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TravelTips24 : Europe : Western Europe : Benelux : Belgium : Wallonia : Namur : Dinant

Dinant

Dinant is a city in the province of Namur in Belgium.

Culture and History

Travel to Dinant & Visa Requirements

Flights and airtickets to Dinant

The closest airports are Brussels, Charleroi (Brussels South Charleroi Airport) and Liège.

By train

About an hour, from Brussels North. I stopped briefly for 'rocks on the line' (the translation of somebody else on the train; in the South, everything is in French), at Otignnes (Oh-ten-ee). If you want real information, look at the SNCB (Belgian railways) web-site.

By car

Buses to Dinant

By boat

Tours & Getting around Dinant

Dinant attractions and sightseeing

The tourist office is down by the river, to the left of the river bridge. They recognise two major tourist attractions; the Citadel and the caves.

The citadel was built to be nasty (with cannons) to anyone who abused the road bridge. There has been a bridge across the river here for several hundred years. You can go up a gondala, or up the stairs; I met people who had just come up the stairs, who were panting. If you arrive in winter, speaking English, you will be given a map and defined as your own guide. Provided you are happy to cross the 'do not cross' chains and go into the 'only with guide' places, this works well except for:

  • the dungeons; read the map carefully and go in through the exit, between the two cannons
  • the dugout, where the lights are usually off; wait in the armoury and go in with a guided party; tip the guide (I gave him 2 euro) so he's not too grumpy with you being your own guide for the rest of the time

The caves are in a mixture of limestone and a dark grey rock that I did not recogise, and the guide could not name. There is a river at the bottom, which has gradually worked its way down. They told a story about the whole human contents of the village evacuating suddenly into the caves, in April 1944, for eight days, to avoid the war, and all surviving. It would have been a most uncomfortable eight days, but I'm sure it's better than being shot.

Dinant city tours

Learn

Work

Dinant souvenirs & shopping

  • Couque de Dinant is the local speciality. A very hard biscuit that you can only eat if you have very good teeth.

Dinant Restaurants: cheap, moderate and expensive

Budget

Mid-range

Splurge

Dinant nightlife, bars, clubs & pubs

Dinant cheap and luxurious hotels, youth hostels & lodging

Budget

Mid-range

Splurge

Contact

Stay safe

Cope

Get out

This page was last edited at 19:50, on 12 August 2007 by Philippe Malarme. Based on work by Colin Jensen, Simone Bravo and Thierry HOUBA, Wikitravel user(s) Nzpcmad and Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel.

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