan (cave plus wildlife park) costs 41.50 per adult and 31.50 per child. For two adults and two children that is 146 euros.

The Discovery cave route takes just over an hour. It is said to be the most family-friendly one, and it was long enough for us. To be honest: we liked the cave, but did not find it all that special, maybe because we have seen quite a few caves by now. The wildlife park, on the other hand, really surprised us. We took the safari car, which is included in the PassHan: in an hour and a half you ride past wild boar, deer, vultures and reindeer, and at the bears you can get out. In the end we stood face to face with a bear two metres away, with a ditch in between.
Good to know: you can spread the PassHan over two days, you choose that when you book.
 

Domaine de Chevetogne: the surprise of the holiday

If there is one place in the Ardennes made for playing, this is it. As you drive in you get a map, you pay, and then you still drive quite a way before you reach the car park. Do not park on the petting farm side, but on the other side (to the right as you drive in). That puts you closer to the park. It is not a huge difference, but it saves some walking. It was soon clear that this is no small, flat park. The estate is about 600 hectares with steep hills, and there is a huge amount to do: playgrounds, a few restaurants, walking routes, themed gardens, boats, mini golf, a pool in high summer, and a few curiosities, like a hobbit house.

The first time I went on my own with the kids. Children pay from age 6, so our youngest was free, and for me and our eldest we paid 21.60 euros together, parking included, with 10 percent off through the VISITWallonia.be Pass.

The map was not always quite right (no, it was not my map-reading skills) and there were not many signposts either, so we just started walking, soon down a steep hill. Along the way we passed the hobbit house, lovely woods and streams, little bridges, the unicorn forest with a waterfall, a bird hide and a small playground. At the tree huts, a huge course to climb and scramble around in, the kids shrieked with joy and were off. I climbed along too. After that they played for ages at the water playgrounds, and even though it was only 18 degrees, it was lovely in the sun.
By then it felt like we had walked 35 kilometres, but our youngest still really wanted to play mini golf, and that was practically on the other side of the park. With a bit of moaning and carrying we made it, and played all 18 holes too. After 6 hours in the park we were all exhausted, and then you still have to climb that steep hill back to the car. We did not see nearly everything, but it was a brilliant day.

We went a second time, with grandma, on a Nature day. On those days things like the mini golf are closed, and you pay 14 euros per car, or 12.60 with the pass. So that was for the four of us together. It was still fun, but after walking through all the gardens the kids were tired and we skipped the playgrounds. If it is only the gardens, you might as well go to the woods for free. But if you do the nature and the playgrounds, it is a big day of play for a very fair price: 14 euros for the whole family.
 

Redu: the book village, and a free trail with Elios the Fox

Redu is known as the Book Village, and also as the Space Village, because the Euro Space Center is right nearby. It was on our list, but we did not get round to it this time. Parking is free. Pick up a booklet of The Adventures of Elios the Fox at the tourist office in the village: a free trail with puzzles along the way, in Dutch and French. There are six booklets for six municipalities. We got the one for Libin, and there is also one for Tellin. The booklet is meant for children aged 8 to 10, but our five-year-old could join in fine. Some puzzles were too hard for him, but not extremely so, and there were word searches too. They actually did it really well together.

The route is "only" 5.1 kilometres, but quite tough because of the climbs. Some parts went steeply downhill over an unpaved path with loose stones, and after that we had a lot of climbing to do, sometimes steeply. The views were absolutely beautiful though. The last bit goes through the woods above Redu, with another lovely view over the village, and there we saw a squirrel jumping through the branches.

The route was listed as pushchair-friendly. We do not have a pushchair any more, but we would not have been happy if we had. It can be done with a pushchair, but it is not easy.
Afterwards a quick look round the little market, and back to the campsite.
 

Mirwart: free walks past the trout ponds

At the Mirwart estate parking is free and so is entry. There are several walks of at least an hour and a half, and one of 12 kilometres. We chose the 5-kilometre Marsoult walk, along the stream and all the trout ponds, and we saw loads of trout jumping. Along the way we came across the biggest picnic table ever, and an old charcoal kiln, which the kids found very impressive. There are also beehives behind glass, but our little heroes found those a bit too scary.

Soon (far too soon) we were back where we started. As far as we could tell we had followed the signs, but after 45 minutes of walking I was pretty sure we had not done 5 kilometres. The kids were quite happy with that.
 

The south: Bouillon and the Semois

The south of the Ardennes feels wilder than the centre. The valleys are deeper, the Semois loops through the hills in big bends, and the little roads along the river are narrow. We did not stay there this time, but drove down twice from Tellin. If you want to see a lot of this part, stay somewhere closer, because from Tellin it is an hour's drive.

I went to Bouillon with the kids, 55 minutes from the campsite. As we drove in I knew straight away: I have been here before. Sixteen years ago, with the whole family-in-law. Bouillon is a small, charming town with steep hills, lovely woods around it, and the Semois running right through it.

We parked for free by the castle, at the top. We skipped the castle itself, so we took the steps down to walk along the river. We took a photo on the bridge and ate our lunch on a bench next to it. It was really quiet that day, but that did not spoil the fun.

From our bench we could see a big tower on a hill. Of course we had to go there, but the kids (and secretly me) did not fancy climbing that hill. So we walked back to the car and drove there. That is the Belvédère de Bouillon: free, and you park right next to the tower. Navigate there and take the rue de la Bichetour, which is the easiest way by car. The tower is 30 metres high (181 steps, I read), and from the top you get a beautiful view.
 

A drive through the Semois valley

This day out cost nothing but the drive. In about 3.5 hours we did a loop: campsite, Redu, Daverdisse, Gedinne, Vresse, Alle, Rochehaut, Poupehan, Corbion, Botassart and back. Lovely bends up and down through the Ardennes forests, with the highlight (literally and figuratively) the Frahan viewpoint in Rochehaut.

Then we drove on to Botassart, where you look out over the Tombeau du Géant: a wooded hill with the Semois curving around it. Legend has it that a giant fighting Julius Caesar's Roman army chose to jump off the cliff rather than be captured, and that the people of the area buried him there, hence the hill. It does look a bit like a burial mound, but we are sticking with fairy tale.
 

A drive along the Ourthe: Durbuy and La Roche-en-Ardenne

When grandma and grandpa were with us we did another drive, because grandpa was injured and walking was a bit difficult. We drove to Durbuy (such a cute little town!), through Barvaux to Wéris, on to Ny, and via Hotton and Marcourt to La Roche-en-Ardenne. Ny is on the list of the most beautiful villages in Wallonia, but we did not really see the charm. The drive itself was beautiful, with woods, villages and the Ourthe. We have no photos, because I was driving.
 

The north: Houffalize, Vielsalm and Parc Chlorophylle

In the north we spent a week near Houffalize in 2017, and in 2023 we stayed at Center Parcs Les Ardennes near Vielsalm, about half an hour away. From there Parc Chlorophylle is well worth it, and in 2023 it was our only day out away from the park. This year we went again from Tellin, which was an hour's drive. If you are only staying a week, that might not be ideal.

Parc Chlorophylle is a play forest set up entirely for children and parents. You walk a route of about 2 kilometres and pass 23 stops. Each one tells you something about the Ardennes or one of its inhabitants: an animal, a tree or a plant. We paid 37 euros for the four of us, including 10 percent off with the pass and two trail booklets.

This time the trail was all about the wolf. At seven stops the kids had to read carefully and look for the answer: what a wolf eats, whether it can jump further than a roe deer (a wolf jumps 5 metres!), how it guards its territory. They are multiple-choice questions. Each answer, A, B or C, has a number, which you punch out on your trail card. At the end you are left with one number, and at the end of the route you find out what it means. We are not giving that away here.
But before you get to the end, there is so much more to do. The questions were well spread over the 23 stops, so their interest lasted a long time (they only really skipped 22, because 23 was the big playground). We pretended to be all sorts of animals: climbing like a woodpecker, jumping as far as a roe deer (well, we tried), standing on stilts like a stork and testing whether we were as strong as ants. We played nature memory, walked a course among the treetops, studied the forest food pyramid, and of course there was plenty of playing too.

After almost 3 hours we had seen it all, and the kids handed in their trail cards for a little present: a real (absolutely fake) wolf tooth on a necklace, and of course a sweet. They thought it was brilliant.

We had been there in 2023 too, when the kids were 2 and 5. Now that they are both a bit older, 5 and 8, it is even better. Mainly because at 2 our youngest really could not do much yet.

Houtopia was on our list as well, and it came down to a choice between the two. The weather was gorgeous and at Chlorophylle everything is outdoors, so that was it. Others told us Houtopia is a good choice when the weather is not so great.

In 2019 we also visited the Nisramont dam, and we went to flea markets.
 

The weather in the Ardennes in September

In 4.5 weeks we had three days of rain and two or so cloudy days. Otherwise it was lovely weather, around 20 degrees, with the odd shower, mostly at night. A few days were above 25 degrees, and in mid-September we even had a day of 28 degrees, which we simply spent at the pool. The last two days were cloudy, but still 25 degrees.

That is one September, not a promise for the next one. But it does answer the question of whether you spend the off-season stuck indoors: we did not.
 

Frequently asked questions about the Ardennes with kids

 

Are the Ardennes right for your family?

See also

Destinations Caves of Han with kids: price, parking and how long it takes Destinations Landal Park Eksel with kids: a small park, plenty of freedom, no pool Destinations Landal Mooi Zutendaal with kids: 110 m² house, own garden, 2.5 hours from Utrecht

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